Treasure of Monte Cristo (1949)

The unfortunate title suggests a costume drama with maybe Tyrone Power or Cornell Wilde. Instead the movie's a 1940's crime drama set in San Francisco. Edmund Dantes (Langan) works as ship's hand, having no idea of his famous forebearer, the Count of Monte Cristo. He may have no idea, but crooked attorney Jackson (Brodie) does, and concocts a scheme with blonde siren Jean (Jergens) to lay hands on what will be Dante's inheritance. Fortunately, the ship's hand has friends who stand by him, even when he's brought up on murder charges. It's a better than average Lippert production. The Frisco locales add a lot of eye-appeal. And though there are elements of noir in the plot—spider woman, doomed man—these are not played up in the lighting or photography. It's narrative that's emphasized here, not moral shadings. Actors Langan and Jergens are okay in the leads, but it's really Brodie who injects spark. Too bad he never received the recognition he deserved. But then, like so many supporting actors, his job was to help carry the celebrity industry on his back, not on his name Too bad Lippert couldn't resist their penchant for low humor. Here, it's one of their favorites, Sid Melton (Tyson) plus the unfortunate old guy playing the buffoonish ethnic. As expected, these do nothing for the overall effect. Anyway, things do get complicated toward the end, but all in all, it's a pretty good little crime drama for a rainy evening.

This film is interesting because the two leads, Glenn Langan and Adele Jergens were married shortly after this film was made and they remained married for decades. Even more interesting is that in the film, Jergens meets Langan and marries him and then promptly destroys him! Nice, huh? It all begins when seaman Langan is approached by a lady (Jergens--who always looked a lot like Virginia Mayo and vice-versa). She claims to be an heiress who is on the run--unscrupulous people are trying to have her hospitalized in a sanitarium to keep her from getting her fortune. She feeds him a line that if he would marry her, then the shady family members would relent. Then, after this quickie marriage, they could quietly divorce. This is all pretty ridiculous and Langan is apparently quite stupid, as he falls for it. Pretty soon, he's set up on a murder rap and is headed to death row! So much for doing a lady a favor! Well, eventually Langan (naturally) is able to escape and he sticks around trying to unravel why all this occurred and who is behind it....and, oddly, how it all relates to the old "Count of Monte Cristo" tale! Overall, this is a good but not especially believable example of film noir. Too many improbabilities and plot problems prevent this from being anything more than a nice time passer for those who enjoy the genre.

The "Monte Cristo" theme is kinda left in the background as the film evolves. At the very beginning, a businessman drops a letter addressed to "Ed Dantes" into a mail slot of the building he's in. He then goes into an office and is immediately struck down by a shadowy figure.Then we meet the hero. He's a merchant seaman, with Second Mate papers. He's coming ashore, and as he gets his land legs, he sees a woman being chased by a couple of men. Being a gentleman, he rescues her. The two of them get away, and in time, she tells her story: she's an heiress who escaped from an asylum because she's being maneuvered into a situation where the people who've committed her would get her inheritance. If she reached a certain age (she's three months shy) or gets married, she gets the inheritance.Her story seems valid, and she proposes that she and Dantes take a quick trip to Reno to get married (:only technically") so that she can get rid of all the interference. Circumstances maneuver Dantes into going along with the deal. They get a quickie marriage/honeymoon at a hotel, and the following morning, when Dantes goes for cigarettes, she disappears, and leaves a message with the address of the asylum.Dantes returns to try to rescue her, and falls into a situation where someone gets killed. Dantes is arrested, and soon is convicted of the crime.spoiler alert: by the trial, it seems obvious that the attorney Dantes has hired is no help. The girl he married fell in love with him (I wonder what the honeymoon was really like), and she tries to help him. He also has "family" -- San Francisco folk who effectively adopted him as a boy also help him.More spoilers: One refreshing thing about the film is that unlike a lot of such movies, the police are not portrayed as being stupid.The story pieces fall tiger rather rapidly toward the end, but this is a good, entertaining film. It's even better if the viewer is familiar with the Dumas story.

This little gem is by far the best of the batch in the Forgotten Noir Vol. 4 DVD Collection. I had trouble believing this was a Lipperts Films Production, but now I realize that William Berke was the reason as the best films in this set were directed by him. At first, after a prologue regarding the treasure of Monte Cristo, I wondered after 20 minutes, what does this have to do with Monte Cristo as it was going in a complete different direction and then at one point about 30 mins. in...there it was! It's loosely based on Dumas' story. Everything including writing, direction, cinematography, pacing was topnotch unlike others in this series. Glenn Langan, whose dubious claim to fame is the title role in "The Amazing Colossal Man", shows that he's a decent actor and can carry a film, Adele Jergens and the rest of the cast are very good. San Francisco is also a star in this film. It has all the elements of the best noir films! I can recommend this one with confidence.