The Three Musketeers

source: The Three Musketeers

D'artagnan (Gene Kelly) is a feisty country bumpkin who manages to join the company of three devil-may-care musketeers (Van Heflin, Gig Young, and Robert Coote). The four find themselves up to their feather plumes in intrigue, romance, and action. Madame de Winter (Lana Turner) is a treacherous murderer. Constance (June Allyson) is a virginal Queen's maid. The King is supposed to rule France but Richelieu (Vincent Price) is the eminence rouge behind the throne -- nasty, power-hungry, and manipulative. Both ladies are killed, but France is saved from something-or-other and the four musketeers get what they want. I managed to follow the business about the diamond studs well enough, I think, but I got lost later on. There's never much doubt about who is good and who is evil, though. Richelieu, by this time, was a Cardinal in the Catholic church but he's identified only as a politician -- I guess for obvious reasons. He's obviously on the bad side because he wants to go to war. It must be the Thirty Years War. I've forgotten whatever I learned in high school about the Thirty Years War. It had to do with Catholics against Protestants and turned political over time and there was a great deal of suffering among innocent people. That's all I know. I'm only happy it wasn't the HUNDRED Years War because I remember even less about that one. The first half of the film is sort of fun, in a family-oriented way. (This is MGM in its hay day.) Gene Kelly overacts outrageously, as he did during the send up of silent movies in "Singin' in the Rain," but it somehow seems appropriate, since everybody seems full of ham. And of course it's always exhilarating to see Kelly jumping from roof to roof, swinging on ropes, and fighting with furniture during sword play. (He didn't do his own stunts on horseback, though. He couldn't ride well, there having been so few chances to gallop a horse through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was growing up there.) Aramis and Porthos have little to do or say in the film. Only Athos has pathos. Van Heflin's role is mostly dramatic and he handles it well. Lana Turner's wicked charm has always eluded me. And June Allyson is no Queen's Maid. She's Jimmy Stewart's devoted and patient wife. The part would have suited her well if the film had been turned into a musical -- "The Dueling Cavalier", maybe. The costumes will coagulate your eyeballs. The plumes, the flowing capes, the floppy boots and hats. And what colors! From Chinese red, through chartreuse, to powder blue. Kids will enjoy the first half especially, since it's mostly constructed of fights, horse play, and wisecracks among the musketeers. It doesn't try to get serious until the second half, which deals mostly with tragic love stories bolstered or undone by one of Tchaikovsky's symphonies.

"The Three Musketeers" is an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel of the same name. The film features sweeping scenes, bright costumes and classical themes. Gene Kelly does well in an energetic performance as D'Artagnan. The rest of the cast is solid as well, particularly Lana Turner and Vincent Price as the scheming villains. The film features a number of sword fights which are well staged, but become repetitive. The filmmakers tried to balance the action scenes with the intrigue of Dumas' novel. This was welcome, but I found the film had tedious stretches and didn't completely capture the excitement of the novel.

This stodgy MGM movie is notable mainly for the athletic Gene Kelly acrobating about all over the place as D'Artagnan, and for the support from Van Heflin (very good), Gig Young (forgettable), and Robert Coote (ok) as the Musketeers. The ladies in the cast are not as well served: Angela Lansbury, June Allyson, Lana Turner are all miscast and not given enough chances to shine. Really quite a disappointing effort, despite the colour and the promising casting. The book had much more drive and humour within it (as Richard Lester's 70s version showed). Worth it for Kelly fans, probably not for everyone else.

An absolute hideous production. Alexander Dumas must have turned over in his grave. Despite a terrific cast, the writing is unbelievably bad even with the plush color settings by Natalie Kalmus. Gene Kelly dances but in a different way here. He starts off as a complete jerk but soon proves himself to the other musketeers as a great swordsman. I love the way that Richelieu is not depicted as a cardinal but as the first minister. Always a shame to distort history in Hollywood spectacles. Lana Turner is lovely as Countess de Winters, even with all her evil. Poor June Allyson. Her simplicity just does her in. Only in films could they pull that off. Van Heflin looked like he was ready for a few more drinks after this film. Even the usual Vincent Price does not really have the opportunity to aggressively show evil here. At the end scene, he is cast off like a natural idiot. Frank Morgan as the king is his usual buffoon self. Angela Lansbury as his Queen briefly appears and does relatively nothing here. As de Winters' lady in waiting, Patricia Medina weeps a little. Actually, she should have cried more in this atrocious production.

