Movies
The Count of Monte-Cristo, The (1975, Richard Chamberlain, Kate Nelligan)
Richard Chamberlain had quite a French swashbuckling time of it in the ’70s. As well as playing Aramis in The Three Musketeers and the lead in The Man in the Iron Mask, he also starred as Edmond Dantes in David Green’s superior, star-studded TV movie of Alexandre Dumas’s famous novel.
Dantes innocently carries a message for the exiled Napoleon back to France, which allows his supposed best friend (Tony Curtis) to denounce him in order to marry Kate Nelligan, Chamberlain’s betrothed. Incarcerated for life by corrupt magistrate Louis Jourdan, he meets fellow prisoner Trevor Howard, who not only has an escape plan but knowledge of a hidden treasure. Howard dies before the escape but Chamberlain succeeds and, now empowered through wealth, seeks revenge on those who ended his freedom and stole his beloved…
production details
Italy – UK | 119 minutes | 1975
Director: David Greene
Script: Sidney Carroll
Novel: Alexandre Dumas
cast
Richard Chamberlain as Edmond Dantès
Kate Nelligan as Mercédès
Isabelle De Valvert as Haydée
Tony Curtis as Fernand Morcerf Mondego
Dominic Guard as Albert de Morcerf Mondego
Louis Jourdan as Villefort
Trevor Howard as Abbé Faria
Taryn Power as Valentine de Villefort
Dominic Barto as Bertuccio
Donald Pleasence as Danglars