The Count of Monte-Cristo (1975 TV Movie)

Richard Chamberlain: Edmond Dantes

Photos 

Quotes 

• Edmond Dantes : [Last Lines]  Mercedes! Where are you traveling?

  Mercedes : To Africa... to find my son and be near him. He's joined the Army.

  Edmond Dantes : Albert a soldier?

  Mercedes : He wants to expiate his father's sins.

  Edmond Dantes : Let me join you on your voyage. I can be of help to you both.

  Mercedes : My son would never permit that.

  Edmond Dantes : Once you said he should have been our son.

  Mercedes : Should have been, yes. But he has a father and he has his father's name... a name you so thoroughly destroyed.

  Edmond Dantes : That was simple justice, madam, and believe me it brought me no joy. But now my task's accomplished. I've no particular place in the world, no strong desire in life... but to make amends where I've hurt the innocent.

  Mercedes : Avenging angels may not ask forgiveness of their victims.

  Edmond Dantes : I am no longer the instrument of God! I've been plunged back into nothingness! I'm searching something lost... my soul, my self... for Edmond Dantes.

  Mercedes : You will never find him. He died a long time ago in the Chateau d'If... and much of me is buried with him. But I celebrate the Count of Monte Cristo's return to the world of men, and I wish for him from the depths of my heart that will find the peace for which he yearns.

  Edmond Dantes : But never... never will he find that perfect love which two young people lost... irretrieveably lost so many, many years ago. Bon voyage... Countess Mondego.

  Mercedes : Goodbye, Count.

• Fernand Mondego : [Dantes has confronted Mondego at Mondego's trial after Haydee has testified against him]  What is your connection with this woman?

  Edmond Dantes : Ask first what is my connection with one named... Edmond Dantes.

  Fernand Mondego : Edmond! So... the light begins to break! Our sailor boy back from the isle of the dead, eh? Insisting on his revenge and getting it! I begin to see, yes! Caderousse dead. Danglars dead. Villefort confined to an asylum. Is it my turn, Edmond?

  Edmond Dantes : It is.

• Edmond Dantes : [to Mondego after defeating him in a duel]  Don't say your prayers. You won't escape prison by the simple trick of dying. You'll serve your sentence in this world before you go to Hell.

• Edmond Dantes : [to the paralyzed Noirtier]  You must excuse me, sir, if I seem to stare. It doesn't often happen that a man may gaze upon the one great nemesis of his life.

• Mercedes : [she has found Monte Cristo practicing shooting]  You would not kill my son!

  Edmond Dantes : [turning to face her]  He challenged me, madam.

  Mercedes : And what would you expet from a proud son? The general is his father!

  Edmond Dantes : I had a father once.

  Mercedes : Then you know how the boy feels. You can understand how zealous he is after the general's good name!

  Edmond Dantes : What general? My business is with a lieutenant I used to know.

  Mercedes : What business?

  Edmond Dantes : Revenge, madam.

  Mercedes : [pause, then]  For what? For marrying the girl you loved? He does not deserve your vengeance. It was I! I was weak, I could bear my loneliness no longer. I married him because they told me you died in the Chateau d'If shortly after your arrest.

  Edmond Dantes : But what was I in the Chateau d'If? Why was I arrested?

  Mercedes : I do not know!

• Fernand Mondego : You've done it exceedingly well, the way you expose us one by one and then you

  [draws his aide's sword] 

  Fernand Mondego : strike! You ruin a man with exquisite finesse, but before you kick THIS dog to death beware!

  [he throws the sword to Monte Cristo] 

  Edmond Dantes : [catches the sword]  He barks.

  Fernand Mondego : [drawing his own sword]  Bites! For having ruined me, you now give me cause for revenge! I claim the right to send the dead back to the dead! Can you defend yourself, Edmond, or do you stab only in the dark?

• Valentine De Villefort : [she has just been introduced to Monte Cristo]  Monte Cristo! Oh, sir! I shall be the envy of every girl in Paris! What they're saying is true; you ARE handsome! Are you as rich as they're saying, monsieur?

  Edmond Dantes : [smiling]  Rich in experience, mademoiselle, rich in years and growing richer by the moment in my appreciation of the loveliness of Paris.

• Abbe Faria : Edmond, you must finish the tunnel and escape. Find the treasure.

  Edmond Dantes : Treasure?

  [Abbe takes out a map hidden in his cross] 

  Edmond Dantes : A map?

