The Count of Monte Cristo (1934 film)
Encyclopedia
The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) is a film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas, père
's novel of the same name
, directed by Rowland V. Lee
and starring Robert Donat
, Elissa Landi
, and Louis Calhern
. The film has two sequels, The Return of Monte Cristo (1936) and The Son of Monte Cristo
(1940), the latter also directed by Lee.
. A letter from the exiled Napoleon is given to the ship's captain to deliver to a man in Marseille
. Before he dies of a sickness, the captain entrusts the task to his first officer, Edmond Dantès
(Donat). However, the city magistrate, Raymond de Villefort, Jr. (Calhern), is tipped off by an informer, the second officer, Danglars (Raymond Walburn
), and has both men arrested after the exchange.
Dantès' friend Fernand Mondego (Sidney Blackmer
) accompanies him to the jail. However, he, Danglars, and de Villefort all stand to gain from keeping Dantès imprisoned: Mondego is in love with Dantès' fiancée, Mercedes (Landi); Danglars wants to be promoted captain in Dantès' place; and the man who accepted the letter turns out to be de Villefort's father (Lawrence Grant
). De Villefort consigns Dantès without trial to a notorious prison, the Château d'If
, on the false testimony of Danglars.
When Napoleon returns to France
, giving Dantès' friends hope for his release, de Villefort signs a false statement that he was killed trying to escape, which Mondego shows to Mercedes. Deceived, she gives in to her mother's deathbed wish and marries Mondego.
Eight years of solitary confinement
follow for Dantès. Then one day, the aged Abbé
Faria (O. P. Heggie), a fellow prisoner, breaks into his cell through a tunnel he has been digging. The two join forces; Faria calculates it will take five more years to finish. In the meantime, he starts educating Dantès.
However, as they near their goal, a cave-in fatally injures the old man. Before he dies, he bequeaths a vast hidden treasure to his protegé (Faria's enemies had torture
d and imprisoned him in an unsuccessful attempt to extract its location). The body is sewn into a shroud
, but while the undertaker is away, Dantès substitutes himself for the corpse undetected. He is cast into the sea. He frees himself and is picked up by a smuggling ship.
Dantès later follows the abbé's directions and finds the treasure on the uninhabited island of Monte Cristo. With a fortune at his command, he sets in motion his plans for revenge. To begin, he arranges to have Albert (Douglas Walton), Mercedes and Mondego's son, kidnapped and held for ransom. Dantès "rescues" the younger man in order to gain entry into Paris
society, using his purchased title of Count of Monte Cristo.
First to be brought to justice is Mondego. While the French ambassador to Albania
, Mondego gained renown for his bravery in an unsuccessful defense of Ali Pasha
. Dantès arranges a ball to "honor" his enemy, then arranges to have him exposed publicly as the one who betrayed Ali Pasha to his death at the hands of the Turks. Unaware of the count's role in his disgrace, Mondego goes to him for advice. Dantès reveals his identity and they engage in a duel; Dantès wins, but spares Mondego, who returns home and commits suicide.
Next is Danglars, now the most influential banker in Paris. Dantès uses his services to buy and sell shares, sharing tips he receives from his informants. When these turn out to be infallibly profitable, Danglars bribes a man to send him copies of messages to Dantès. Greed leads him to invest all of his money on the next report, just as Dantès had planned. When the tip proves to be false, Danglers is bankrupted. Dantès reveals his true identity to Danglers, who is left penniless and insane.
However, there are unexpected complications that threaten Dantès' carefully conceived plans. Albert Mondego learns of his involvement in his father's downfall and challenges him to a duel. Mercedes, who had recognized her former lover upon their first meeting, begs him not to kill her son. He agrees. Fortunately, Albert deliberately changes his aim because his mother has told him who Monte Cristo really is, and the duel ends without injury.
De Villefort has risen to the high office of State Attorney. Dantès sends him information about his true identity and activities, which leads to his arrest and trial. At first, Dantès refuses to testify, in order to shield de Villefort's daughter Valentine (Irene Hervey), who is in love with Albert. However, when she learns of it, she urges him to defend himself. Dantès does so, providing evidence of de Villefort's longstanding corruption.
At last, with all of his enemies destroyed, Dantès is reunited with Mercedes.
Haydee appears twice - once when she denounces Mondego, and again in the final scenes, when Dantes is brought to trial a second time and tries to shield Valentine de Villefort from disgrace by not defending himself. There is absolutely no indication of any romantic interest between Haydee and Dantes in the film - only friendship and concern. In another twist not in the novel, Mercedes tells Valentine how Villefort had him accused falsely and imprisoned, whereupon Valentine gives him a note begging him to go ahead and denounce her father publicly. In the film, Villefort does not go insane, as in the novel.
