I've seen several movie versions of this famous Alexandre Dumas story, and it's frankly hard to imagine any filming of the story to be bad...the story is that interesting. However, it did strike me as odd that the original unhappy ending (or at least somewhat unhappy ending) is replaced by an upbeat one instead!

Edmond Dantes (Robert Donat) is an honest sailor who has just become a captain. However, while he thinks he's a lucky man, his life is about to be destroyed by three man who all have different movies pushing them to do this. The end result is that Dantes is tossed into a god-awful prison to rot....or so everyone assumes. However, after years of languishing, an older prisoner tunnels into Dantes' cell and they soon become friends. This prisoner knows of a huge fortune and tells Dantes where it is. The two plan on rescuing the treasure together, but the old man dies before this can occur. Dantes then escapes and creates a new life, as the Count of Monte Cristo. And, the rest of the story is his complicated plan to exact revenge against the three who imprisoned him.

Up until the latter portion of the film, I loved the story. However, the courtroom scene was drawn out too long and became a bit dull. And, following this was the odd happy ending...an ending that seemed to lose much of the intent of the original novel. Worth seeing, but I prefer the 1975 or 2002 versions.

Alexandre Dumas' novel is a classic, and of a number of film adaptations, of which are a mixed bunch in terms of success, it's the 1934 film starring Robert Donat that I consider the best version. Maybe the editing in the escape scene is a little plodding, other than that the film is very handsomely mounted with lavish period detail and beautiful cinematography. Alfred Newman's score is suitably rousing, the story is the very definition of thrilling and never stops maintaining interest and the script is very literate and sometimes witty. The characters all engage, with the leads likable and easy to identify with and the villains suitably repellent. The swash-buckling also is never clumsy and Rowland V Lee directs beautifully. Robert Donat gives a performance that for me has only been bettered by the title role in Goodbye Mr Chips, expertly progressing from naive to calculating. Elissa Landi matches him in a sympathetic and moving performance, and Raymond Walburn is a sly Danglers, but other than Donat the other best performance is the sharp Villefort of Louis Calhern. Sidney Blackmer's Mondego is also splendidly characterised, and OP Heggie delights in a role that will remind one of the hermit in Bride of Frankenstein. Overall, wholly satisfying and definitely recommended. 9/10 Bethany Cox

As a story The Count of Monte Cristo still has great power. Case in point, the movie Sleepers where four young men from Hell's Kitchen were sexually abused in a reform school they were sentenced to. They found in the Alexandre Dumas novel a man they could understand very easily given their street code. Edmund Dantes code of street justice translates very easily to just about every culture in the world, be it the mean streets of New York or the post Napoleonic Era in France.

Robert Donat is Edmund Dantes an ordinary seaman who carries a letter from Elba about Napoleon Bonaparte's imminent return to France in 1815. Now he doesn't know he's carrying the letter, it was given to him by his dying captain. Three men who have their own reasons not to see the truth come out imprison Donat without trial in an island prison off Marseilles.

After years there Donat effects his escape and plans to wreak vengeance on them, but not just to kill them, to expose them because all three have risen to importance in France. He's the Count of Monte Cristo now, having been bequeathed a hidden treasure by another inmate.

The kids from Sleepers as well millions of others have learned what Dumas tried to convey, that hot blooded revenge killing won't do. If you have to take vengeance make sure it is an extremely calculated series of moves.

Monte Cristo is the perfect kind of role for the cerebral Robert Donat. Donat makes us believe his transformation from the young and hopeful Edmund Dantes to the calculating Monte Cristo. If it were not for the Oscar Donat received for Goodbye Mr. Chips this one would have been the signature role of his career.

Also look for some good acting by Elissa Landi, Louis Calhern and especially Raymond Walburn in their parts. He's usually the jovial gladhanding type, often a knave, but never a villain as he is here. Not a Walburn you're used to.