The long game… Monte Cristo (1929) with Costas Fotopoulos, BFI

“It’s a wonderful film, lavish… In the sense of popular cinema, it’s very impressive. The film is sumptuous. The acting is terrific. What else can I say? It’s a good movie. Go see it.” Lenny Borger

As the sun cracked the brutalist flags on the Southbank, we were inside, in the dark and immersed in a gloriously-ambitious silent adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ (and Jacques Peuchet’s) story: real locations… almost in real time (218 minutes…). It isn’t always this sunny in London but how often do you get the chance to see a live screening of Henri Fescourt’s spectacular? This was a UK premier of Lenny Borger’s labour of love restoration and consequentially unmissable if you are the strong and (stable) silent type…

Borger worked on the initial restoration for over six years and constructed a near-complete version which debuted at the 2015 San Francisco International Film Festival. For those of us missing this year’s SF spectacle we had something and, of course, London was hotter than the Californian coast.

There’s a fascinating interview with Borger on the SF Gate website in which he explains how he didn’t chose Monte Cristo it chose him after he watched a fragment in a Czech archive – the ends of the distribution chain - and became struck with its opulence and ambition. Now, I can well understand the spell cast by those moments, Bonaparte has Brownlow and the Comte de Monte Cristo has Borger.

Fescourt’s Monte Cristo does indeed have everything as you would expect from the director of the monolithic Les misérables? (1925) (screened last month at the Barbican) he is able to hold these vast stories and translate their key components on screen capturing plot, key sub-plots, mood and character. If, as Hitchcock said, you only need a short story to make a film, condensing massive novels into even four or six hours is some task.

A night at the opera

Fescourt does this through tight scripting, stripping out characters and sub-plots and editorial control but also by cinematic verve; using those sensational locales… and, in the second half especially some judicious on set experimentation.

There’s a sequence in the Paris Opera as high society watches ballet whilst awaiting the arrival of the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo which is chock-full of inventive lensmanship: we’re on stage with the ballerinas, sweeping from box to box as the audience looks on and sweeping through the stalls as they take in the masterful entrance of the new Comte in town. It’s planned to impress as our hero finally re-appears to begin his process of revenge: a signal that we’re entering a more action-oriented conclusion.

Pierre Batcheff takes a trip

This moment is preceded by some dreamy experimentation as the son of the man who wronged our hero, is drugged on a boat trip and wakes up in the Comte’s sumptuous but almost impressionistic palace: it takes a while for the double exposure to fade and it conveys the changed tone and confusion in the young man’s mind. It’s like a superhero movie, a dream of revenge and empowerment, not at all unlike the arrival of Steve Trevor on Themyscira as he finds the Amazons in Wonder Woman (ahem... seriously, a decent movie!).

But I’m getting way off beam. The first two hours of set up feature more conventional story-telling and purposefully so; there’s a lot to fit in and Fescourt lets his scenery do the talking as the ill-starred hero, Edmond Dantès (Jean Angelo) emerges on the good ship Pharaoh arriving in port as stand-in skipper after the ship’s captain had died. He is confirmed as Captain by the shipping company, run by Monsieur Morrel (Ernest Maupain) but this arouses the jealousy of sozzled shipmate, Caderousse (Henri Debain).

Your jealousy is killing me...

For a nice guy, Edmond makes enemies easily and as we see him greet his lover Mercédès (Lil Dagover), we also see her cousin Fernand Mondego (Gaston Modot) pull a face: he wants the one he can’t have and it’s driving him mad… Overhearing Caderousse’s drunken whinging later on Fernand decides to stir up trouble for Edmond over a stop over the ship make on the Isle of Elba. This was during the period of Napoleon’s exile and being on the wrong side of the argument could be fatal.

