In 8 words or less: Boozing, gambling, fighting. The life of a Musketeer
What's it all About? The oft-told tale by Dumas of deception, cunning and quests for power in 17th century France. Evil Cardinal R (Chuck Heston) intends to take the Queen's position of power next to King Louis XIII by revealing details of her affair with the English Duke of Buckingham. On the side of the good guys are the self titled Musketeers (Reed, Chamberlin and Finlay) along with bumbling hopeful D'Artagnan (York).
Best bits? The first 20 minutes are cracking. The slapstick comedy elements are stop on as D'Artagnan travels to France to become a musketeer only to anger Porthos, Athos, Aramis and the vile Rochefort.
Did it make you think thoughts? Wow, they sure flounced them costumes up in the 70's, didn't they. This film certainly looks the part with it's spectacular looking gowns, feathered hats and top notch tunics. No computer generated imaged here obviously and the sets look particularly authentic.
These boys sure do love cash and cleavage and to be honest they don't really give a monkeys about serving their king and this is one of the films failings. Scenes of gambling, boozing and cavorting are prevalent and definitely sidetrack the movie from it's main focus. There are also a few too many plot threads and non-needed characters that left me wondering why certain things were happening and characters motives. This also meant that the film was about 20 minutes too long. With so much going on, the two main villains get too little screen time to ham it up liked I'd hope they would. A missed opportunity.
Interestingly, during filming the producer shot two films at the same time without telling the cast. In 1974 The Four Musketeers was realised, a film the cast weren't aware of as they'd only been paid for one flick and not been told about it!
 |
| Captain Hook maybe? |
Rating (out of 100%): Although this is considered somewhat of a classic by many, it must be remembered that The Chief is not the many. I was bored during too much of this film and therefore give it a French-bearded 48%
Worse than: The Three Musketeers (2011)
Better than: The Three Musketeers (1993)
