The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le comte de Monte Cristo, US: The Story of the Count of Monte Cristo) is a 1961 French adventure film version of Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel directed by Claude Autant-Lara and starring Louis Jourdan, Yvonne Furneaux, Pierre Mondy and Franco Silva.
Contents
Plot
Edmund Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'if. There, a prisoner tells Edmund of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island.
Cast
Louis Jourdan as Edmond Dantès / Comte de Monte Cristo
Yvonne Furneaux as Mercédès
Pierre Mondy as Caderousse
Franco Silva as Mario
Bernard Dhéran as Le procureur Henri de Villefort
Roldano Lupi as Morel
Claudine Coster as Haydée
Jean Martinelli as Vidocq
Marie Mergey as Madame Caderousse
Yves Rénier as Albert de Mortcerf
Alain Ferral as Benedetto (as Alain Feral)
Jean-Jacques Delbo as Himself
José Squinquel as Himself
Geymond Vital as Himself
Henri Arius as Himself (as Arius)
Jacques Dynam as Himself
André Dalibert as Himself
Georges Lannes as Le président
Paul Amiot as Le président de la Chambre des pairs
Marthe Marty as Himself
Chantal de Rieux as Himself
Jean-Claude Michel as Fernand de Mortcerf
Henri Vilbert as Danyès - le père d'Edmond
Henri Guisol as L'abbé Faria
Reception
The film was the seventh most popular film at the French box office in 1961. The sixth most popular was a version of The Three Musketeers.
The film was made with some finance from Seven Arts Productions and was released by Warner Bros.
Variety wrote that the producers "have spared little expense in mounting a pictorially rich and dramatically expansive reproduction of the story...But one vital miscalculation strips their effort of sufficient appeal for the bulk of the modern audience. In adhering rigidly to the plodding, stilted and weighty melodramatic style reasonably fashionable in less sophisticated bygone times, the creators of this version have failed to sense, or refused to reckon with, the realistic requirements of modern screen."