The treasure of the Count of Monte-Cristo

Content

This film humorously explains what the Count of Monte-Cristo's real treasure was all about: a Lambretta scooter, the Innocenti.

Beautiful sets and atmospherically depicted

Even without commentary, the film is easy to follow. Unfortunately, it was common in this period to narrate whatever you see. Even beforehand, moreover, a title card was made to introduce the story. Those who want to know what the Italian narrator adds to the picture can activate subtitles (ENG, NL or IT) via YouTube.

Trivia

Geesink came up with a nice little story at this time and looked for a sponsor to go with it. After all, what treasure the Count takes out of the box can be exchanged for any other advertiser. Now it's a scooter. A detail not seen in the film was once told as an anecdote by Joop Geesink. He visited a potential client and delivered the story of the Count of Monte Cristo with great verve. When he had told his plot, it turned out that the client had never heard of this classic story. History does not tell whether it ended up being this client.

Death

Joop Geesink's films are, by design, always well behaved and often funny. Yet sometimes someone dies in them too. That happens in this film. The audience just accepted that.

Publicity

In terms of publicity, Dollywood was progressive at this time. With regularity, the studio hosted journalists who received a (programmed) tour.  In 1953, a reporter reports on his visit and enthusiastically describes his findings after seeing several advertising films. In the attachement, he describes ‘Monte Cristo’, an advertisement for Goebel beer and the only 3D puppet film the studio made: Star of the Screen.