Boy is this thing all over the place. Sumptous to be sure it has the MGM touch in spades as far as lavishness goes but an inconsistent tone and some terrible casting choices. The good-Vincent Price and Lana Turner are perfect in their roles with Lana looking astonishing in some beautiful and some ridiculous costumes. Angela Lansbury, wasted playing Queen Anne, campaigned for the role of Milady; in hindsight it seems incredible that Mayer said no, how great and truly evil she could have been but Lana was a huge star at the time and she is silkily wicked so no real harm was done to the film. June Allyson may not have been the ideal choice but she doesn't disgrace herself as Constance. The average-Van Heflin, Gig Young and Richard Coote are merely adequate as the musketeers and while Frank Morgan is always a welcome sight he is just so wrong as the king of France. The bad-Gene Kelly as d'Artagnan, and very bad he is, of course he handles the sword fighting episodes well with a dancers grace. It's his over eager and downright dreadful line readings and reactions that are painful and irritating to watch. Whenever he is on screen the movie stops dead in it's tracks. A very mixed bag.

"The Three Musketeers" (1948) is probably the most spectacularly miscast film in cinema history. This will be either hilarious or painful; depending on a viewer's sense-of-humor perversity quotient. The idea of casting Lana Turner and June Allyson in a period costume drama was absurd on its face, but the results are actually worse than you could imagine. Turner was arguably the least talented of the big-name actors of her era. Her appeal was strictly physical and she was serviceable playing herself in "Andy Hardy" type stuff. But she simply had no ability (even with good direction) to play anyone else, let alone an exotic villainess like the Dumas' Lady De Winter. And by the late 1940's the aging process had hit her particularly hard; taking away any trace of the youthful glow that had seemed so magical early in her career. At the time of casting Turner (still clueless that she had lost the physical appeal that had made her a star and apparently unaware that her career was already headed steeply downhill) was reluctant to take a "supporting" role. Then there is Allyson; she had a clue about acting but her presence brought no magic to the screen. Her most successful roles were as contemporary tomboys, not as an inspirational love interest in a lavish costume drama. Allyson was all Bronx and that just doesn't fit the tone of the Dumas classic. As D'Artagnan, Gene Kelly at least provides a reason to watch "The Three Musketeers". He is physically suited to the role and handles the acrobatic action sequences quite well. But Kelly was more dancer than actor. As someone said, his acting is much like Bob Hope without the comedic sensibility. I found it hard to keep from thinking about his faux silent film part in "Singing In the Rain". Vincent Price's Richelieu was probably fine in 1948, but his subsequent ghoul movie and "Batman" fame works against him with today's viewers. You won't recognize him in costume, but once you hear the half-witted Planchet speak you will say: "Hey that's Keenan Wynn". Unlike Price, Wynn's wide range of subsequent character roles don't undermine his performance. "The Three Musketeers" is set in 17th century France as young D'Artagnan joins the three best swordsmen in Paris: Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young), and Aramis (Robert Coote). Oz's Wizard, Frank Morgan, plays King Louis XIII, another astonishing bit is miscasting but the part is too small for that to be of much significance. The King and Richelieu are at odds over going to war with England, but Richelieu has the goods on the Queen (Angela Lansbury) and hopes to force a war. There is action, romance, great production design, and an excellent underlying story. Unfortunately the humorous casting decisions make it extremely difficult to suspend disbelief and get into the film as anything more than an old movie. Turner's stuff has mock- fest potential but she is thankfully only a "supporting" character. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

