The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)

Robert Donat is great in this adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's classic novel. He is the wrongly imprisoned "Edmond Dantes", an honest sailor sent to live out his life on a prison island, never to return. He tunnels, and as luck would have it, rather than the sea he discovers another long-term inmate the "Abbé Faria" (OP Heggie), an elderly priest who refused to divulge to the authorities the whereabouts of the legendary treasure of "Monte Cristo". Dying, the man reveals that secret to "Edmond", who cleverly manages to substitute his body for the old man's corpse upon his death, and who is now lobbed into the sea - only to be rescued, discover the treasure and set upon his path of retribution on those who committed him to his life of torture. His vengeance is perfectly measured. He uses their own foibles - their greed, vanity and lust for power to cleverly allow them to manoeuvre themselves into the eyes of the public, and ultimately of justice. His former love "Mercedes" (Elssa Landi), thinking him dead, had gone on to marry one of the perpetrators and borne him the young "Raymond" (Louis Calhern) who might just remind "Dantes" of the humanity he has long abandoned as his search for revenge became an obsession, and perhaps offer him some opportunity for redemption. The production is lavish and grim as the scenarios demand; the supporting cast play well, and the story is an epitome of man's inhumanity to his fellows. The dialogue is a touch wordy, Rowland V Lee could have remembered a little better that we could see a lot of what he allowed the characters to describe to us, but that said it is well paced and looks great almost 90 years after it was released. For my money, the best of any of the screen versions of this author's exciting stories.