Although there are hints at the father's feats ( the best swordsman in his native
France ;his imprisonment and his escape -based on real life Picaud's story) , Alexandre Dumas never wrote the offspring's yarn so the screenwriter could claim his script quite legally.
This is a pleasant entertaining yarn , sometimes recalling "the prisoner of Zenda" ,although the hero looks like a cross between Zorro and shrewd French gentleman cambrioleur , Arsène Lupin ;the characters are stereotypes ;Louis Hayward is the dashing hero ,a great pretender ; Joan Bennett is a gorgeous grand duchess,but a naive politician : to help her against the vilain's ominous plans ,she calls another dictator ,Napoleon (Napoleon the Third ,that is) to the rescue ;Georges Sanders plays Georges Sanders ,the perfect suave baddie ,always with style .
Edmond Dantès would have been proud of his son !
This is a pleasant entertaining yarn , sometimes recalling "the prisoner of Zenda" ,although the hero looks like a cross between Zorro and shrewd French gentleman cambrioleur , Arsène Lupin ;the characters are stereotypes ;Louis Hayward is the dashing hero ,a great pretender ; Joan Bennett is a gorgeous grand duchess,but a naive politician : to help her against the vilain's ominous plans ,she calls another dictator ,Napoleon (Napoleon the Third ,that is) to the rescue ;Georges Sanders plays Georges Sanders ,the perfect suave baddie ,always with style .
Edmond Dantès would have been proud of his son !