User Reviews

The novel by Jules Verne was part political ,part "count of Monte Cristo"(dedicated to Dumas,by the way);it was Hungary trying to escape from the Austrian empire's yoke.A long part of the novel was the hero's revenge (like Dumas' hero ).

The movie is a fiasco ,in spite of talented actors such as Louis Jourdan (who could have been ,even his age,a dashing hero ,but does not seem to give a damn about the part he plays);the political side is extremely vague and we do not know WHY the people are victims of oppression ;the countries are ,in the screenplay ,imaginary -their names are not known:actually it looks like internal political tensions. .Besides ,the governor (played by Bunelian actor Francisco Rabal:"Nazarin" and "Viridiana" ,two classics) is loyal,nice,good-looking,and to make the matters worse,in love with the hero's daughter;this vapid virgin is in a Cornelian situation,where love and duty conflict!But once again,with such a man ("I must obey orders"),what's the use of rebelling? Two brigands ,who give the movie a Robin Hood side ("I prefer stealing from the Rich") plus an infamous informer ("it's my duty,no more loyal than I" )and his henchman with two huge hounds ,in a desultory script .

Besides,Georges Lampin does not know how to direct an action scene and the crowds are left to their own devices .

NB:the novel had already been filmed in the silent age,in the early twenties.

"Mathias Sandorf" is one of Jules Verne's most obscure novels, practically forgotten today and totally alien to his normal adventure novels written with some scientific expertise, which is totally absent here. Instead it's a kind of pastiche on Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Christo", Jules Verne's favorite author, whom he venerated almost with some adoration, and much of the stuff in "Mathias Sandorf" gives the painful impression of almost being copied from the great Dumas novel. It is as if Jules Verne wanted to try something completely different from his ordinary line of interest and thus wrote an extensive political thriller (more than 500 pages), the main theme being the Hungarian oppression by the Austrians, while the film makes a completely different story of it all.

In the film we never learn anything about the circumstances, the nation is never defined, the geographical locations could be anywhere, and the one map in the film that could give a clue to some whereabouts is unidentifiable.

The novel includes some very spectacular scenes, especially one on the edge of Mount Etna in Sicily, I think even someone falls into it, and much of the action takes place in Trieste, but all that is missing here. The escape from the prison has been taken care of though with the same spectacular romantic surroundings and complications, only one prisoner surviving out of three, who vows to avenge the other two and ultimately succeeds. The most spectacular scene in the film is a Mozart concert complete with a crowded audience, (his 40th symphony), which is interrupted by a scandal and pubic uprising. Mathias Sandorf, who is a count, ultimately teams up with two scoundrels, two merry brigands, and that completes the very few laughs of the film.

The film is pompous making a big thing of political freedom, but it does not live up to its ambitions. The music is good, but there is no cinematography, and the acting is theatrical or conventional. In an effort to make something better of Jules Verne's off-beat novel they only managed to miss the point even more.