Son of Monte Cristo

Rowland V. Lee's The Son of Monte Cristo may be the handsomest American movie ever to have fallen out of copyright. As a public domain title, it's been around and available, but the virtues of its opulent production have been difficult to appreciate, mostly because the standard release prints have been so worn and faded. This Alpha Video DVD is, thus, extremely welcome; except for what looks like a momentary digital authoring error at four and a half minutes in, this is a well-made disc from a high-quality source. The transfer is amazingly consistent visually; the producers may have pumped a little too much light through the print at times, but it has enough detail and depth of contrast to carry the load without hurting the eye or distracting viewers. Indeed, this may be the best-looking title in the entire Alpha library, and would be a bargain at double the price -- it's difficult to believe that the film would look too much better coming from the hands of its proper owner. The sound has a small drop in volume at 18 minutes in that lasts for a minute, but otherwise is a decent match for the image. Only a few shots, such as the depiction of the chase through the sewers and some of the close-ups at the end, are significantly less than ideal, but even these are passable for those few seconds, and easy to forgive. The Alpha disc is programmed with six chapters, which isn't really sufficient in a movie with a plot as episodic as this one, but that's par for the course with this company. The disc opens automatically to a two-selection menu.