  Abbe Faria : The island of Monte Cristo. This is the lost map of Cesare's father, with whose death in 1498 vanished one of the great treasures of the world. This fortune has been buried on Monte Cristo for three and a half centuries. Oh, Edmond, I wanted us to find this treasure together. Now it is for you to find alone. Do great, charitable deeds with it. Spend this fortune which God has been hoarding for you in good and holy ways. Edmond, you must escape and find the treasure. My profession forbade me to marry, so you are my son, the child of my captivity. Make thy works of goodness a memorial to me.

• [at Danglar's office; Edmond handles a statue of a head] 

  Edmond Dantes : I am impressed by this head of Imhotep.

  Danglars : Imhotep? Yes, sure...

  [gives Edmond a smaller statue] 

  Danglars : How about this one, mister?

  Edmond Dantes : Very ingenious fake.

• [Edmond has found the treasure] 

  Edmond Dantes : Jacobo! Bertuccio! The world is mine!

• Edmond Dantes : [plans for revenge]  I shall move like the Sword of the Lord with a terrible swiftness.

• Edmond Dantes : Ask me to forgive a man for stealing my love... a lover's deception; very well, since you ask it I forgive him that. Ask me to forgive him for stealing fourteen years of my life; very well, forgiven. But forgive him for destroying my father? Never, madam! Never!

  Mercedes : [pause, then]  In my dreams, I have seen you dead... thrown to the bottom of one of those pits where jailers throw their dead prisoners... and I wake from this incessant dream with a cry, shuddering and cold.

  Edmond Dantes : Have you ever dreamed your father dead of hunger? Have you ever dreamed of the one you loved giving her hand to a rival while you perish at the bottom of a pit?

  Mercedes : Worse! I have seen him I loved on the point of murdering my son!

• Edmond Dantes : [after the duel with Albert Mondego]  Providence again! I AM the emissary of God! I have been spared to carry out his will!

• Valentine De Villefort : [speaking of her paralyzed grandfather Noirtier]  My grandfather is a prisoner of his body, monsieur, but his will is like his mind... unconquerable.

  Edmond Dantes : He possesses what few men can boast of... the devotion of one loving heart.

  Valentine De Villefort : [staring at Monte Cristo]  That's a lonely statement, monsieur.

• Edmond Dantes : If a man tortures or murders your brother or your son - or your father - kills one of those beings who leave an eternal emptiness and a bleeding wound when they're torn from your heart, do you really think society has given you sufficient reparation because the blade of the guillotine has passed between the murderer's trapezius and his occipital bone? Because the man who cause you *immeasurable* suffering has endured a few seconds of physical pain?

  De Villefort : My dear Count, are you suggesting the medieval way - torture?

  Edmond Dantes : I am suggesting the holy remedy: an eye for an eye.

• Valentine De Villefort : Monsieur, are you busy?

  Edmond Dantes : Am I...

  Valentine De Villefort : Do me the greatest of favors. Will you come to meet my grandfather?

  De Villefort : Valentine, will you stop this nonsense?

  Valentine De Villefort : You would brighten his life tremendously. Come on.

  Edmond Dantes : [getting dragged out]  Mademoiselle honors me.

• Edmond Dantes : Is this your semaphore station?

  Semaphore Station Worker : Mine? I work it. I've done for many years, but I never have any visitors.

  Edmond Dantes : How does it work?

  Semaphore Station Worker : There is another one on the far horizon. That's my right hand correspondent. And there is my left hand. When I receive a message...

  [pantomiming with his arms] 

  Semaphore Station Worker : ...from right, I transmit it to left. Thus, our messages from Spain transmitted all the way to Paris in a matter of hours.

  Edmond Dantes : A modern miracle.

  [offering him money and a piece of paper] 

  Edmond Dantes : 3,000 francs. Five years' pay if you relay this message to Paris.

  Semaphore Station Worker : [reading it]  But this is... not official.

  [Edmond offers him the money again] 

  Semaphore Station Worker : You insult me, sir.

  [taking it] 

  Semaphore Station Worker : It is an insult...

• Edmond Dantes : I want two matters to occur. First, the newspaper, Le Journal de Globe. I'm told it's for sale. I rather fancy owning a newspaper. Please arrange for its purchase.

  Danglars : Very good. I approve. Every man of affairs should own a newspaper.

  Edmond Dantes : Second, I wish to buy some Spanish government bonds.

  Danglars : In what amount of purchase, sir?

  Edmond Dantes : One million.

  Danglars : I-In Spanish bonds?

  Edmond Dantes : Can the purchase be effected immediately?

