The Count of Monte Cristo (United Artists) (1934)

PUBLICITY “THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO” Dumas Would Have Been Hollywood’s Pet Scenarist , Says Director Lee Hopes Of Modern “.Monte Cristos” * Have Real Chance Of Realization (CURRENT FEATURE) Alexandre Dumas could have written his own ticket as the world’s highest-paid scenarist—if he had been born a hundred years later. This is the opinion of Rowland V. Lee, ace Hollywood director, whose most recent assignment was Harry M. Goetz and Edward Small’s million dollar Reliance production of “The Count of Monte Cristo,’^, released through United Ar¬ tists and currently at the. Theatre. “Dumas’ stories are perfect screen material,” declared Lee. “His charac¬ ters are so vital and real and his plots build and move with such powerful action that they are as intensely en¬ tertaining today as they were when crowds waited outside Paris newspaper offices for the next installment of his romantic thrillers. Was Hero of Paris “He was at the zenith of his fame and powers as the greatest novelist of his day when he wrote ‘The Count of Monte Cristo,’—the favorite hero of Paris, with best-sellers literally rolling from his pen, and his private life as romantic and thrilling as his stories. “Dumas got the title from an island which his boat had passed in the course of a Mediterranean cruise. He had been unable to land because the island was ‘en contumace’ — wilfully disobedient to a lawful order of a judicial or legislative body. “The incident and the name of the island stuck in his mind, and a few years later, in 1843, he arranged with an editor for the publication of a work for which he needed a romantic plot. One day he read a short story, ‘Le Diamant et la Vengeance,’ laid in the period of the second Bourbon Restora¬ tion, which intrigued him. The idea for a great Dumas plot began taking shape. Had Facile Pen “What had started out to be travel impressions in the form of a romance, now became romance pure and simple. The love affair of Edmond Dantes and the fair Mercedes, played by Robert Donat and Elissa Landi in the film; the treacherous schemes of de Vi lie- fort, (Louis Calhern), Danglars (Ray¬ mond Walburn) and Mondego (Sid¬ ney Blackmer) ; the grim happenings in the Chateau d’lf; chapter after chapter flowed from his pen as he wove the whole into a prodigious popular masterpiece. “It is a matter of record that Paris waited breathlessly each morning for a new installment of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ to appear in ‘Le Journal des Debats.’ “It was first published in novel form in the middle 1 840’s, and since then it has been the most widely read piece of fiction, year in and year out, in every country of the world. “Dumas, like Shakespeare, created history and made legends come to life, and his characters will be as real to future generations as they are to this one.” Modern “Monte Cristo ” Would Discover Grief (CURRENT STORY) Film fans whose imaginations are fired by the fabulous treasure dis¬ covered by Edmond Dantes in Harry M. Goetz and Edward Small’s million dollar Reliance production of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” released through United Artists and currently showing at the. Theatre, may console themselves with the fact that a modern “Monte Cristo” would probably have to turn over at least half of his discovery to the nation with territorial claims upon the island. If, furthermore, the discoverer chanced to be an American and the island an American possession, Uncle Sam would claim all the gold—at least all over $100 worth—and the ‘lucky fellow’ would be given nice crisp paper money or bonds in exchange. And, of course, if he started scat¬ tering gold pieces around and furn¬ ishing sumptuous mansions with gold¬ en dishes and solid gold door knobs as Robert Donat does in the film, he would wind up before a judge on a charge of hoarding the precious metal we are forbidden privately to possess. Robert Donat, handsome young English screen and stage actor, brought to Hollywood for the title role in Reliance's “The Count of Monte Cristo,” cured an acute at¬ tack of homesickness by hopping into his car at three o'clock one morning, driving to a little restau¬ rant noted for its excellent York¬ shire pudding and meditatively consuming three orders of the toothsome English concoction. An immortal classic reaches the screen in Reliance’s million dollar pro¬ duction of Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo,” released through