The Return of Monte Cristo (Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo)

Swashbuckling tradition meets the present day here: André Hunebelle's French-Italian adventure film takes the central idea of Alexandre Dumas's novel The Count of Monte Cristo and, very freely, moves it into a contemporary setting. Shot in French in 1968 and running about 88 minutes, it is known as The Return of Monte Cristo, in French Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo (“Under the Sign of Monte Cristo”).

The story unfolds not in Dumas's nineteenth-century world but in the modern surroundings of the period in which the film was made. The notion of a wronged man who returns under a new identity to settle accounts becomes a tale of intrigue and adventure. Paul Barge, Claude Jade, Anny Duperey, Raymond Pellegrin and Pierre Brasseur play the main roles, with Michel Auclair, Gabriel Gascon, Pierre Collet, Albert Michel, Bernard Musson, César Torrès, Dominique Zardi, Guy Delorme and Jacques Seiler also in the cast.

The screenplay is credited to Michel Lebrun, Jean Halain and Hunebelle. The film was shown in Germany as Der Rächer aus dem Sarg (“The Avenger from the Coffin”), in Russia as Vozvrashcheniye Monte-Kristo and in Romania as Sub semnul lui Monte Cristo.