  Danglars : Immediately, sir.

  Edmond Dantes : And confidentially.

  Danglars : With the utmost discretion.

  Edmond Dantes : It would not be wise for anyone to follow my lead in the market. I'm a gambler, not an investor.

• Edmond Dantes : We've had a devil of a time finding you.

  Andrea Benedetto : People usually do.

  Edmond Dantes : Six years ago, you were sentenced to the galleys. The charge was smuggling. Escaped from the galleys. Caught. Sentenced to life in the galleys. You escaped again.

  Andrea Benedetto : Read on. I find myself fascinating.

  Edmond Dantes : You've been a thief, smuggler, embezzler, possibly an assassin, during the course of which you've learned to speak fluent Italian.

  Andrea Benedetto : Perfecto, signor.

  Edmond Dantes : From now on, you are Andrea, the Count of Cavalcanti.

  Andrea Benedetto : Am I?

  Edmond Dantes : You are the son of Major Bartolomeo de Cavalcanti. A descendant of the Cavalcanti whose names are inscribed in the golden book of Florence. You are very rich.

  Andrea Benedetto : Good. I spend a lot of money, of course.

  Edmond Dantes : Of course. You will take apartments which I have selected for you on the Faubourg. You will have three servants. You will purchase a carriage. Go to Batiste for it. The horse is from Evreux. You will pay court to a beautiful young girl. I wish you to do it expensively. For the next few weeks, when you are not with her, you will be seen everywhere with me.

  Andrea Benedetto : Ah, the count accompanies the count.

  Edmond Dantes : Precisely. Now, what is your name?

• Edmond Dantes : [finding the Spada treasure]  Oh, Abbe Faria... dear priest, dear saint. I promise you, by the God I had for so long forsaken, I promise you we will build your hospitals and house your orphans. I promise you there will be a flood of good things in a hundred abandoned corners of the Earth, and all in your name. And I promise you, Edmond Dantès, imprisoned in the prime of life, banished from the world for 14 years, I promise you, Edmond Dantès, you shall have your revenge.

• Edmond Dantes : Last rites, sir?

  Andrea Benedetto : I have not been tried yet. Priest, go away.

  Edmond Dantes : Andrea de Cavalcanti?

  Andrea Benedetto : Go away.

  Edmond Dantes : [revealing himself]  Faustino.

  Andrea Benedetto : You. My blessed protector. Will you protect me from the guillotine, huh?

  Edmond Dantes : You will not be convicted if you do as I say.

  [giving him a folder] 

  Edmond Dantes : Memorize the first page entirely. Familiarize yourself with all the other documents. I will be in the courtroom. Keep your eyes on me.

• Caderousse : What is it you want of me?

  Edmond Dantes : A little of your time, for which you'll be paid.

  Caderousse : I am your servant, sir.

  Edmond Dantes : Your name is Caderousse.

  Caderousse : It is my real name. How did you know?

  Edmond Dantes : You've spent seven years of your life in his majesty's galleys. You made one attempt to escape.

  Caderousse : Yes. And if it were not for...

  Edmond Dantes : Your companion in escape. He played you false.

  Caderousse : Faustino. My life is dedicated to one purpose. Find him and kill him.

  Edmond Dantes : Revenge is a sweet thing to live for. Or die for. Sir, I have other pressing business which should take only a moment. Would it inconvenience you to wait outside?

  Caderousse : I am your servant, sir.

• Albert Mondego : Surely you've heard of my father, the Count of Mondego.

  Edmond Dantes : Who has not heard of the great General Fernand Mondego? A man I've always wanted to meet.

• Abbe Faria : Edmond, for today's lesson in philosophical logic, let's apply our brains to some deductive thinking in the case of Edmond Dantès. First, to whom could your imprisonment, your disappearance, have been of some benefit? Consider, you were about to be appointed captain of the Argus. To whom would that position go should you suddenly vanish?

  Edmond Dantes : Danglars.

  Abbe Faria : Item: who would Mercedes turn to were Edmond Dantès suddenly to vanish?

  Edmond Dantes : Mondego.

  Abbe Faria : Item: one night you saw Danglars and Mondego in a cafè writing with...

  Edmond Dantes : Caderousse.

  Abbe Faria : Could they have been writing the letter that accused you, these three?

• Abbe Faria : The entire Spada fortune is buried on Monte Cristo. It's been there for three and a half centuries. Oh, Edmond, I wanted us to find this treasure together. Now it is for you to find alone. Do great, charitable deeds with it. Spend this fortune which God has been hoarding for you in good and holy ways.

