Les trois mousquetaires et demi

If there is anything to be commented on this film, you would only need one word: Delicious!

The story is well known and the movie follows it without much deviation, except of course for the in-house Mexican jokes; Germán Valdés (a.k.a. Tin-Tán) plays D'Artagnan with his usual comedic genius, while his brother Ramón Valdés plays the sinister Rochefort. Along with the rest of the cast, Valdés delivers an extremely enjoyable version of Dumas The Three Musketeers, which rivals succesfully with other, more modern versions (like the superior 1975 version with Michael York, or the more recent but more pedestrian versions).

This movie was released to the United States as the Three and a half Musketeers.I first saw this 12 years ago on the Nostalgia Channel.It hasn't been released on video yet.This is a spoof of The Three Musketeers.It follows the first half of the Alexandre Dumas novel with D'Artagnan's first encounters with the Three Musketeers and saving the Queen's honor from Cardinal Richelieu and his agents Rochefort and Milady de Winter.In this version D'Artagnan is also a master of disguise.He disguises himself as Constance and Cardinal Richelieu in different scenes and not very good but good enough to fool the Cardinal's agents.If you liked the Ritz Brothers version or the 1942 Cantinflas version.You will like this one.Constance is played by Rosa Arenas(also known as Rosita Arenas) veteran actress of Mexican horror films and Milady de Winter is played by Martha Valdes an attractive auburn haired Janet Leigh look-a-like.The actor playing Rochefort does a great job.A sinister looking individual with a patch over his eye and a long scar on the cheek.I can see where he was model for the Rochefort character in other remakes.The sets and costumes resemble the Gene Kelly 1948 version.The Mexican film locations were beautiful reminds one of Normandy,France.This was my favorite of the comical versions of Three Musketeers.I have alot of older Hispanic friends who really enjoyed this version being they grew up with the comedy of Tin Tan and Cantinflas.A must see for those loving spoofs of the classics.