Les Trois Mousquetaires

M-G-M presents Dumas' exciting story of love and adventure ,¨The three musketeers¨ . For the first time is adapted in the greatest Hollywood splendor , the complete romance , the historical characters, the full novel just as Alexandre Dumas write it . It is packed with comedy , derring-do , intrigue, a love story , action , drama and moving swordplay . An awesome casting and lavish production shot in Metro Goldwyn Studios make for a fairly amusement swashbuckler . This is the classic version of the Dumas's novel with a handsome Gene Kelly in a brave role as a young and handsome soldier of fortune , a dashing , audacious lover . This is a slight and high budgeted retelling about the durable Alexandre Dumas's novel with all-star-cast . This delightful adaptation based on Alexandro Dumas classic novel starts with the youngster D'Artagnan who arrives in Paris to find Mister Treville(Reginald Owen) , chief of Musketeers . But he meets three two-fisted Musketeers , Athos (Van Heflin) , a rollicking adventurer , fighting to live and living to love , Porthos (Gig Young) and Aramis (Robert Coote) . DÁrtagnan to be aware they are Musketeers and is invited to unite them in their objective to struggle against guards of Cardinal Richelieu , his deputy Rochefort (Ian Hunter) , and an astute secret agent named Milady De Winter (Lana Turner) who is lovely as a jewel , deadly as a dagger the wickedest woman in all Christendom . Meanwhile , D'Artagnan falls in love with a gorgeous young named Constance (June Allyson), daughter an innkeeper , she is a golden-haired beauty entangled in a web of treachery and intrigue . Furthermore , there is developed an intrigue between Luis XIII (Frank Morgan ) , Queen Anna of Austria (Angela Lansbury) , dazzling as her gilded palace for her , men dared a thousand perils , and Duke of Buckingham (John Sutton) ; and , of course ,the nasty Richelieu (Vincent Price) . The musketeers join forces for royal vengeance with the shout : ¨One for all and all for one¨.

It's a magnificent rendition from the immortal novel in big budget and breathtaking scenarios . The picture contains rousing action , intrigue , romantic adventure , mayhem and a lot of fencing . Entertaining swashbuckling with lavish production by Pandro S. Berman , glamorous gowns and luxurious sets by Oscar winning Cedric Gibbons . Sympathetic performances by main star cast and enjoyable secondary cast ; as the marvelous main actors are completed by stellar support cast full of classical and veteran players as Vicent Price , Reginald Owen , Keenan Wynn , Frank Morgan and several others . Colorful cinematography in the splendor of Technicolor by Robert Planck . Evocative musical score by Herbert Stothart based on Tchaikowski themes . Lush production design is well reflected on the luxurious interiors and exteriors filmed at Hollywood . The motion picture was well realized by George Sidney (Scaramouche , that he subsequently made in similar style). This classy story is subsequently remade on several versions , firstly take on this classic turns out to be the following : 1921 silent version by Fred Niblo with Douglas Fairbanks . And going on 1935 adaptation by Rowland V. Lee with Walter Abel and Paul Lukas ; 1973 amusing version by Richard Lester with Michael York , Oliver Reed and Raquel Welch ; 1993 modern adaptation by Stephen Herek with Charlie Sheen , Kiefer Sutherland , Oliver Platt and Chris O'Donnell , and 2001 rendition by Peter Hyams with Justin Chambers , Mena Suvari and Tim Roth , among others. ¨The three Musketeers¨ is an outstanding and entertaining adaptation of the classy that will appeal to the costumer genre buffs and it results to be an excellent adaptation with big budget based on the classic tale .

The Hollywood of the classic studio system is not known for its kindness in adapting great literary works. Often overwrought or oversimplified, cut down or bastardized, the movie versions rarely capture the essence or the form of the books they pretend to adapt.

This one is exceptional. Both the pathos and the verve of the Dumas novel (itself a roman-feuilleton - a serial- which it is rumored Dumas didn't actually write) are wonderfully captured, and Kelly is the dream D'Artagnan. Every bit of physicality and fun that he brought to his choreographies in the musicals is used beautifully to bring grace and energy to the duels. The humor of the star is used quite brilliantly. Compare the toungue-in-cheek pastiche THE DUELLING CAVALIER in SINGING IN THE RAIN with this earlier work. Look up a few of his directorial efforts (The Cheyenne Social Club) with the humor here.

Each fan of Dumas will have his favorite version of THE THREE MUSKETEERS, but we all must agree this is a noble and (overall) successful effort.

"The Three Musketeers" is an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel of the same name. The film features sweeping scenes, bright costumes and classical themes. Gene Kelly does well in an energetic performance as D'Artagnan. The rest of the cast is solid as well, particularly Lana Turner and Vincent Price as the scheming villains.

The film features a number of sword fights which are well staged, but become repetitive. The filmmakers tried to balance the action scenes with the intrigue of Dumas' novel. This was welcome, but I found the film had tedious stretches and didn't completely capture the excitement of the novel.

It starts out as a broad slapstick comedy, and when Gene Kelly has the opportunity to showcase his acrobatic skills, it's good old-fashioned swashbuckling fun. But after the first 20 minutes it turns into mostly heavy drama, and the swordfights are actually few and far between. The problem with the script is that, trying to cover all the characters and subplots of the book, it has no time to develop them enough, and the story lacks a strong central focus. At times you wonder exactly what each person is trying to achieve, and where some of the characters you know are basic have gone (the main example: Richelieu, excellently played by Vincent Price, has only about three of four scenes in the entire film). Still, it's a good-looking, entertaining production. (**1/2)

Still a spectacular and fun movie and an adaption of the work by Alexandre Dumas that got the spirit of the writings. The cast with Gene Kelly, Lana Turner and Vincent Price among others is superb. Still a movie to dream and one of my favorites regarding the adventures of D'Artagnan. Athos, Aramis and Porthos. Top movie for the whole family.