Monte Cristo (1928/29)

I don't know how many versions of Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo" I have seen -- certainly a fair number -- but this silent French version was not one I'd viewed previously.  Apart from its antiquity -- and it is not even the oldest version by any means -- there was frankly little to commend it.  At over 220 minutes the director, Henri Fescourt, apparently wanted to film the novel word for word as it were, but the result was a pedestrian and overstuffed movie.  The fact that the lead was taken by a fairly uncharismatic actor called Jean Angelo did not help, and even having a famous silent beauty, Lil Dagover, as the female lead was of little avail.  Still, because it joins my list of obscurities on disc, this 2006 restoration could become yet another movie that I probably will not look at again -- but it's there should I wish to.