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
's novel of the same name
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...
, directed by Rowland V. Lee
Rowland V. Lee
Rowland Vance Lee was a U.S. film director, writer, and producer....
and starring Robert Donat
Robert Donat
Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...
, Elissa Landi
Elissa Landi
Elissa Landi was an Italian born actress who was popular in Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s. Rumoured to be a descendant of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, she was noted for her aristocratic bearing....
, and Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
. The film has two sequels, The Return of Monte Cristo (1936) and The Son of Monte Cristo
The Son of Monte Cristo
The Son of Monte Cristo is a 1940 black-and-white film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, and George Sanders....
(1940), the latter also directed by Lee.
Plot
In 1815, a French merchant ship stops at the island of ElbaElba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
. A letter from the exiled Napoleon is given to the ship's captain to deliver to a man in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. Before he dies of a sickness, the captain entrusts the task to his first officer, Edmond Dantès
Edmond Dantès
Edmond Dantès is the protagonist and title character of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.Dumas may have gotten the idea for the character of Edmond from a story which he found in a book compiled by Jacques Peuchet, archivist to the French police. Peuchet related the tale of...
(Donat). However, the city magistrate, Raymond de Villefort, Jr. (Calhern), is tipped off by an informer, the second officer, Danglars (Raymond Walburn
Raymond Walburn
Raymond Walburn was an American character actor who appeared in dozens of Hollywood comedies and an occasional dramatic role during the 1930s and 1940s.-Life and career:...
), and has both men arrested after the exchange.
Dantès' friend Fernand Mondego (Sidney Blackmer
Sidney Blackmer
Sidney Alderman Blackmer was an American actor.Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately...
) accompanies him to the jail. However, he, Danglars, and de Villefort all stand to gain from keeping Dantès imprisoned: Mondego is in love with Dantès' fiancée, Mercedes (Landi); Danglars wants to be promoted captain in Dantès' place; and the man who accepted the letter turns out to be de Villefort's father (Lawrence Grant
Lawrence Grant
Percy Reginald Lawrence-Grant was an English actor known for his supporting roles in films such as The Living Ghost, I'll Tell the World, The Mask of Fu Manchu, and Son of Frankenstein...
). De Villefort consigns Dantès without trial to a notorious prison, the Château d'If
Château d'If
The Château d'If is a fortress located on the island of If, the smallest island in the Frioul Archipelago situated in the Mediterranean Sea about a mile offshore in the Bay of Marseille in southeastern France...
, on the false testimony of Danglars.
When Napoleon returns to France
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
, giving Dantès' friends hope for his release, de Villefort signs a false statement that he was killed trying to escape, which Mondego shows to Mercedes. Deceived, she gives in to her mother's deathbed wish and marries Mondego.
Eight years of solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
follow for Dantès. Then one day, the aged Abbé
Abbé
Abbé is the French word for abbot. It is the title for lower-ranking Catholic clergymen in France....
Faria (O. P. Heggie), a fellow prisoner, breaks into his cell through a tunnel he has been digging. The two join forces; Faria calculates it will take five more years to finish. In the meantime, he starts educating Dantès.
However, as they near their goal, a cave-in fatally injures the old man. Before he dies, he bequeaths a vast hidden treasure to his protegé (Faria's enemies had torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d and imprisoned him in an unsuccessful attempt to extract its location). The body is sewn into a shroud
Shroud
Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to burial sheets, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Shroud of Turin or Tachrichim that Jews are dressed in for burial...
, but while the undertaker is away, Dantès substitutes himself for the corpse undetected. He is cast into the sea. He frees himself and is picked up by a smuggling ship.
Dantès later follows the abbé's directions and finds the treasure on the uninhabited island of Monte Cristo. With a fortune at his command, he sets in motion his plans for revenge. To begin, he arranges to have Albert (Douglas Walton), Mercedes and Mondego's son, kidnapped and held for ransom. Dantès "rescues" the younger man in order to gain entry into Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
society, using his purchased title of Count of Monte Cristo.
First to be brought to justice is Mondego. While the French ambassador to Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Mondego gained renown for his bravery in an unsuccessful defense of Ali Pasha
Ali Pasha
Ali Pasha of Tepelena or of Yannina, surnamed Aslan, "the Lion", or the "Lion of Yannina", Ali Pashë Tepelena was an Ottoman Albanian ruler of the western part of Rumelia, the Ottoman Empire's European territory which was also called Pashalik of Yanina. His court was in Ioannina...
