Product Details

• Actors: Robert Donat, Elissa Landi, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer, Raymond Walburn
• Format: NTSC
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JL22
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #704,760 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Count of Monte Cristo" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Three good films get a mostly bare bones release, February 17, 2008

By 

Stephen M. Kopian (GLEN HEAD, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Robert Donat Collection (The Count Of Monte Cristo / The 39 Steps / The Ghost Goes West) (DVD)

Two hard to find Robert Donat films joins an already released Hitchcock classic on DVD for the first time. The films themselves are of course quite good and are definitely worth seeing. What I'd like to do is fill in some of the details concerning this DVD release.

Essentially a no frills version the films the films come on a single double sided DVD with The Ghost Goes West and 39 Steps on one side and The Count of Monte Cristo plus DVD ROM extras on the other. (I should say I have not checked out the the extras which are suppose to be the original novels for the 39 Steps and Count of Monte Cristo as well as radio show versions of the three films as MP3s).

The films themselves look good. They are not perfect and certainly were not really restored to any degree, which is fine because the films as presented here look quite good. The problem with the films is that they don't have any chapter stops. The films simply run from start to finish with no way to break them. Well,actually Count has one stop which jumps you past the opening credits. This to me, is the major draw back of the release since it makes going away from the films, once you start them, a difficult thing to do.

I have bit of a question concerning the source of the prints used. The running times seem slightly short. Count runs about 114 minutes which puts it right where it should be according to the back of the box and IMDB however the Leonard Maltin Film guide lists the run time of 119 minutes which may have been a typo if someone hit a 9 instead of 4. (rest assured its not the 90 minute TV version). The 39 Steps runs 82 minutes (not the 86 minutes on the box) and The Ghost Goes West runs 78 minutes (7 minutes shorter than the 85 minutes on the box). I'm not sure why the films run short, though if the films are sourced from an English source (the packaging seems more in keeping with a UK release rather than a US one and the films opening credits seem devoid all US studio origin) the films may have come from a PAL master which would run slightly faster than the US NTSC.

Is the disc worth picking up? If you are a fan of the three films it certainly is. My quibbles are ultimately minor since the films look quite good, certainly 39 Steps looks better than many bargain DVD releases, besides its great to have Count of Monte Cristo finally on DVD.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Quality Of This Collection, February 26, 2008

By 

Claudia Wright (Henderson, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Robert Donat Collection (The Count Of Monte Cristo / The 39 Steps / The Ghost Goes West) (DVD)

I will not delve into the movies themselves but rather into the quality of the three films included in this collection. "The Ghost Goes West" is perhaps the best print of the three leaving "The 39 Steps" and "The Count Of Monte Cristo" as rather poor renditions. They are both dark and not well presented. To say they were in anyway restored, would be to misinform. I have seen a better print of "The Count Of Monte Cristo" on VHS tape.
Criterion did a fantastic restoration of "The 39 Steps" leaving this version far beneath it.
This collection is only worth the asking price if you really want "The Count Of Monte Cristo" on DVD no matter what the quality of the print.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Original Version, December 15, 2004

By 

Stanley Cooper (jupiter, florida United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Count of Monte Cristo [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Best Version Of This Movie Ever Made
Robert Donat Is Wonderful
WHY WHY IS THIS MOVIE NOT ON DVD