Son of Monte Cristo & Other Knockoffs

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Son of Monte Cristo & Other Knockoffs; Second-string swashbuckling
Topic Started: Aug 3 2009, 12:19 AM (132 Views)
CliffClaven	Aug 3 2009, 12:19 AM Post #1
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 231 Group: Members Member #712 Joined: March 30, 2009	Just recently saw "Son of Monte Cristo" on TCM, thinking it was a different Monte Cristo sequel. The one I was expecting had the hero working out of a theater with assorted disguises (Can anybody place it?). This one was perfectly decent however, and I think it was produced by the same people who made the James Whale "Man in the Iron Mask" (a better film, but with the same slightly thrifty look). The real amusement came from how they managed to pastiche so many stories EXCEPT the Count of Monte Cristo: He's the son of Monte Cristo, all right, but he presents himself as a fop while liberating a political prisoner (like Scarlet Pimpernel) in the masked guise of "The Torch" (like Zorro) to foil the schemes of a usurper (like Robin Hood) to win the hand of the princess (like just about everybody in a film with castles). I kept hoping for a pirate or two, but surprisingly they didn't appear. George Sanders was the villain, a military man bent on rising above his peasant origins to marry the princess -- whom he kept professing serious love to -- and become king. It came up often enough that you assumed having aspirations above his natural class made him all the more evil.



maldor	Aug 3 2009, 05:43 AM Post #2
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 50 Group: Members Member #179 Joined: February 28, 2007	Fun movie have this on dvd. Great series hero cast two Saints Louis Hayward and George Sanders, The Lone Ranger Clayton Moore and Dick Tracy Ralph Byrd



Black Tiger	Aug 3 2009, 06:52 AM Post #3
Charter Member Posts: 1,814 Group: Members Member #50 Joined: September 15, 2005	Son of Robin Hood with David (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) Hedison airs on the Fox Movie Channel today.



mort bakaprevski	Aug 3 2009, 06:57 AM Post #4
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	CliffClaven Aug 3 2009, 12:19 AM ... I think it was produced by the same people who made the James Whale "Man in the Iron Mask" (a better film, but with the same slightly thrifty look). Both independently produced by Edward Small (also did THE CORSICAN BROS. with Fairbanks, Jr.).
	�You�ve got to take the bitter with the sour.�


mort bakaprevski	Aug 4 2009, 04:16 PM Post #5
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	WOW, totally forgot that Small also produced the original 1934 COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO with Robert Donat & directed by Rowland V. Lee.
	�You�ve got to take the bitter with the sour.�


CliffClaven	Aug 4 2009, 10:49 PM Post #6
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 231 Group: Members Member #712 Joined: March 30, 2009	Recorded Son of Robin Hood; with luck will hit it this weekend. Two more for the knockoff vintage division: Louis Hayward in The Fortunes of Captain Blood and its sequel, Captain Pirate (both on one DVD). Decent, but they almost feel more like detective films than swashbucklers. In the second especially, Blood spends most of the film snooping around undercover to find who's damaging his post-pirate reputation. They manage to work in a black-and-white flashback from the first film. In the 70's division: Crossed Swords, aka Prince and the Pauper. They clearly wanted to make Richard Lester's 3 Musketeers without Richard Lester: They have Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch and Charleton Heston along with other names (including George C. Scott as king of the beggars). They also have a script with at least some input by George Macdonald Fraser. Not quite in the same class, but amusing enough most of the way. Best throwaway is Edward the prince telling his scowling sister Elizabeth that if she ever gets to be queen, then she can run things her way. The film ends with a comic wrapup of the various characters' fates, including the death of Edward and the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. Last shot is young Elizabeth giving the camera a very cool look -- the foolery is over, folks -- before walking away down a hall.



CliffClaven	Sep 2 2009, 12:10 AM Post #7
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 231 Group: Members Member #712 Joined: March 30, 2009	Son of Robin Hood: Not a really bad movie; just a little too familiar (right down to the villain making chess metaphors) and a little too cheap. A late 50s attempt to do a swashbuckler without enough panache to offset the budget. David Hedison is billed as Al Hedison -- Did he feel the need to partially change his name after this? Actually, all the actors are better than this movie deserves. The director and editor, however, do have to answer for the sluggish pacing and lame action scenes (the latter usually featuring slightly-wrong-tempo music and too many shots of guys with arrows in their chests yelling "AAARGH!"). The script is frustratingly generic, given that they started with an interesting gimmick. Also, the castle sets are a little too clean and artificial, like a new shop at Disneyland. SPOILER ALERT: The Son of Robin Hood is actually his daughter! Okay, the plot. An evil duke wants to Usurp the Throne (again). He's lining up an army of thousands (of whom we'll never see more than a dozen or so). He learns a good guy with a beard is coming to meet the Merrie Men. This guy evidently has the power to sign over the kingdom, so the duke wants him. The aging Merrie Men eagerly anticipate the arrival of young "Derring Hood," who will inspire the people to rise up and yadda yadda yadda. It's like a Bob Hope comedy, where bland "serious" actors set the stage for a mighty hero and Bob walks in with some coward jokes. Consequently you know Derring is going to be some sort of disappointment or surprise. The duke's men surround the house and arrows fly. "AAARGH!" The guy with the beard is captured. David/Al, a mysterious wise guy, hits town and fights with some guards. He is joined by a cute little blond girl with great legs and a snug Peter Pan costume, but she's wearing a hood so Al doesn't register she's female until he's set her down on a bed, intending to minister to her head injury with a good rubdown (really). You are expected to be surprised by this, so humor them and gasp. Al, full of Captain Kirk smirkiness, exits and Little John enters. We learn the blonde is Derring Hood, daughter of Robin Hood! Two mind-boggling plot twists in a single scene. Fearing the men wouldn't rally behind a mere woman, Little John persuades Al to impersonate the Son of Robin Hood. Derring does a brief feisty protest and settles in to play a standard-issue heroine, so the most novel angle in the movie goes away. Al introduces Derring as his uncommonly shapely and high-voiced male page. The Merrie Men keep slapping her rear in a gesture of male bonding. My theory is they all knew darn well she was a girl and were just getting some cheap thrills. Al and Derring impersonate a nobleman and his wife to infiltrate the duke's castle (No explanation of how they explained the page boy filling out a dress to the Merrie Men). Al fools around with the duke's sultry sister while trying to learn who's been tipping off the duke to the Merrie Men's activities. Oh, and the guy with the beard is his brother. That comes up somewhere. Derring pouts rather fetchingly while Al does all the heavy lifting. Finally, after some mildly interesting stuff that should have been a lot more interesting, Derring dresses up like a cocktail waitress from the Sherwood Forest Lounge and shoots arrows during the semi-thrilling battle for the castle, which involves a few dozen guys and more "AAARGH!" But first Derring and the Merrie Men must slosh through a tunnel shoulder-deep in questionable-looking water. This is supposed to be a suspenseful death trap, but they never look more than miffed and are calmly leaving the way they came when help arrives. The Merrie Men are now able to sneak up on the bad guys, who are all standing still and staring up at Al's stunt man, who for no good reason is traveling hand-over-hand along a flagpole between two turrets. They don't even shoot an arrow at him. The drawbridge is opened and a mighty rebel force of, say, a dozen more Merrie Men run in. Meanwhile, on the empty castle interior set, Al and the duke have their big duel which involves more chair smashing than swords. Maybe their fight choreographer specialized in Westerns. Everybody who hasn't left the studio for the day gathers in the castle. The guy with a beard says something about crowning the rightful king. Derring, back in a dress now that it's peacetime, says something about reclaiming her name. "But not for long," says Al. They kiss and the bearded guy ends the movie with a lame joke, which nobody hears because irate girls in the audience are hissing.


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