The Wife of Monte Cristo

If you're going to appreciate this adentures movie ,you 've got to forget French history because the screenwriters certainly have : the story takes place during Louis-Philippe 's reign, the last king (who called himself "king of the French" and not "king of France")of Dumas's land : one character says he's going to Versailles to appeal to the king !!!But Louis -Philippe lived in les Tuileries and it was him who turned the palace of Versailles into a museum ; the prefect is totally fictitious : in Dumas' novel -which is summed up is a remarkably succint manner as a flashback - ,he's the villain who sent Edmond Dantès to the Château D'If prison .

Ulmer's film is most likely inspired by the second part of the novel ,in which Dantès (now known under the pseud Monte Cristo )takes revenge on his enemies ;it was purely personal .In the film ,he fights to help the oppressed people ,he becomes some Robin Hood of the nineteenth century ;and it was only natural to make Villefort the villain ,now a hateful prefect who exploits the poor ; the prefects were not all "wicked" :in 1833,one of them ,Rambuteau ,was concerned with the 1932 cholera epidemic ; he gathered that it was caused by insalubrity in the narrow streets of the capital ; preceding Baron Haussman ,he began to modernize the city :"my duty is to give water, air and shadow to the Parisians " was his motto. A far cry from Villefort's dirty deeds!

With its scenes taken by force from Robin Hood cum Zorro , the movie is only a very average adventures movie: its best side is the feminist feel : to put the bad guys off the track, the wife of Monte Cristo (check the title) replaces her husband and even winds up in a dungeon! Bravo,madame!