The Count of Monte Cristo (1975)

Probably all film adaptations of Alexandre Dumas' classic revenge story, the roughly 1000-page brick The Count of Monte Cristo, need to abridge characters and subplots in order to fit something sensible into a movie runtime, so this entertaining 1975 made-for-tv adaptation needs to be excused for dispensing of one of my favourite of Dumas' eighteen chapter releases, the episode introducing the electrifying Luigi Vampa, leader of a band of Italian smugglers, and probably noone can blame the movie for letting the intensity of Edmond Dantés' love for Mercedes extinguish long before their very late reunion - there is just too much other stuff to cover - but can anyone forgive the movie Richard Chamberlain's Count's whitened and slicked back 'do or the poster's redundant hyphen?

★★★☆☆

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The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

Alexander Dumas' book, published in eighteen parts over two years, is the famous rollicking adventure thriller about one man's revenge served fourteen years cold; this movie version, cramming the book's 1000 pages into an hour and a half, does a reasonable job of telling the story but never has a hope of being able to convey the thrills or present some of the more extravagant details in such a rush without looking pretty corny at times.

★★★☆☆

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