A Modern Monte Cristo
About A Modern Monte Cristo
Dr. Emerson (Vincent Serrano), after a night of drinking, botches an operation and the patient dies. His friend William Deane (Thomas Curran), who wants Emerson's fiancée, tells the police that Emerson had been offered a bribe to let the patient die. Emerson escapes by jumping into a river and is reported drowned. Years later he is a sailor. Deane's little daughter Virginia (Helen Badgley) is with him when a boat wrecks. He saves her and sends her home with a note: she was saved by her father's bitterest enemy. Grown, she is played by Gladys Dore. Emerson then forces Deane onto one of Deane's own unsound ships. An alternate title is Eye for an Eye.
Cast & crew
More about A Modern Monte Cristo
W. Eugene Moore directed. Lloyd Lonergan wrote the scenario. Edwin Thanhouser ran the company. George Webber photographed it. Pathé Exchange released the five-reel feature on 4 February 1917. Leo Wirth was assistant director. Moving Picture World, on 3 February 1917, described a shipwreck, a marooning, an airplane rescue, and pearl fishing. A New York Dramatic Mirror review of 27 January 1917 said the last shot leaves the two men on a sinking ship and does not show who lives.
Themes
Making
Thanhouser shot coastal scenes at Block Island and nearer New Rochelle, then Pathé put the five reels out in the first week of February 1917.
Reviews
The New York Dramatic Mirror of 27 January 1917 called the story full of suspense, said Serrano carries it, and noted that the ending does not say which man survives the sinking ship. Moving Picture World, two days before release, sold the shipwreck, the island, and the airplane rescue.
Look
George Webber shot the coastal wreck and the shipboard scenes. The Dramatic Mirror called the photography pretty.
Music
Silent.
Notes
- The plot takes only the outline of Dumas's Count of Monte Cristo: a man framed, years away, then a return in disguise.
- Helen Badgley plays Virginia at six. Gladys Dore plays her at eighteen.
- After scenes on Block Island, Moore, Wirth, Serrano, and Curran were in the grill of the Hygeia Hotel when the building caught fire, according to Motography of 30 September 1918.
- The Dramatic Mirror said Serrano dominates the picture and praised the photography.
Scenes
- Emerson jumps into the river to escape the police and is given up as drowned.
- He returns the child with a note warning her father.
- He holds Deane aboard one of Deane's own leaking ships.
Influenced by
- Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo