Monte Cristo (1922)

The dashing John Gilbert is really quite good in this two-part adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas adventure. He is the wronged "Edmond", who finds himself the subject of jealousy and ambition before being sentenced to life imprisonment in the fearsome "Chateau D'If" prison. After many years in captivity, he is visited by the elderly Abbé Faria (Spottiswoode Aitken) who has been trying to tunnel his way out for many years, but has actually only managed to get to this nearby cell. Both victims of huge injustice, they become friends with the elder man teaching the younger a myriad of skills and languages before, just as he is dying, imparting some news about the legendary treasure of Monte Cristo. Substituting himself for the corpse, he manages to find safety, the treasure and is soon on the trail - in part two - of the three men he holds responsible. "de Villefort" (Robert McKimm); "Danglars" (Albert Prisco) and "Mondego" (Ralph Cloninger) who also managed to seduce his betrothed - the young "Mercedes" (Estelle Taylor). His clever entrapment of these three is based on allowing their greed, avarice, ambition and mistrust to do his heavy lifting for him - and he sits by facilitating and enjoy their destruction of each other. The first part of this works better, I felt. The sense of betrayal and the claustrophobic nature of his imprisonment better suited the rather static, though decent quality, of this production. It also featured the scene stealing performances of William V. Mong as the duplicitous "Caderouse". The second part climaxes well, with effective efforts from just about all - including a lovely series of scenes from the "Princess Haidee" (Virginia Brown Faire - a lady with very expressive eyes); but the swordplay and the general denouement fall a little flat as the technique of director Emmett Flynn relies more on a barrage of inter titles, single character scenes and lingering - if quite potent - close ups a little too much. This story of betrayal, bitterness, revenge and ultimately happiness is a great one and whilst this is maybe not the best version, it still packs a lot into 100 minutes.