The Count of Monte Cristo

Young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes, finds treasure, and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who betrayed him.

A solidly entertaining but unambitious swashbuckler, this adaptation of Dumas leans hard on old-fashioned adventure pleasures — piracy, revenge, Parisian intrigue — and delivers them competently without reinventing anything. Critics were broadly favorable but clear-eyed about the film's middling nature, and audiences responded more warmly than press did.