The Sword of Monte Cristo (1951)

I love this movie so much

Highly Overrated But Still Good

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is obviously yet another offshoot of Alexandre Dumas's "The Count Of Monte Cristo": however, from those I have watched, this is the one with the most tenuous connection – since the famed treasure has been bequeathed to one of the characters involved in the narrative simply because he was the best friend of Edmond Dantes…which would imply the latter having had no living relatives, thus negating the wife, son and grandson presented as rightful – and, usually, wronged – heirs in previous efforts (clearly made by other hands) spun from the original!In any case, this Edward L. Alperson production, written by the director (whose first and sole venture for the big-screen in the latter capacity this proved to be – no wonder his name was unfamiliar to me!), is nothing if not a hodgepodge of ideas borrowed from other films: to begin with, a raid on a coach sees the bandits wearing handkerchiefs over their mouths just like in a Western!; most crucially, we have the presence of a (female) avenger played by Paula Corday referred to as "The Masked Cavalier" – but, in reality, a member of the French nobility whose mansion is conveniently outfitted a' la the Batcave with secret passages to facilitate her constant comings and goings – which suggests that Geraghty somehow got his wires crossed with a typical Zorro adventure!Unusually, the male protagonist (played by frequent Western/war movie star George Montgomery – here effectively channeling Clark Gable!) shifts allegiances from an antagonist of the heroine to her ally and, predictably, lover (he being a Dragoon captain in the army of Louis Napoleon, not to mention a ladies' man who can never recall the name of his conquests!). Villainy is supplied by reptilian Berry Kroeger (as the ineffectual Emperor's half-brother, who fancies himself the power behind the throne and invariably also covets the Monte Cristo estate!) and burly William Conrad (when falling to his death at the climax, we are gratuitously treated to a shot of him hitting the ground with a loud thud!); others in the cast: Steve Brodie as Montgomery's obligatory sparring sidekick, Robert Warwick as Corday's tradition-bound uncle and the current guardian of the invaluable fortune at stake (whose location is inscribed on the hilt of the titular weapon) and Rhys Williams as the insurgent Mayor all-too-readily given away by his cohorts (amusingly, rather than devising a sensible plan to overthrow the oppressive regime, their underground meetings are replete with enthusiastic but wholly pointless outcries of "Down with Napoleon!"). Another unintentionally amusing moment comes when Corday, wounded in a swordfight with Kroeger, looks askance (in a cutaway to her incredulous face as if to say, "Get on with it!") at Montgomery who engages Kroeger not only in action but in sarcastic banter!While the film is no classic and a few rungs below the standard of even the recently-viewed THE RETURN OF MONTE CRISTO (1946), there is no denying the sheer entertainment value and appealing pictorial qualities (for what it is worth, this was shot in a process boasting the unwieldy name of Supercinecolor!) to be elicited from this type of unassuming action-oriented fare. Indeed, I am toying with the idea of including in the current Easter epic marathon yet another low-budget variation on the source material concerned – namely SWORD OF VENUS (1953), which has just been made available for those able and willing to lay their hands on it...

....set in mid-1800's, post-Revolution France. It boasts beautiful "SuperCineColor" photography (even in the rather faded print I watched), a politically loaded script that's still extremely timely, and, unusually for its time (1951), a woman heroine: a high-society lady who has a second, secret identity: that of a masked vigilante determined to raise a rebellion against the totalitarian state imposed by the emperor's power-crazy half-brother. The heroine's black costume and mask probably made it easy for the filmmakers to double Paula Corday for the more demanding physical stuff; nonetheless, her performance is spirited, and not only does she get to participate in the climactic fight sequence - she gets to run her sword through the second most important villain of the film as well. Pretty impressive. **1/2 out of 4.

a film like a testimony. for expectations of a public. for sensitivity of a time. using Alexandre Dumas novel and the shadow of Zorro, a not bad cast and a rich chain of adventures, the director does one of period sweet, nice, glorious films.fight scenes, drops of democracy, freedom and feminism , a fortune and silhouette of a hero of past. sure, it is not exactly a product of series. but not original. it is a drawing about love, honor, duty, victory of good values and an emperor far to be real model. result - a comfortable film. nothing new but , in same measure, nothing boring. only a game with beautiful women and charming officer.

A small jewel among the short filmography of the unequal actress Acquanetta, that will charm to all its fans. It is an entertained and quite related history in powerful "supercinecolor" with all the topics of this type of films where the sumptuous scenography is worthy of mention.In this film we see the beautiful Acquanetta far away of her characteristic wild roles of woman to the ones that was usual in the Universal and shows that was a versatile actress who in the role adequate, she could show that was an exemplary actress.A great deal has been spoken on some movies that have resisted the step of the time without to have been directed by large names, and this film is one of them. I expect that the time put the things in its place and Acquanetta even to the history as an actress of indelible legend.