The Count of Monte Cristo - Episode 14: Villefort's Punishment
I am not quite sure why this - the first and arguably the most faithful film-version for the Dumas classic is no better known. It survives at about 3 hours (it was in a very respectably restored version originally released in fifteen separate episodes) in the collection of the Cinémathèque Royae de Belgique. The first part is shot on location in Marseille and on the Chäteau d'If and it is certainly more interesting than the 1922 US film. Both the great Dumas classics (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo and Les Trois Mousquertaires) were produced in 1918-1921 in very thorough multi-episode French versions by Pouctal and Diamant-Berger (both far less well known than they should be) and in skimpy Hollywood version in 1921-1922. All the elemmnts are there - the complexity of the revenge scenarios, the travelling, the orientalism, the decadence, the drug-taking - all the things that tend of get eft out in other films versions. Any true devotee of Dumas will certainly prefer the former in both cases.
Cast
