The Three Musketeers & The Four Musketeers

Director: Richard Lester
Script: George MacDonald
Cast: Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Michael York, Frank Finlay, Christopher Lee, Roy Kinear, Simon Ward, Faye Dunaway, Jean Pierre Cassel, Michael Gothard, Charlton Heston
Running time: 107/108.5 minutes
Year: 1972/1974
Certificate: 12

Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers has been filmed numerous times over the years, but the version that many of us most remember is Richard Lester’s boisterous romp from the early seventies. In this case, the producers decided early on to turn one long film into two, hence the joint review here. Originally intended to be filmed in Hungary, production was swapped over for a longer shoot in Spain, during the summer, with temperatures regularly reaching the high forties (centigrade), much to the discomfort of the cast and crew.

The story of the first film centres on young wannabe musketeer D’Artagnon (York) who travels to the big city, Paris, to apply to join the King’s elite guard, the musketeers, thereby following in his father’s footsteps. He soon gets into a scuffle with the Cardinal’s right-hand man, played by Christopher Lee, and their on-going feud becomes a running theme throughout the two films. This faux paux is followed by a few more when he manages to annoy each of the three musketeers, Aramis (Chamberlain), Porthos (Finlay) and Arthos (Reed), who each challenge D’Artagnon to a duel, one after another. Their ‘lesson’ is interrupted by the Cardinal’s men who try to arrest them all, which leads to a fantastically dangerous series of sword fights in a nunnery. After the young upstart has proved his worth he is welcomed into the musketeer ‘family’ and finally becomes one himself, but not until the four of them have saved the queen from a potential fatal embarrassment, helping her to keep her love affair with the British Prime Minister (Ward) secret, thus avoiding a major political scandal.

The first film is full of slapstick and light-hearted humour, especially with the inclusion of the likes of Roy Kinnear, as D’Artgnon’s manservant, and Spike Milligan as lady-in-waiting Raquel Welch’s unlikely husband. But the script is also full of political intrigue, manipulated from the shadows by the ever scheming Cardinal Richelieu (played with aplomb by Heston).

By contrast, The Four Musketeers is a different beast altogether and is a much darker film; the series’ ‘Empire Strikes Back’, if you like. Somewhat ironically, following a brief recap of events from the first film by Porthos, we see the musketeers rescuing Rochefort (Lee) from an English firing squad, who later rewards this kind act by carrying out the Cardinal’s orders and heading out to stop an important letter from the queen reaching its destination in England.

The musketeers are on hand though to try and put the kybosh on the Cardinal’s schemes, but enroute they are caught up in a battle, and are ambushed by the Cardinal’s men, out for blood. Oh, and they also have to rescue Constance (Welsh), which they do, on stilts – and yes, you did read that right! They drop her off at a convent, for safety, allowing for the wonderfully cheesy line – “Don’t pick up any dirty habits” – and then proceed to continue on with their main mission.

This time round the fights are more vicious, all the musketeers are seriously injured and some major characters are killed off. There’s also more political intrigue and skulduggery led by Heston, who looks like he’s really enjoying his role as chief provocateur.

Both films have great production values, especially costumes and locations; both have great acting and comic timing (sometimes surprisingly so, for example, Raquel Welch); and the fight sequences are well done and look, (and were), dangerous. They did use real swords, after all! All the actors acquit themselves well, but this is Reed’s film wherein his character, Arthos, opens up and shows his vulnerability, especially when it comes to his former lover the Lady DeWinter (Dunaway). D’Artgnon takes more of a back seat in this film, although is still very much a part of it and has an excellent final sword fight with Rochefort, which is truly epic in every sense of the word.

While it’s not quite as memorable as The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers is probably the more satisfying film, from a drama point-of-view (it’s essentially about revenge) despite lacking the good humour that made the first film so much fun.

Both The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers are being distributed by Studiocanal on Blu-ray. There are a number of extras on the discs including:

The Three Musketeers

Interivew with Neil Sinyard (31.5 mins) – The author of the book The films of Richard Lester discusses the director’s career, starting with his famous short The Running, Jumping and Standing Still film with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. He also chats about some of the films that Lester was offered, but declined, including A Clockwork Orange. Apparently it was his idea to persuade the author of the Flashman novels to script the film, and the composer only had two weeks to compose the score.

Saga of the musketeers Part 1 (23 mins) – An interesting talking heads kind of documentary where the producers and stars discuss the film. We find out that Lester had originally thought of having The Beatles starring in it, but then changed his mind, and that people were fainting when the temperature rose to 52 degrees centigrade while filming; I guess the heavy period costumes didn’t help much either!

The making of the Musketeers (8 mins) – A vintage EPK reveals that The Three Musketeers is the most popular novel of all time, and has also been made into plays and even an opera. There’s some nice behind-the-scenes material too, including some fight rehearsals. We learn that Christopher Lee broke his elbow while filming.

Original US trailer (3 mins) – This is a playful voice-over when compared with the more formal one used throughout the UK theatrical trailer (2.5 mins), which also has the subtitle ‘The Queen’s Diamonds’.

The Four Musketeers

Interview with Neil Sinyard (23 mins) – The author of the book The films of Richard Lester discusses the musketeer films in more depth, saying that the original version was one longer 3.5 hour film with an intermission. He also reveals that some of the cast were not happy about only being paid once for the one film when it was actually two films eventually. Apparently, the writer, Fraser, was happier with the second film, and later went on to collaborate with Lester on Royal Flash.

Saga of the musketeers Part 2 (25 mins) – Another interesting talking heads kind of documentary where the various stars and producers are interviewed about the films. Michael York admits that it was a very physical film to work on, which is an observation that’s backed up by Chris Lee admitting that he also tore a ligament in his left knee during the shoot. Apparently, Oliver Reed partied most nights, but was always ready to work, on set, by 6.30am, while Spike Milligan ad-libbed most of his lines and had everyone in stitches, laughing. He, apparently, based the funny gun-loading scene on a real-life event involving his own father when he lived in Burma.

Original UK trailer (2.50 mins) – Has a nice balance of slapstick and action