The Count of Monte-Cristo (1975 TV Movie)

Trevor Howard: Abbe Faria

Quotes 

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.