★ 7 / 10
Whilst it's not quite as good as last
CinemaSerf
Whilst it's not quite as good as last year's effort, Richard Lester has managed to reassemble the cast for another romp through Alexandre Dumas' stories of…
Whilst it's not quite as good as last year's effort, Richard Lester has managed to reassemble the cast for another romp through Alexandre Dumas' stories of derring-do at the court of King Louis XIII (Jean-Pierre Cassel). Now following his near miss last time, Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) has become even more fixated on exposing the Queen (Geraldine Chaplin) and her British lover Buckingham (Simon Ward) and so has commissioned "Rochefort" (Christopher Lee) and the menacing "Lady De Winter" (Faye Dunaway) to get the secrets from dressmaker "Constance" (Raquel Welch). Meantime, the loved-up "D'Artagnan" - the particularly scrawny Michael York - is also on her trail, aided by his three colleagues "Porthos" (Frank Finlay), "Aramis" (Richard Chamberlain) and "Athos" (Oliver Reed) and adventures ensue as they have to thwart the evil Cardinal's machinations and save poor "Constance" from the malevolent "Milady". It's colourful and action packed, with more from the others - especially the clearly in his element Reed who must have been swilling real vin rouge. Roy Kinnear rolls his eyes in disbelief with comic aplomb and we have quite a fun game of cricket that's far more explosive than any I've ever seen at Lords! Dunaway is great as the manipulatrix and Welch likewise as the naive young seamstress only just fitting into one of her own frocks. Heston features a little too sparingly to make much of an impact, but Christopher Lee delivers well too - his firing squad "perhaps I'll die of old age" did make me smile - as this enjoyable costume drama heads to it's rather fitting, but slightly disappointing, denouement. These are a good pair of films for fans of action comedies, and still bear watching fifty years later.
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★ 7 / 10
Spanish/Panama/British co-production plenty of swordplay , adventure and comedy ; being a fun retelling based on famous Dumas novel
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This is a big production with lavish scenarios , spectacular action , court intrigue and exciting duels . Being based on Alexandre Dumas' classic yarn of…
This is a big production with lavish scenarios , spectacular action , court intrigue and exciting duels . Being based on Alexandre Dumas' classic yarn of intrigue at the 17th century French court . Entertaining and funny version based on the classic Dumas novel with overwhelming swordplay in nifty style , this is a modern version of the classic Dumas novel set in 17th Century France . Alexandre Dumas's source for his novel was a book by 19th-century writer Courtils Sandraz, which was purporting to be D'Artagnan's biography ; the Musketeers were actually real people, not fictional characters created by Dumas . For this filled with emotion recounting is adapted in the greatest splendor , the complete romance , the historical characters, the full novel by Alexandre Dumas though including important changes . It is packed with comedy , derring-do , intrigue , a love story , action , drama and moving fence . An awesome casting and big-budgeted production shot in Spain and location make for a fairly amusement swashbuckler . This is a luxurious recounting of the Dumas's novel with a fine cast headed by handsome Michael York as hot-headed D'Artagnan in a brave role as a young and handsome soldier of fortune , a dashing , audacious lover and nimble athlete . Musketeers must defeat a beautiful double agent and the villainous Rochefort from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war . This delightful adaptation based on Alexandre Dumas classic novel deals with the youngster D'Artagnan and his three friends , the three two-fisted Musketeers , rollicking adventurers , fighting to live and living to love . All of them join in their objective to struggle against guards of Cardinal Richelieu well performed by Charlton Heston and the astute Milady De Winter , Faye Dunaway , who is lovely as a jewel, deadly as a dagger the wickedest woman in all Christendom . Meanwhile, D'Artagnan falls in love with the gorgeous young , Constance , Rachel Welch , she is a golden-haired beauty entangled in a web of treachery and intrigue . Furthermore , there is developed an intrigue between Luis XIII : Jean Pierre Cassel , Queen Anne of Austria : Geraldine Chaplin , dazzling as her gilded palace for her, men dared a thousand perils , and Duke of Buckingham , Simon Ward ; and of course the nasty Richelieu , as evil as ever . Protestants hold La Rochelle, and the Queen Anna loves Buckingham , who'll soon send ships to support the rebels ; then Milady of Winter is assigned a mission : to kill the Duke . The musketeers join forces for royal vengeance with the shout : ¨One for all and all for one¨. Then , the musketeers whose friendship has become a legend to stir the hearts of men and shouting their slogan set out to help the Queen and free Constance who has been kidnapped by Rochefort . Straightforward as well as gallant D'Artagnan and the three musketeers scheme a plan to save her , clashing against a malicious Milady De Winter .It's a nice rendition from the immortal novel with pretty budget and attractive scenarios . The picture contains rousing action , intrigue , romantic adventure , romance , treachery , mayhem and a lot of fence . Amusing swashbuckling with lavish production , glamorous gowns and lush scenarios . This is an entertaining swashbuckling, full of action, adventure , comedy with tongue-in-cheek , and broad slapdash and of course , lot of swordplay . Charming Michael York who bounds and leaps , fights , hits and run . Michael York executes athletic feats , moving sword-play and spectacular acrobatics , he performed most of the stunts in his films himself . He is accompanied by a very good cast . Sympathetic performances by main star cast and secondary cast such as Michael Gothard , Nicole Calfan , Angel Del Pozo , Eduardo Fajardo , among others . Faye Dunaway makes a stunning Milady De Winter . Furthermore , a vein of humour is evident here , though sometimes falling flat . Comic relief by Roy Kinnear who unfortunately died falling down horse in the second sequel . For this movie itself , though , energetic and frantic are the best adjectives you could think of to describe its attraction .Adequate and colorful cinematography stunningly showed on the splendorous images , being filmed in Spain , castle of Berlanga de Duero , Soriav, Royal Palace , Rome studios , Madrid and many other places well photographed by David Watkin . Thrilling as well as evocative musical score by Lalo Schifrin , including appropriate sounds for the time period . Lavish production by Alexander/Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler with excellent costumes by Oscar winning Ivonne Blake . However , producers were sued by the actors who claimed they were tricked into thinking the film was to be part of The three musketeers (1973), being filmed at the same time ; they won their case in court, but did not receive as much money as they would have if they were paid separately for both films. The motion picture was professionally realized by Richard Lester . This cool filmmaker provided visual style , comedy , fencing , drama , clangorous action in equal proportions . Twenty years later Richard Lester directed the third part titled ¨The return of the Musketeers¨(1989) with similar artist and technician team . This classy story is remade on several versions ,as the MGM classic version in musical style by George Sidney with Gene Kelly ; 1993 modern adaptation by Stephen Herek with Charlie Sheen and 2001 rendition by Peter Hyams with Justin Chambers, among others. ¨The four Musketeers¨ is an outstanding and entertaining adaptation of the classy that will appeal to the costumer genre buffs and it results to be acceptable adaptation with big budget based on the classic
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6.9/10
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Beautiful Criterion 1080p now (10/2025) on TPB. Look for BONE version