The Three Musketeers (1973 film)

The Three Musketeers
File:Three Musketeers 1974.jpg 1974 poster
Directed by	Richard Lester
Produced by	Alexander Salkind Ilya Salkind Pierre Spengler
Written by	George MacDonald Fraser
Based on	The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas père
Starring	Oliver Reed Charlton Heston Raquel Welch Faye Dunaway Richard Chamberlain Frank Finlay Michael York Christopher Lee
Music by	Michel Legrand
Cinematography	David Watkin
Edited by	John Victor Smith
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	11 December 1973 (1973-12-11) (France) 29 March 1974 (1974-03-29) (U.S.)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Box office	$10.1 million (US/ Canada)

The Three Musketeers — also known as The Three Musketeers: The Queen's Diamonds — is a 1973 film based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser. It was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for The Beatles, whom Lester had directed in two other films. It was intended to run for three hours with intermission, but when during production, it was determined the film could not make its announced release date in that form, it was split into two, the second part becoming 1974's The Four Musketeers. In 1989, the cast and crew returned to film The Return of the Musketeers, loosely based on Dumas' Twenty Years After.

The film adheres closely to the novel, but also injects a fair amount of humor. It was shot by David Watkins, with an eye for period detail. The fight scenes were choreographed by master swordsman William Hobbs.

Plot

Having learned swordsmanship from his father, the young country bumpkin d'Artagnan arrives in Paris with dreams of becoming a king's musketeer. Unaccustomed to the city life, he makes a number of clumsy faux pas. First he finds himself insulted, knocked out and robbed by the Comte de Rochefort, an agent of Cardinal Richelieu, and once in Paris comes into conflict with three musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, each of whom challenges him to a duel for some accidental insult or embarrassment. As the first of these duels is about to begin, Jussac arrives with five additional swordsmen of Cardinal Richelieu's guards. D'Artagnan sides with the musketeers in the ensuing street fight and becomes their ally in opposition to the Cardinal, who wishes to increase his already considerable power over the king, Louis XIII. D'Artagnan also begins an affair with his landlord's wife, Constance Bonacieux, who is dressmaker to the Queen, Anne of Austria.

Meanwhile the Duke of Buckingham, former lover of the Queen, turns up and asks for something in remembrance of her; she gives him a necklace with twelve settings of diamonds, a gift from her husband. From the Queen's treacherous lady in waiting, the Cardinal learns of the rendezvous and suggests to the none-too-bright King to throw a ball in his wife's honor, and request she wear the diamonds he gave her. The Cardinal also sends his agent Milady de Winter to England, who seduces the Duke and steals two of the necklace's diamonds.

Meanwhile, the Queen has confided her troubles in Constance, who asks d'Artagnan to ride to England and get back the diamonds. D'Artagnan and the three musketeers set out, but on the way the Cardinal's men attack them. Only d'Artagnan and his servant make it through to Buckingham, where they discover the loss of two of the diamond settings. The Duke replaces the two settings, and d'Artagnan races back to Paris. Porthos, Athos, and Aramis, wounded but not dead as d'Artagnan had feared, aid the delivery of the complete necklace to the Queen, saving the royal couple from the embarrassment which the Cardinal had plotted.

Captain Tréville eventually inducts d'Artagnan into the Musketeers of the King's Guard.

Cast

• Michael York as d'Artagnan
• Oliver Reed as Athos
• Frank Finlay as Porthos / O'Reilly
• Richard Chamberlain as Aramis
• Jean-Pierre Cassel as King Louis XIII of France
• Geraldine Chaplin as Anne of Austria
• Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu
• Faye Dunaway as Milady de Winter
• Christopher Lee as the Count De Rochefort
• Simon Ward as the Duke of Buckingham
• Raquel Welch as Constance Bonacieux
• Spike Milligan as M. Bonacieux
• Roy Kinnear as Planchet

Production

According to George MacDonald Fraser, Richard Lester became involved in the project when the producers briefly considered casting The Beatles as the musketeers and Lester had directed two films with the group. The Beatles idea fell by the wayside but Lester stayed. In late 1972 he hired Fraser to write the scripts, saying he wanted to make a four hour film and cast Richard Chamberlain as Aramis. It was later decided to turn the script into two films.

Reception

The movie was met with mostly positive reviews. Vincent Canby of The New York Times had this to say about the film: "Mr. Lester seems almost exclusively concerned with action, preferably comic, and one gets the impression after a while that he and his fencing masters labored too long in choreographing the elaborate duels. They're interesting to watch, though they are without a great deal of spontaneity."

Awards and nominations

Raquel Welch won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

George MacDonald Fraser won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best British Comedy Screenplay.

See also

• List of American films of 1973

External links

• The Three Musketeers at IMDb
• The Three Musketeers at AllMovie