. Dantès arranges a ball to "honor" his enemy, then arranges to have him exposed publicly as the one who betrayed Ali Pasha to his death at the hands of the Turks. Unaware of the count's role in his disgrace, Mondego goes to him for advice. Dantès reveals his identity and they engage in a duel; Dantès wins, but spares Mondego, who returns home and commits suicide.
Next is Danglars, now the most influential banker in Paris. Dantès uses his services to buy and sell shares, sharing tips he receives from his informants. When these turn out to be infallibly profitable, Danglars bribes a man to send him copies of messages to Dantès. Greed leads him to invest all of his money on the next report, just as Dantès had planned. When the tip proves to be false, Danglers is bankrupted. Dantès reveals his true identity to Danglers, who is left penniless and insane.
However, there are unexpected complications that threaten Dantès' carefully conceived plans. Albert Mondego learns of his involvement in his father's downfall and challenges him to a duel. Mercedes, who had recognized her former lover upon their first meeting, begs him not to kill her son. He agrees. Fortunately, Albert deliberately changes his aim because his mother has told him who Monte Cristo really is, and the duel ends without injury.
De Villefort has risen to the high office of State Attorney. Dantès sends him information about his true identity and activities, which leads to his arrest and trial. At first, Dantès refuses to testify, in order to shield de Villefort's daughter Valentine (Irene Hervey), who is in love with Albert. However, when she learns of it, she urges him to defend himself. Dantès does so, providing evidence of de Villefort's longstanding corruption.
At last, with all of his enemies destroyed, Dantès is reunited with Mercedes.
Cast
- Robert DonatRobert DonatRobert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...
as Edmond Dantes / the Count of Monte Cristo - Elissa LandiElissa LandiElissa Landi was an Italian born actress who was popular in Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s. Rumoured to be a descendant of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, she was noted for her aristocratic bearing....
as Mercedes de Rosas - Louis CalhernLouis CalhernLouis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
as Raymond de Villefort Jr. - Sidney BlackmerSidney BlackmerSidney Alderman Blackmer was an American actor.Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately...
as Fernand Mondego, Count de Mondego - Raymond WalburnRaymond WalburnRaymond Walburn was an American character actor who appeared in dozens of Hollywood comedies and an occasional dramatic role during the 1930s and 1940s.-Life and career:...
as Baron Danglars - O. P. Heggie as the Abbé Faria
- Irene Hervey as Valentine de Villefort
- Georgia CaineGeorgia CaineGeorgia Caine was an American actress who performed both on Broadway and in over 80 films in her 51 year career.-Early career:...
as Madame de Rosas, Mercedes' mother - Lawrence GrantLawrence GrantPercy Reginald Lawrence-Grant was an English actor known for his supporting roles in films such as The Living Ghost, I'll Tell the World, The Mask of Fu Manchu, and Son of Frankenstein...
as de Villefort Sr. - Luis Alberni as Jacopo, Dantes' assistant
- Douglas Walton as Albert Mondego
Differences from the novel
The film changes some major details of the story. Villefort's murderous second wife is completely omitted from the screenplay, and at film's end, Dantes and Mercedes end up together. The character of Princess Haydee, who, in the book, falls in love with Edmond, is here reduced to little more than a bit part.Haydee appears twice - once when she denounces Mondego, and again in the final scenes, when Dantes is brought to trial a second time and tries to shield Valentine de Villefort from disgrace by not defending himself. There is absolutely no indication of any romantic interest between Haydee and Dantes in the film - only friendship and concern. In another twist not in the novel, Mercedes tells Valentine how Villefort had him accused falsely and imprisoned, whereupon Valentine gives him a note begging him to go ahead and denounce her father publicly. In the film, Villefort does not go insane, as in the novel.
Characters omitted
- Benedetto
- Bertuccio
- Caderousse
- Edouard Villefort
- Eugénie Danglars
- Franz d’Épinay
- Heloise Villefort
- Louise d’Armilly
- Marquis Saint-Méran
- Marquise of Saint-Méran
- Maximilian Morrel
- Peppino
This movie in other works
- In the 2005 film, V for VendettaV for Vendetta (film)V for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd...
, V and Evey HammondEvey HammondEvey Hammond is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the V for Vendetta comic book series, created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. She becomes involved in V's life when he rescues her from a gang of London's secret police.-Biography:Evey grew up on Shooters Hill in south-east...
watch this film. V cites the 1934 version as his favourite film and mimics some of the swordplay while watching.
External links
- Character List http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/montecristo/characters.html
- Character List http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/countofmontecristo/about.html