The Treasure of Monte Cristo ** (1961, Rory Calhoun, Patricia Bredin, John Gregson, Peter Arne) – Classic Movie Review 11,005

Rory Calhoun (1922–1999).

‘Terror, Treachery and Treasure!’

Directors Robert S Baker and Monty Berman’s 1961 Eastmancolor and Dyaliscope adventure The Treasure of Monte Cristo [The Secret of Monte Cristo] is a British variation on the Alexandre Dumas tale as a prequel to Dumas’s 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo, with a rather cut-price if amiable, handsome and acceptable cast.

Writer Leon Griffiths borrows the title of an unofficial sequel novel to The Count of Monte Cristo – The Treasure of Monte Cristo, written by Jules Lermina in 1885.

Rory Calhoun and Patricia Bredin star as worthy army Captain Adam Corbett and a killed mercenary’s pretty daughter Pauline, who set out to find the separated parts of a map to treasure on the island of Monte Cristo and then dig up the buried treasure there in early 19th-century Italy.

It starts in England in 1815, when Colonel Jackson (Ian Hunter) hires Corbett as armed escort for himself and his daughter Pauline as they travel to the isle of Monte Cristo as the Colonel has part of a map showing the site of the fabled Monte Cristo treasure.

The Treasure of Monte Cristo is familiarly plotted, run-of-the-mill hokum, but the cast and locations are very diverting, and it is entertainingly written by Griffiths and energetically made by the Baker-Berman producer/ director/ cinematographer team in their last outing for the big screen.

It also stars John Gregson as Renato, Peter Arne as Boldini, Ian Hunter as Colonel Jackson, David Davies as Van Ryman, Sam Kydd as Albert, Francis Matthews as Louis Auclair and Gianna Maria Canale as Lucetta Di Marca, along with David Davies, Tutte Lemkow, C Denier Warren, Michael Balfour and John Sullivan.

It was released under the alternative title The Secret of Monte Cristo in the US, probably because there is already a US 1949 noir called Treasure of Monte Cristo.

Monte Cristo is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea and part of the Tuscan Archipelago, belonging to the municipality of Portoferraio in the province of Livorno, Italy.

Rory Calhoun does not appear like this in the movie.

Contact advertising standards! Those excited by the poster’s prospect of a bare-chested, sword-wielding Rory Calhoun in tight pants and boots will be disappointed that he does not appear like this in the movie.

Rory Calhoun was born Francis Timothy McCown.

Calhoun was married twice. His first wife Lita Baron sued him for divorce in 1970, naming Betty Grable as one of 79 women with whom he had adulterous relationships. Calhoun replied: ‘Heck, she didn’t even include half of them.’

Patricia Bredin (born 14 February 1935) is an actress and singer from Hull, England, best known as the first UK representative in the Eurovision Song Contest. She finished in seventh place out of ten entries with the song ‘All’ in the 1957 contest held in Frankfurt. No doubt she gave it her All.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,005

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