King’s Theatre

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 161, 11 July 1939, Page 2

King’s Theatre

“THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO” Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which screens at the King’s Theatre to-night and Wednesday at 7.45 p.m., is a story that has thrilled millions and become immortal. Its appeal to young and old remains undimmed through the years. No greater adventure has ever been written than this pulsating story of Edmond Dantes, who was condemned without mercy to twenty years in a dungeon; twenty years of nerve-wracking patience in which he planned his freedom and revenge upon the three men who had betrayed him to a living death in that dungeon. Who can ever forget the fascinating story of that revenge. Dantes, alive after twenty years of living death, escapes with tho secret key to untold wealth locked in hl2 brain, and the power to wreck the lives of the men who had wrecked his. The film follows the story related by Dumas in every detail. We are shown how the granite weight of a dungeon could not crush the stouthearted Dantes; how the far-flung vista of a thousand miles could not dim his vision; how the memory of a goodbye kiss, and the beacon hope of romance-to-be-born gave him power to upset a universe and enable him as “The Count of Monte Cristo” to break through to victory and happiness with the glory of a summer-morn sun. Kobert Donat plays the role of Edmond Dantes, and Elissa Landi is Mercedes. The cast is a big one, and includes William Farnum, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer and Raymond Walburn.