Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1961) - film review

A young sailor, Edmond Dantès, is to marry his beloved Mercédès but on the day of his engagement he is arrested for treason, the victim of a plot by those who envy his good fortune.  Imprisoned on the island of Yf, where he is to spend the rest of his life, Dantès meets a fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, who tells him the location of a fabulous treasure.  When Faria dies, many years later, Dantès disguises himself as the body and manages to escape from the island prison.  Having recovered the lost treasure, he returns to take revenge on those who had him arrested.

One of the standard bearers of quality cinema in France of the 1950s, Claude Autant-Lara is ideally suited to make a faithful adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ ever-popular novel.  Whilst not as inspired as some of Autant-Lara’s earlier works, this is nonetheless a well-crafted, engaging piece of cinema, which perfectly captures the romanticism of the original novel.

© James Travers 2002

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