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The story opens with young D'Artagnan (Michael
York) arriving in Paris, hoping to join the King's Musketeers,
like his father (Joss Ackland) had done. As his father advised
him to fight whenever he could, he enthusiastically gets to work,
finds himself challenged to 3 different sword fights, within an
hour of coming to Paris; Musketeers he would soon be friends with.
3 Musketeers, Athos (Oliver Reed), Aramis (Richard Chamberlain),
and Porthos (Frank Finlay), all meet in the nun's courtyard, and
find themselves waiting in line to fight D'Artagnan. Before the
dueling starts, the Cardinal's Guard arrives and tries to arrest
them. Though scoffed as being a farm boy at in the beginning,
D'Artagnan proves his mettle with these three Musketeers when
he helps the trio defeat eleven soldiers of the Cardinal's Guard.
and thus finds acceptance with these characters.
D'Artagnan takes on a comical servant, and finds
a room in a house to rent, where he becomes acquainted with the
Inn Keeper's wife, Constance de Bonancieux (Raquel Welch), a lovely
if clumsy woman who is a companion to the Queen, Anna of Austria
(Geraldine Page) who is the wife of bumbling King Louis XIII (Jean-Pierre
Cassel).
Unfortunately, the Queen used poor judgment and
had an affair with the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward) who is
an enemy of France. As a testimony to their love, Anna the Queen
gave the Duke a couple of her diamond studs from her lovely necklace
given to her by her husband, King Louis XIII.
Through devious means, Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton
Heston), who wishes to ruin the Queen's reputation, finds out
about the diamond studs, and suggests that the king have a gala
ball where the Queen can show off this diamond necklace.
Constance de Bonancieux tells the Musketeers
of the Queen's dilemma. The Musketeers are soon off to England
on the assignment to get the Queen of France's famed diamond necklace
from her secret lover, the Duke of Buckingham, before the King
finds out, and Cardinal Richelieu (Heston) can successfully ruin
the honor of this errant Queen. Cardinal Richelieu does his best
to hinder their quest, causing problems for our heroes all along
the way of their journey to England and back.
The screenplay, by George MacDonald Fraser, who
based it on Alexandre Duma's lengthy novel, is witty, funny, well
written and exciting, making it a light-hearted, adventure; a
fun movie to watch. Because they knew that the plan was to divide
Duma's epic tale into two films, the screenplay not only does
a great job telling the whole story as Duma envisioned it, but
the characters are well developed and the scenes are well done.
The chemistry between Reed, Chamberlain, Michael
York, and Frank Finlay is most enjoyable, and works well to produce
all that the script demands.
Raquel Welch is delightful as York's beautiful,
but clumsy love interest.
Comical genius, Spike Mulligan, was wonderful
as the inn keeper, husband of Constance, who is pressed into service
by Cardinal Richelieu.
The villainous trio of Charlton Heston, Christopher
Lee as Rochefort, and Faye Dunaway as Milady de Winter all work
together to carry out various plots to try to stop the Musketeers'
valiant task, but are barely defeated at the end of the film.
Charlton Heston is a talented actor, who plays villains very well
indeed, and gives an insight into the evil Cardinal's nature.
Richard Lester did a wonderful job directing
this exciting comedy, as the pacing, the acting and the photography
are all top notch, all adding to the great success of this brilliant
adventure comedy. The sword fights are all very exciting and wonderfully
choreographed.
Favorite Scenes Include: Sword fight at the nunnery,
sword fight at the laundry room, mock fight at the restaurant,
merry-go-around and chest with dogs scene, windmill scene, and
the struggle to get the necklace diamond studs to the queen and
party scene.
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