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The Son of Monte Cristo is a swashbuckling novel from 1940 inspired by classic works such as A Count of Monte Cristo, A Mark of Zorro, A Scarlet Pimpernel, and A Prisoner of Zenda written in a very comedic manner, most easily digestible.
Lichtenburg, the setting of the book is a small fictitious Balkan principality set in 1865, The Prison of Zenda. The Grand Duchess Zona, meaning, grand lady is admired and powerful but is married to Joan Bennett who is under the thumb of George Sanders, who plays an unscrupulous and brutal General Gurko Lanen, who wishes to take the power of the region. The Grand Duchess has a prime loyal minister that decides to send her to Paris on a desperate mission to plead for assistance from Napoleon. The idea somehow seems clever as Napoleon loves putting France in foreign troubles. But now her mission has gotten out and Gurko Lanen now wants her to Paris at all costs.
No sooner does Zona seem badly in need of a brave hero to save her, up pops one such hero, ready to take the world by storm. Meet Edmund Dantes, the Count of Monte Cristo (not the one you are thinking about, but his son). The Count, Louis Hayward’s portrayal of the character, is a man who most of his adult life has milled around waiting for the mythical slaughter of dragons to take place so that he can come to the rescue.
Regrettably, he seems at the start to have only partial success in his rescue attempts and Zona lands up back in the grasp of Gurko Lanen who has ‘nicely’ compounded matters further for her. To her utter horror, she sees that he has plans to use her as a pawn, and yet she is still horrified. One can only imagine the disgust she would feel at being treated this way. She is now at the mercy of a hateful tyrant, and worse, a commoner eg a ruined peasant.
But of course, Dantes gets tangled up within the resistance. Their concern is to let the Grand Duchess free from Gurko Lanen’s grasp, but to do that, they will have to get the Prime Minister out of prison first. Someone will have to get inside the palace. Dantes thinks he is able to do this rather effortlessly considering he is a wealthy banker that Gurko Lanen is trying to make a deal with, (yes, this movie does depend quite a bit on serendipitous circumstances). People get so used to him playing the fool that no one questions his motives.
There are some pleasingly crafted twists within the plot, and one might at times feel that the hero is not ever going to get out of the tangles he has landed himself into.
But of course all these 1940 tyranny themed Hollywood productions will have been imbued within a far more powerful sub-text. Thankfully in this case the argument is not overly extbased so that which can be passed subdecoratively, and the audience is free to enjoy the picture.
Rowland, V. Lee, the director of this film, seems to be quite skilful at making swashbuckling adventure films, and it is no surprise that he has handled this directing assignment exceptionally. George Bruce was also busy with this genre of films, as the screenwriter of this particular movie. Even if this one is an assemblage of ideas from different swashbucklers, the ideas are at best assembled competently and quite amusingly, at the very least.
Louis Hayward makes a dashing hero and Joan Bennett is a positively good as well as suitably arrogant heroine. It goes without saying that the movie really belongs to George Sanders. He portrays the character in a splendid larger-than-life fashion, and he has the advantage of having by far the most interesting role in the movie. Gurko Lanen is just a little bit more than a cardboard villain. Being a peasant who has just managed to muscle his way to the top, he has a believable motivation for wanting to gain power. And he is in love with Zona for real, and he has reasonable grounds for believing that her rejection stems, to a large extent, from his modest origins. Though it is hard to actually empathize with him, we can more or less appreciate what motivates him.
It’s a well-made film, shot in black-and-white, which one can appreciate, and it has a fair amount of action (and there is a lot of it); and of course – a love story too. Provided you do not expect too much The Son of Monte Cristo is a most entertaining adventure romp, and George Sanders is reason enough to watch this one. Fans of ‘swashbuckling’ should be quite happy with this one. Recommended.
Also, check my reviews of some more movies, which I think quite obviously inspired this one The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Prisoner of Zenda.
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