The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)

I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I first heard of this movie from V. for Vendetta, but I did. One of the only redeeming qualities about that movie was that V. was a film buff. When I saw Natalie Portman watching The Count of Monte Cristo, I thought I could do that too. Also, how could there be a movie from the 30s starring Robert Donat that I hadn't heard of ?

The 1934 version was hard to find, but the internets helped me. On the whole, the film isn't a winner. It's one of those confusing French Alexander Dumas stories that is probably 1 billion pages long in novel form yet fits into a 100-minute movie. The deal is that Robert Donat [Edmond Dantes/The Count of Monte Cristo] has been wrongly imprisoned for about 15 years, digs his way out [with the guy who plays the blind stranger in the Bride of Frankenstein], assumes a new identity, and gets mad justice on those who imprisoned him. Now, I tried to suspend disbelief, but it's really difficult for me to understand how his old boo and old pals did not recognize him as Edmond Dantes and believed that he was some new Count. Some of them were all "Hey, you remind me of someone. Nah, never mind."

I have to say, for not starring Errol Flynn, there was a pretty good sword fight in this movie. It was also nice to see Robert Donat in another flick, because I love him from those other ones. Other appearances include Louis Calhern from Notorious and Sidney Blackmer, who plays Clara's dad in Heidi. Cool!

2/5 pizzas