  Edmond Dantes : [thinking as he works]  Was I only humoring the fancies of a beloved madman? By coming to the island of Monte Cristo, was I simply laying the spirit of the abbe to eternal rest, or was there a hope in my heart of hearts that his map would truly be the end of the rainbow?

• Abbe Faria : [thinking]  Sometimes I regret that I helped him discover the truth. I see too much in his face that was never there before.

  Edmond Dantes : [thinking as he digs]  Danglars. Mondego.

  Abbe Faria : Vengeance belongs to the Lord, Edmond. Turn away from such unholy thoughts before they destroy you.

• Abbe Faria : Here, I have something to show you. My nook.

  [taking various items out] 

  Abbe Faria : My needle. Made from a fish bone. Like my chisel, made from one of the iron clamps on my bedstead. Like my pincers. And my knife. And my lamp.

  Edmond Dantes : A lamp needs oil.

  Abbe Faria : Which I make from the suet of the meat they give us on holidays.

  Edmond Dantes : How do you light your lamp?

  Abbe Faria : Oh, I claim to have a skin disease. I sometimes ask for sulfur to relieve the pain, from which I replenish my match.

• Edmond Dantes : What are Italians doing in these waters?

  Jacopo : I think you have already guessed.

  Edmond Dantes : How's the smuggling these days? Good?

  Jacopo : Terrible. We need a navigator. A navigator who knows his way in these jungle waters.

• Albert Mondego : Monsieur le Count, may I present my mother, the Countess of Mondego.

  Mercedes : Oh, monsieur, my son is still a child who plays childish games. He tells me we have a visitor, and he refuses to give me his name. He says I shall be delightfully surprised.

  [Edmond is taken aback seeing her] 

  Mercedes : We have not met before, have we monsieur? Who have I the honor of addressing, monsieur?

  Edmond Dantes : Your servant, madame, the Count of Monte Cristo.

• Edmond Dantes : Albert. What a pleasant surprise, Albert.

  Albert Mondego : I'm not here to express hypocritical expressions of politeness, but to demand an explanation.

  Edmond Dantes : For what, my dear boy?

  Albert Mondego : All Paris buzzes with the story in the paper this morning. The one casting terrible aspersions on my father. On his integrity. On his military accomplishments. On his honor!

  Edmond Dantes : Yes.

  Albert Mondego : It is in "Le Journal de Globe". The newspaper you so recently purchased!

  Edmond Dantes : You are in my home, Albert. I alone have the right to raise my voice here.

  Albert Mondego : You're responsible for that story. Do you deny it?

  Edmond Dantes : No.

  [Albert struggles to remove his glove, then moves to throw it] 

  Edmond Dantes : I consider the glove thrown, Albert.

  Albert Mondego : Tomorrow morning, sir. The Field of Mars. Dawn.

  Edmond Dantes : The Field of Mars.

• Abbe Faria : Noirtier... Noirtier. I knew a person with that name at the court of the Queen of Etruria. An ardent disciple of Napoleon. Edmond, what was your prosecutor called?

  Edmond Dantes : De Villefort.

  Abbe Faria : De...! Ha!

  Edmond Dantes : [listening to him laugh]  What have I said?

  Abbe Faria : You have unlocked the whole mystery. My friend at the court of Etruria, the most ardent Bonapartist I have ever known, his name was Noirtier de Villefort.

  Edmond Dantes : His brother?

  Abbe Faria : No, my age.

  Edmond Dantes : His father.

  Abbe Faria : I presume so.

  Edmond Dantes : His own father, a Bonapartist?

  Abbe Faria : So, he destroys your letter.

  Edmond Dantes : And me.

  Abbe Faria : And you.

• Abbe Faria : All this for a tunnel for my hope and starvation. Now my dead hope. Five years spent on a tunnel that leads not to freedom, but to another man's cell.

  Edmond Dantes : Abbe Faria, listen. Your tunnel runs in the same direction as the outer gallery.

  Abbe Faria : Yes.

  Edmond Dantes : The seawall is here. I can just glimpse it from my window.

  Abbe Faria : What of it?

  Edmond Dantes : Half your tunnel runs in the right direction. From the center point, we turn. You call it 50 degrees, I say two points more north by northeast. And dig to the seawall about... a hundred meters.

  Abbe Faria : Half my tunnel runs in... in the right direction?

  Edmond Dantes : How long will it take?

  Abbe Faria : Two of us? Four years.