The true test of a filmed version of a famous novel is not how close the action is to the plot of the book - it's whether it's faithful to the spirit of the original, and above all, whether it *works*. I didn't think casting Gene Kelly as a non-singing, non-dancing D'Artagnan would work: it does. I didn't think censoring the religious references to suit the US market would work - it does. I didn't think this could possibly rival the 1974 Lester/Macdonald Fraser version... well, I'm still not sure about that one, but it's an unexpectedly close call. Without any question, the outstanding performance in this film is that of Gene Kelly. His athleticism, unsurprisingly, is marvellous, his swordplay is dazzling - but most importantly, as an actor his characterization of the impetuous, susceptible, hot-headed but good-hearted young Gascon is spot on the mark. He plays the part with a humour and charm that leave us likewise loving and laughing in his wake, and the only character with a chance of upstaging him is that truly preposterous yellow horse... a piece of type-casting if ever I saw one! Perhaps the most disappointing performance, in contrast, is Van Heflin as Athos, the high-minded musketeer who drinks to find oblivion from a dark secret in his past. This Athos is a sullen peasant rather than a tragic nobleman, perhaps because the scriptwriters chose to demote him from Comte to Baron de la Fere. He has none of the charisma that should have been brought to the part, and it's often hard to understand why his three companions put up with him. The fight scenes are excellently staged, as is to be expected in a precursor of 'Scaramouche', but I personally did feel that they went on for a little too long. Likewise, Anne of Austria was wonderfully imperious, but not as beautiful as the legend would have her. Constance Bonancieux, by contrast, gets a much larger part in this version than in Dumas' novel - and a somewhat less sleazy relationship with the young lodger - and makes the most of it. The pivotal change in the plot during Milady's stay in England features Constance to a large extent, and is in my opinion actually very effective. The fact that even those of us who know the source material inside out have no idea *how* the inevitable is going to happen increases the tension enormously, and the change of emphasis to the relationship between the two women, rather than the seductive act we have seen several times before, gives both actresses a fresh chance to shine. Richelieu, shorn of his Cardinal's title to avoid Church offence, has relatively little to do in this version, and D'Artagnan's nemesis Rochefort barely appears at all, though both actors make the most of what screen time they have. There is an effective scene at the end (again, owing nothing to Dumas) where Richelieu reminds the King of his dominion as the power behind the throne, only to save face in a graceful manoeuvre as Louis XIII temporarily asserts himself: we are quite certain that the King will soon be back under his thumb. Overall, I was very impressed by the way in which this film captured the roistering, sometimes raucous, sometimes melodramatic spirit of its source material. Reading other people's comments about the silent version starring Douglas Fairbanks, I only wish I were likely to get the chance to see that as well!

This movie was great,the first time I saw it I was five.Superb interpretations, good story and action scenes. Gene Kelly was fantastic in the role of D'artagnan and Lana Turner was spectacular in the role of the beautiful and dangerous MiLady de Winter. 10/10

"The Three Musketeers" is unarguably an adventure film of great physical beauty and quite a bit of narrative power. It stands just after "The Best Years of Our lives" as one of the first Technicolor "A" films that broadened the palette used by filmmakers to include richness as well as, say, western or Arabian settings in adventure movies. To director George Sidney goes much of the credit for the film's swiftness of pace and attractive visual elements. With cinematography by Robert Planck, art direction by Malcolm Brown and the great Cedric Gibbons, elaborate set decorations by Edwin B, Willis and Henry Grace, and costumes by legendary Walter Plunkett, the film moves from rustic scenes to sumptuous interiors via scenes of swordplay that are often stunning. Add makeup by Jack Dawn, hair designs by Larry Germain and Sydney Guilaroff, sound by Douglas Shearer and Herbert Stothart's original music and use of Tschaikovsy themes--and the result I suggest is a quite satisfying viewing experience. But the plot has something more, perhaps, as well. The original Alexandre Dumas's (the father) storyline as treated by Robert Ardrey's screenplay comes out as an intelligent but somewhat satirical-cynical look at life in the France of the time of Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis XIII. In adopting an objective, light-hearted tone, similar to that in "North By Northwest', the producer Pandro S. Berman and the writers gain for the film the ability to do memorable comedy as well as occasionally far-more-serious scenes. What is lost in concentrated dramatic power is made up fin such an adventure if the actors are able to invest its goings on with the seriousness of their taking it seriously, bringing it to life professionally. I suggest that in the lavish production, this level of artistry was almost everywhere achieved. The large cast features such attractive artists as Angela Lansbury as the Queen, John Sutton as Buckingham, June Allyson very-well-used as Constance, Robert Warwick as D'Artagnan's father, Keenan Wynn as Planchet the servant, Reginald Owen and Ian Keith, Patricia Medina and Richard Wyler. In featured roles, one can enjoy stellar work by Robert Coote as Aramis, Gig Young as Porthos, Frank Morgan as the King and Gene Kelly as an athletic and often lyrical D'Artagnan. But the acting honors in the film belong to actor worthies Van Helfin, who dominates in the role of the hard-drinking Athos and Vincent Price, who makes immense amounts out of what he is allowed to do as an understated Richelieu. The curious casting is that of attractive Lana Turner as Lady De Winter; she is not capable yet of classical work, but she suggests some of her part's potential depths. This famous story of the young Gascon joining the three best swordsmen in France and learning more about life than he had bargained for is here given as much power perhaps as it can handle; and rich scenes of sword battles, interpersonal misunderstandings and a sense of controlled importance makes, I suggest, the story's dark moments memorable and the fun more important than it might have been. I find this to be a masterly understatement of a truly classic adventure.