United Artists and showing_at the ___Theatre. Robert Donat has the title role, Elissa Landi is seen as his sweetheart, Mercedes, while Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer and Raymond Walburn play the three mortal enemies of the hero. (ADVANCE FEATURE) With gold at a premium and the world’s attention drawn as never before to fantastic quests for buried treasure, the fic¬ tional adventures of Edmond Dantes who found fabulous wealth on a deserted island in Alexandre Dumas’ immortal romance, “The Count of Monte Cristo, seem less strange and mythical than ever before. In fact, events of the past few months have hinted at treasure troves rivaling the Croesus-like find of Dantes who, in the novel, as in Harry M. Goetz and Edward Small’s million dollar Reliance filmization, released through United Artists, which brings Robert Donat and Elissa Landi to the . Theatre .. finds his way to the deserted Island of Monte Cristo and there unearths great piles of gold coin, bars of un¬ polished gold and chests of diamonds, pearls and rubies. Real Isle Suggested Plot Dumas is said to have gotten the idea for the treasure episode while cruising past an uninhabited isle in the Mediterranean Sea. There is a legend, however, that someone really did find such a treasure on such an island and became, like Dantes, one of the most powerful men in Europ™ and the founder of a still flourishing family of wealth. However this may be, Dantes’ for¬ tune may have a possible present-day counterpart in the twenty-five tons of ancient Peruvian gold ingots (worth about $50,000,000) reported located in the Tuamotu Archipelago, a French possession in the South Pacific. News dispatches report that France is pre¬ pared to enforce its rights of salvage and claim half the trove, however, so the modern Dantes will have to be content with about $25,000,000! Another Rich Field Another rich field for potential Monte Cristos, and perhaps the one which has attracted the largest num¬ ber of adventurers in recent years, is Cocos Island, in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Panama. Hardly a month passes that does not see an expedition sail out of San Francisco Bay or Los Angeles harbor to seek the millions in gold and jewels be¬ lieved to be buried there. Thus far* the Cocos expeditions have found more^ adventure than gold, but they are still trying, and recently a London group started financing a $375,000 enter¬ prise to seek buried treasure there. 1 —Three Column Scene (Mat .15; Cut .60) -- Robert Donat Spurned Offer To Begin Hollywood Career Two Years Earlier (CURRENT STORY) Robert Donat, handsome English screen and stage star who makes his UrsX appearance in an American picture in the title role of the Harry M. Goetz-Edward Small million dollar Reliance production, “The Count of Monte Cristo,’*’ could have started his Hollywood career two years earlier than he did,. The young actor turned down an offer to play opposite Norma Shearer in “Smilin’ Through,” the part which Fredric March finally took, because he did not want to leave London at that time. Later, he appeared in “The Private Life of Henry VIII,” the British pic¬ ture which introduced him to Ameri¬ can audiences, but it was not until he was offered the role of Edmond Dantes in Reliance’s filmization of the Alex¬ andre Dumas classic, released through United Artists and currently at the .Theatre, that he con¬ sented to transfer his talents to Hollywood. In “The Count of Monte Cristo,” Donat shares stellar honors with Elissa Landi, heading a large and im¬ posing cast including Sidney Black¬ mer, Louis Calhern, O. P. Heggie, Robert Donat Irene Hervey, William Farnum, Ray- 5 —One Col. Scene mond Walburn and others, under the (Mat .05; Cut .20) direction of Rowland V. Lee. RELIANCE PICTURES, Inc. y. Present Alexandre Dumas’ Immortal Story “THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO” with ROBERT DONAT and ELISSA LANDI Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer, O. P. Heggie, Irene Hervey, William Farnum and Raymond Walburn Produced Under the Personal Supervision of EDWARD SMALL Directed by ROWLAND V. LEE A RELIANCE PRODUCTION Released through United Artists THE CAST EDMOND DANTES _ROBERT DONAT Albert, age 8 _Wallace Albright CAN’T STUMP ’EM! When they needed a brook run¬ ning past a giant oak for a love scene between Robert Donat and Elissa Landi in “The Count of Monte Cristo,” location experts found the tree — and calmly pro¬ ceeded to divert a creek half a mile away to run past it for a day.