THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

Readers and writers always face the inevetable question - "What's your favorite book?" Easy answer; THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas. Among all the books I've ever read, and there have been quite a number of them, Monte Cristo has been my favorite for as long as I can remember.

Yes, cold calculated revenge against those who have wronged you, and with unlimited resources to accomplish that revenge always makes for a good story.

The book being my favorite begs the question, naturally - "What's your favorite film version?" Again, easy answer. My favorite film version is the Richard Chamberlain/Tony Curtis/Trevor Howard/Donald Pleasance/Louis Jourdan/Kate Nelligan television film version released in 1975. Of course, alot of the original storyline was edited out, still, it was faithful to the story as it existed.

I saw the much more recent Jim Caviezel version. I liked it, thought it was well done, but the Chamberlain version remains my favorite.

I have to admit that I've never seen the six hour long Gerard Depardieu version. The DVD is certainly on my "to get" list.