Of course, Edmond was merely following the orders of the late captain but, when he seeks help from the deputy crown prosecutor in Marseille, Monsieur de Villefort (Jean Toulout), he, realising that the trip would implicate his own father, destroys the evidence and fits Edmond up to take the fall.

de Villefort (Barrymore-look-a-like, Jean Toulout) betrays Edmond

Imprisoned for life, without trial, on the Château on the Isle d’If in the Mediterranean, things look bleak for Edmond. After six years he meets another inmate, L'abbé Faria (German actor Bernhard Goetzke) who had dug an escape tunnel that sadly only led to his cell. Faria is a wise old lag and tutors Edmond over the next eight years, telling him all he knows of science and the arts.

As Faria’s health begins to fade he tells his pal the location of a mound of treasure, hidden on eth Isle of Monte Cristo… Edmonds not sure if it’s true of not but, when fate allows him the chance to escape, he sets off to find out for sure (you’d kick yourself wouldn’t you…?).

I tell ye boy, thar be buried treasure!

Thus, we get to the action-packed second half as the newly-enriched and ennobled Comte de Monte Cristo sets about exacting his revenge on the three men who done him wrong. So much time has passed that there is now a second generation involved: Albert de Morcerf (pretty-boy Pierre Batcheff of The Chess Player), the son of Mercédès and Mondego who is now a bit of a count himself, the Comte de Morcerf, Valentine (striking Marie Glory of L’Argent fame…) daughter of a very over-promoted de Villefort and Benedetto (a completely wicked Robert Mérin) who is presumed son of Caderousse.

Next generation: Pierre Batcheff and Michèle Verly

François Rozet and Mary Glory

All play their part as the present, no matter how complicated by new loves, gets caught up with by the past! But first Edmond adopts a series of disguises to learn more and begin to entrap his prey, starting with Caderousse and his darkly-disfunctional family.

Diane Farèze, Robert Mérin & Henri Debain

Far harder will be his old rival in love who has made himslef rich through playing sides in the Turkish war - more betrayal - an the almost untouchable de Villefort who claims to believe in Justice... well, needless to say all betrayals lead to retribution and Justice only ever serves its own end. All is played out in the most satisfactory of ways... but good must wait a long time to triumph over evil.

Locked away in an impenetrable dungeon on an island with no chance of escape; betrayed completely by enemies and robbed of his true love… is it any wonder that this story continues to hold a fascination for each generation? Sometimes hope is all you have left and once in a while, it is enough to see you through.

Costas Fotopoulos was on the marathon accompaniment and never broke pace for a moment with a classical energy that matched the story’s period of origin as well as its temperament. I particularly liked some of the romantic flourishes towards the film’s conclusion and the grandeur of the playing as Edmond headed for his cruel incarceration in the Chateau d’If.

I really hope this gets the digital release it deserves along with the director’s Les Miserables: two films that show just the strength-in-depth of French silent cinema!

Before the Falls… Sherlock Holmes (1916) Neil Brand Ensemble, BFI London Film Festival

Watson and Holmes: a very civil partnership

It was interesting to see the names of Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat – current creators of the modern-day Sherlock, on the list of thank-yous from the restoration team for one of the very first screen representations of the original.  This version was arguably as much a re-working of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories as their modern version as it drew content from three stories A Scandal in Bohemia, The Final Problem and A Study in Scarlet whilst adding something of its own.

It was based on the hugely-successful 1899 play written by and starring William Gillette which, as Bryony Dixon pointed out in her introduction, not only had a long run in the USA but also ran for some five years just over the water in London's Lyceum Theatre where once it counted a young Charles Chaplin in the cast.

Great mind at work

Gillette was 62 when the film was made but he still carries of the part of the Master Detective with a rare charisma and intelligence even if he is a little too old to be a romantic interest for Marjorie Kay (17 at the time) as Alice Faulkner (a sort of goody-two-shoes version of Irene Adler).

Gillette is credited with introducing some of the standard visual elements of Sherlock, over his 1,300 stage performances and this recently-recovered film is no doubt all the more precious for preserving such an iconic performance for this enduring and malleable character: we all like to believe in detectives with super-intelligent.

