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The Count of Monte Cristo (1961 film)

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The Count of Monte Cristo
Directed byClaude Autant-Lara
Written byJean Halain
(adaptation et dialogue)
Based onAlexandre Dumas
(d'apres le roman d')
(as Alexandre Dumas Père)
Produced byRené Modiano
Jean Jacques Vital
Alain Poiré
StarringLouis Jourdan
Yvonne Furneaux
Pierre Mondy
Franco Silva
CinematographyJean Isnard
Jacques Natteau
Edited byMadeleine Gug
Music byRené Cloërec
Production
companies
Cineriz
Les Films J.J. Vital
Les Productions Rene Modiano
Royal
Société Nouvelle des Établissements Gaumont
Seven Arts Productions
Distributed byGaumont (France)
Warner Bros (US)
Release date
  • 6 December 1961 (1961-12-06)
Running time
188 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Box office$33.6 million[1]

The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le comte de Monte Cristo, US: The Story of the Count of Monte Cristo) is a 1961 French adventure film version of Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel directed by Claude Autant-Lara and starring Louis Jourdan, Yvonne Furneaux, Pierre Mondy and Franco Silva.

Plot

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Edmund Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'if. There, a prisoner tells Edmund of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island.

Cast

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Reception

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The film was the seventh most popular film at the French box office in 1961. The sixth most popular was a version of The Three Musketeers.[2]

The film was made with some finance from Seven Arts Productions and was released by Warner Bros.[3][4]

Variety wrote the producers "have spared little expense in mounting a pictorially rich and dramatically expansive reproduction of the story...But one vital miscaiculation strips their effort-of sufficient appeal for the bulk of the: modern audience. In adhering rigidiy to the plodding, stilted and weighty melodramatic style reasonably fashionable in less suphisticated by gone times, the creators of this version have failed to sense, or refused to reckon with, the realistic requirements of modern screen."[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1961) (1961) - JPBox-Office".
  2. ^ French box office for 1961 at Box Office Story
  3. ^ "7 Arts developing muscle". Variety. 18 July 1962. p. 5, 15.
  4. ^ "Kroftts puppets move to Hollywood". The Los Angeles Times. 16 March 1962. p. 15 Part 4.
  5. ^ "The Story of the Count of Monte Cristo". Variety. 13 June 1962. p. 7.
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