The Fifth Musketeer

¨The fifth Musketeer¨ is packed with derring-do , intrigue , romance, action and exciting swordplay . An excellent casting and lavish production partially shot in Vienna make for a fairly amusement swashbuckler , however it drags in some places . This is a new version of the Dumas's novel with a handsome Beau Bridges in a dual role . This is a slight and simple retelling about the durable Alexandre Dumas's novel and is set in 17th century French court where two twins brothers (Beau Bridges playing a double role) , separated at birth , one nasty become Louis XIV of France compromised to marry to Mª Teresa of Spain (Silvia Kristel) and another , Phillippe who is unjustly imprisoned in the Bastilla . Both of whom are sons of the Queen mother Anna of Austria , turned nun (Olivia De Havilland) . Later on , Phillippe is jailed in prison and hidden his identity wearing an iron mask but his existence threatens the kingdom . But D'Artagnan (Cornel Wilde), Athos (Alan Hale) , Aramis (Jose Ferrer) and the Minister named Colbert (Rex Harrison) scheme an intelligent plan to free Phillippe , clashing a malicious Fouquet (Ian McShane) , the Louis XIV's favorite . They join forces for royal vengeance with the shout : ¨One for all and all for one¨. They are planning a plot involving substitution by the lookalike brother .

It's a mediocre rendition from the immortal novel with quite but wasted budget . The picture contains rousing action , intrigue , exciting swordplay , romantic adventure , and mayhem . Marvelous main actors completed by stellar cast full of classical and veteran players as Cornel Wilde , Rex Harrison , Olivia De Havilland and several others. And being final film of Helmut Dantine and last cinematic intervention of Olivia Havilland . And starred by agreeable Beau Bridges as suffering prisoner turning a valiant swashbuckler and selfish king . It contains some nudism , of course being in charge of expert actresses as Silvia Kristel and Ursula Andress ; nevertheless , in some versions it is cut . Acceptable cinematography by classic cameraman Jack Cardiff , recently passed away , who had a distinguished and long career crowned with some Oscars . Evocative musical score by the Italian composer named Riz Ortalani . Lush production design is well reflected on the glamorous interiors and exteriors filmed at Austrian palaces .

The motion picture was regularly realized by Ken Annakin . Based on Alexandre Dumas's novel, 'The Vicomte of Bragellone', which is often filmed under the title of its final section, 'The Man in the Iron Mask'. This classy story is subsequently remade on several versions , firstly is shot with Douglas Fairbanks (silent rendition, 1929), by James Whale (1939) with Louis Hayward and Joan Bennet , finally in 1998 by Randall Wallace with Leonardo DiCaprio , Jeremy Irons , John Malkovich and featured Gérard Depardieu as Porthos ; furthermore TV version by Mike Newell with Richard Chamberlain and Ralph Richardson . ¨The Fifth Musketeer¨ is an inferior and silly adaptation of the classy that will appeal to the costumer genre buffs and it results to be an average adaptation with big budget based on the immortal tale .

In many ways, this is an unnecessary re-telling of a story we have seen realized many times before (and since), and often filmed better. It was certainly not Beau Bridges's finest hour.

What was unusual and certainly the major selling point of the film was that the leading ladies (Andress and Kristel) would shed their clothes on quite a few occasions. As this film's US rating is PG and as the American running time is 12 minutes shorter than the British 15-rated release (which is the one I saw) it is highly likely that most if not all nudity was cut from the American version. Which is a shame as this is the only proper reason to watch this film.

It's not a bad movie, but the best parts are played by the women. Ursula Andress looks absolutely incredible (like that comes as a surprise) and is very convincing as the bitchy yet extremely alluring Louise de la Vallière, mistress to King Louis. Sylvia Kristal is also very good in her role as well. If you are looking just to relax and watch a movie that you don't need to think about, this is the one. If you are a fan of women in corsets... have no fear, Ursula can satisfy that pretty well.

THE FIFTH MUSKETEER - what a big disappointment. All that amazing talent, all those famous names, and only a couple of adequate performances in the entire film. What went wrong? I have the sneaking suspicion there were too many Chiefs and not enough Indians working in this film. The filmmakers probably found it hard to control the big names, and it shows. Clever dialogue would have made it possible to overlook the tepid, unoriginal script, but alas, there is very little.

Even if I were not an Ian McShane fan I would be forced to admit his characterisation of Fouquet remains the only one in the film which seems fully formed. Even though he plays the villain I found myself cheering him on because he was the only one with any charisma or humour in the entire film. The female performers are appealing. I hear the UK version has some nudity; the US VHS version has been cut to the point of somnambulism.

Trivia for McShane fans: The hijinx appear to all have taken place off-set rather than on. During the making of THE FIFTH MUSKETEER, Sylvia Kristel (of the EMMANUELLE soft porn series of films) and Ian McShane became involved in a highly-publicized, scandalous long- term affair. And McShane has related memories (complete with a spot-on vocal impersonation) of Rex Harrison imperiously barking orders at him to get out of his light during filming. It was that kind of set.

This retelling of Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask makes for an ok film for a rainy day, but is hardly an epic swasbuckler. Beau Bridges is good in the dual roles of Louis and Phillipe, as is Rex Harrison as Colbert. Ian McShayne is delightfully evil as Fouquet and Ursulla Andress is wonderfully bitchy. Cornell Wilde and Alan Hale Jr. reprise their roles (sort of) from the film At Swords Point. Papa Bridges is around as a decidedly unreligious Aramis, and Jose Ferrer trades Cyrano's nose, for Athos' tunic. Sylvia Kristel is rather wooden as Marie Therese. In all, there is little for the actors to work with, but the scenery is nice and a few action sequences are quite good. Still one could have hoped for better things with this cast.