Gillette and Kay

Here he seems to drift into scrapes almost as if he wants to prove he can get out of them – not unlike The Doctor as Mr Moffat would confirm… But he’s always thoroughly prepared whether in wearing a bullet-proof vest made of metal, planting spies in the enemy camp or using his junior butler Billy (here played by Burford Hampden but once by Charlie…)  as the last line of defence.

The film was originally presented as a series and the version uncovered and restored (full details are here) is from a French print which broke this down further into four parts with nine sections. This adds to the slightly disjointed feel of the narrative but it’s Sherlock Holmes; then, as now, it doesn’t all have to add up!

Alice defends her sister's honour in front of the Prince's men

It is very well directed by Arthur Berthelet who does well to lift the narrative away from its stage origins. There is some location shooting in London-looking streets and some interesting camerawork including medium range shots that fade into close-ups at crucial moments and out again.

Berthelet closes in on the action with a repeated disolve...

The story is convoluted and bitty – as you’d also expect from a serial... as you'd expect from Holmes  – and  is really only there to provide opportunities for the Great Detective to show how great he is.

Briefly… Alice Faulkner’s late sister had an affair with a prince and had kept some rather incriminating correspondence which his relatives are very keen to recover. Baron von Stalburg (Ludwig Kreiss), the prince's assistant, and Sir Edward Leighton (Hugh Thompson), a high British official, are trying to negotiate their return before the author’s impending marriage but Alice is refusing to budge.

Sherlock confronts Madge and James

Unfortunately for her, a good-for-nothing family called the Larrabees hear of her situation and try to take advantage… Led by James Larrabee (Mario Majeroni) and Madge Larrabee (Grace Reals) they’re a nasty lot - a little too histrionic for their own good - but, fortunately not too clever.

Holmes,who has been enlisted by the Prince to retrieve the letters, easily outwits by the Larrabees aided secretly by his agent Benjamin Forman (Stewart Robbins) posing as their manservant:  how very cunning Holmes! They decide to call for help from master criminal Professor Moriarty (Ernest Maupain) – who’s hatred for Holmes they hope will guarantee his support.

Guess who?

Yet even with  Holme’s arch enemy now involved can these criminal minds combined win over Holmes' powers of deductive pipe-smoking, intuitive reasoning and, indeed, disguise!

We don’t see too much of Doctor Watson (Edward Fielding) until later in the series when Holmes is sharing his house after an unexplained fire at his own apartments… but the template has recognizably been set.

Subtle gesturing from Mr Gillette - perfect for the big screen

Gillette is as razor-sharp as his name suggests and is a magnetic presence on-screen a natural who underplays so well you'd think he'd been in front of the camera for years whereas this was his only film. He blasts most of cast off screen with a performance of well-honed wit: the calculated confidence born of a thousand or more previous performances.

This was the first screening in Britain since the recovery and for longer than a lifetime: a special occasion that did not disappoint.

The Larrabbees are no match for Brand, Buchwald and Davenport!

A large part of this was due to the joyful accompaniment provided by Neil Brand (piano), Günter Buchwald (violin) and Jeff Davenport (percussion and sound effects). They playing a semi-improvised score based on Neil Brand's melodies as originally commissioned for La Cinémathèque Française. Every bell-ring and thump was precisely on target and the music was as elegantly period-appropriate as Mr Holmes' smoking jacket and as invigoratingly well constructed as his ultimate trap for Professor Moriarty!

There is soon to be a Flicker Alley DVD/BluRay release which - I think? - includes the boys' music as well - one for the Christmas list! Available from Amazon or from Flicker Alley which also has a downloadable press kit explaining more about everything!

Because the Cat just refused to be trained...

Before the main film we were treated to A Canine Sherlock Holmes (1912) a terrific little romp involving a smarter than average dog who does most of his master detective's leg work. Still very funny and an indication of how well-established the Holmes template was by this stage.

A Holmes for all times

Marjorie Kay performs well and went on to work as a nurse in the Great War and from there into stage work and opera. There's are some interesting biographical snippets on the I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere site as uncovered by Chris Redmond.

Young Miss Kay considers her next move