Another Sunday closer to Halloween and another literary "ASOTV" showcase
with a different take on true horror.......
MONTRESOR & FORTUNATO
AS SEEN IN:
'American Masters' - "Edgar Allen Poe"
["The Cask Of Amontillado"]
CREATED BY:
Edgar Allen Poe
TV STATUS:
Recastaway
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
O'BSERVATION:
There were two previous adaptations of the tale, but from Finland and then
from Poland. Because of accessibility and the predisposition of Toobworld
Central towards English language productions, this is considered the portrayal
for the main Toobworld even though it came along after those two versions.
From Wikipedia:
"The Cask of Amontillado" (sometimes spelled "The Casque of Amontillado")
is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the November 1846 issue
of "Godey's Lady's Book".
The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an
unspecified year (possibly in the 18th century) and is about the narrator's
deadly revenge on a friend whom he believes has insulted him. Like several of
Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the
subject, the narrative revolves around a person being buried alive—in this case,
by immurement.
As in "The Black Cat" ,and "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe conveys
the story through the murderer's perspective.
Montresor tells the story of
the day that he took his revenge on Fortunato, a fellow nobleman, to an
unspecified person who knows him very well. Angry over some unspecified insult,
he plots to murder his friend during Carnival when the man is drunk, dizzy, and
wearing a jester's motley.
He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained
what he believes to be a pipe (about 130 gallons, 492 litres) of a rare vintage
of Amontillado. He claims he wants his friend's expert opinion on the subject.
Fortunato goes with Montresor to the wine cellars of the latter's palazzo, where
they wander in the catacombs. Montresor offers wine (first Medoc, then De Grave)
to Fortunato. At one point, Fortunato makes an elaborate, grotesque gesture with
an upraised wine bottle. When Montresor appears not to recognize the gesture,
Fortunato asks, "You are not of the masons?" Montresor says he is, and when
Fortunato, disbelieving, requests a sign, Montresor displays a trowel he had
been hiding.
Montresor warns Fortunato, who has a bad cough, of the damp, and
suggests they go back; Fortunato insists on continuing, claiming that "[he]
shall not die of a cough." During their walk, Montresor mentions his family coat
of arms: a foot in a blue background crushing a snake whose fangs are embedded
in the foot's heel, with the motto "Nemo me impune lacessit" ("No one insults me
with impunity").
When they come to a niche, Montresor tells his victim that the
Amontillado is within. Fortunato enters and, drunk and unsuspecting, does not
resist as Montresor quickly chains him to the wall. Montresor then declares
that, since Fortunato won't go back, he must "positively leave
[him]".
Montresor walls up the niche, entombing his friend alive. At first,
Fortunato, who sobers up faster than Montresor anticipated he would, shakes the
chains, trying to escape. Fortunato then screams for help, but Montresor mocks
his cries, knowing nobody can hear them. Fortunato laughs weakly and tries to
pretend that he is the subject of a joke and that people will be waiting for him
(including the Lady Fortunato).
As the murderer finishes the topmost row of
stones, Fortunato wails, "For the love of God, Montresor!" Montresor replies,
"Yes, for the love of God!"
He listens for a reply but hears only the jester's
bells ringing. Before placing the last stone, he drops a burning torch through
the gap. He claims that he feels sick at heart, but dismisses this reaction as
an effect of the dampness of the catacombs.
In the last few sentences,
Montresor reveals that in the 50 years since that night, he has never been
caught, and Fortunato's body still hangs from its chains in the niche where he
left it. The murderer concludes: Requiescat In Pace! ("May he rest in
peace!").
PORTRAYED BY:
MONTRESOR
[John Heard]
Although the subject matter of Poe's story is a murder, "The Cask of
Amontillado" is not a tale of detection like "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" or
"The Purloined Letter"; there is no investigation of Montresor's crime and the
criminal himself explains how he committed the murder. The mystery in "The Cask
of Amontillado" is in Montresor's motive for murder. Without a detective in the
story, it is up to the reader to solve the mystery.
Montresor never specifies
his motive beyond the vague "thousand injuries" to which he refers. Many
commentators conclude that, lacking significant reason, Montresor must be
insane, though even this is questionable because of the intricate details of the
plot.
FORTUNATO
[Rene Auberjonois]
Though Fortunato is presented as a connoisseur of
fine wine, Cecil L. Moffitt of Texas Christian University argues that his
actions in the story make that assumption questionable. For example, Fortunato
comments on another nobleman being unable to distinguish Amontillado from Sherry
when Amontillado is in fact a type of Sherry, and treats De Grave, an expensive
French wine, with very little regard by drinking it in a single gulp. Moffitt
also states that a true wine connoisseur would never sample wine while
intoxicated and describes Fortunato as merely an alcoholic. Moffitt also
suggests that some people might feel Fortunato deserved to be buried alive for
wasting a bottle of fine wine.
BCnU!
