The Three Musketeers

Boy is this thing all over the place. Sumptous to be sure it has the MGM touch in spades as far as lavishness goes but an inconsistent tone and some terrible casting choices.

The good-Vincent Price and Lana Turner are perfect in their roles with Lana looking astonishing in some beautiful and some ridiculous costumes. Angela Lansbury, wasted playing Queen Anne, campaigned for the role of Milady; in hindsight it seems incredible that Mayer said no, how great and truly evil she could have been but Lana was a huge star at the time and she is silkily wicked so no real harm was done to the film. June Allyson may not have been the ideal choice but she doesn't disgrace herself as Constance.

The average-Van Heflin, Gig Young and Richard Coote are merely adequate as the musketeers and while Frank Morgan is always a welcome sight he is just so wrong as the king of France.

The bad-Gene Kelly as d'Artagnan, and very bad he is, of course he handles the sword fighting episodes well with a dancers grace. It's his over eager and downright dreadful line readings and reactions that are painful and irritating to watch. Whenever he is on screen the movie stops dead in it's tracks. A very mixed bag.

While there have been many versions of the THREE MUSKETEERS, this is my very favorite thanks to wonderful writing, acting and cinematography. I just love the incredibly vivid colors of the 1940s Technicolor and this is perhaps the best example of this type of color film that emphasized very bright primary colors--more intense than real life but perfect for showy spectacles like this.

The film begins with Gene Kelly (as D'Artagnon) heading to Paris and accidentally insulting each of the three musketeers. He is challenged to all three to a duel, but the duels are cut short by the troops of the evil Cardinal Richelieu. Then, the story takes off and the intrigue begins.

The film is a perfect example of the "full MGM treatment"--top production values, crisp writing, excellent direction and the best ensemble cast around. See it and have a ball. If you don't, you must be dead.

The true test of a filmed version of a famous novel is not how close the action is to the plot of the book - it's whether it's faithful to the spirit of the original, and above all, whether it *works*. I didn't think casting Gene Kelly as a non-singing, non-dancing D'Artagnan would work: it does. I didn't think censoring the religious references to suit the US market would work - it does. I didn't think this could possibly rival the 1974 Lester/Macdonald Fraser version... well, I'm still not sure about that one, but it's an unexpectedly close call.

Without any question, the outstanding performance in this film is that of Gene Kelly. His athleticism, unsurprisingly, is marvellous, his swordplay is dazzling - but most importantly, as an actor his characterization of the impetuous, susceptible, hot-headed but good-hearted young Gascon is spot on the mark. He plays the part with a humour and charm that leave us likewise loving and laughing in his wake, and the only character with a chance of upstaging him is that truly preposterous yellow horse... a piece of type-casting if ever I saw one!

Perhaps the most disappointing performance, in contrast, is Van Heflin as Athos, the high-minded musketeer who drinks to find oblivion from a dark secret in his past. This Athos is a sullen peasant rather than a tragic nobleman, perhaps because the scriptwriters chose to demote him from Comte to Baron de la Fere. He has none of the charisma that should have been brought to the part, and it's often hard to understand why his three companions put up with him.

The fight scenes are excellently staged, as is to be expected in a precursor of 'Scaramouche', but I personally did feel that they went on for a little too long. Likewise, Anne of Austria was wonderfully imperious, but not as beautiful as the legend would have her. Constance Bonancieux, by contrast, gets a much larger part in this version than in Dumas' novel - and a somewhat less sleazy relationship with the young lodger - and makes the most of it.

The pivotal change in the plot during Milady's stay in England features Constance to a large extent, and is in my opinion actually very effective. The fact that even those of us who know the source material inside out have no idea *how* the inevitable is going to happen increases the tension enormously, and the change of emphasis to the relationship between the two women, rather than the seductive act we have seen several times before, gives both actresses a fresh chance to shine.

Richelieu, shorn of his Cardinal's title to avoid Church offence, has relatively little to do in this version, and D'Artagnan's nemesis Rochefort barely appears at all, though both actors make the most of what screen time they have. There is an effective scene at the end (again, owing nothing to Dumas) where Richelieu reminds the King of his dominion as the power behind the throne, only to save face in a graceful manoeuvre as Louis XIII temporarily asserts himself: we are quite certain that the King will soon be back under his thumb.

Overall, I was very impressed by the way in which this film captured the roistering, sometimes raucous, sometimes melodramatic spirit of its source material. Reading other people's comments about the silent version starring Douglas Fairbanks, I only wish I were likely to get the chance to see that as well!

MGM pulled out all the stops for this 1948 version of "The Three Musketeers." Filmed in color and directed by George Sidney, it has a large, all-star cast consisting of Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Cornell Wilde, Vincent Price, Angela Lansbury, Robert Coote, Frank Morgan, Keenan Wynn and John Sutton.

Gene Kelly is D'Artagnan, who arrives to join the Musketeers and ends up having to fight three duels in a day with Athos (Heflin), Porthos (Young) and Aramis (Coote). They all wind up friends.

The Musketeers' first assignment is to steal the Queen's jewels back for her - a gift of twelve diamond studs from her husband (Morgan). She has given them to her lover, the Duke of Buckingham, but now needs them back to wear in nine days' time.

Cardinal Richlieu (Price), anxious to reveal the secret relationship between the two, dispatches his evil mistress, Lady De Winter (Turner) to steal two of the studs. Richlieu wants France to declare war against England and completely destroy the King's powers.

The Musketeers have to get the jewels from the Duke and return with them to Paris. With two diamond studs missing, they have an added task of picking up two replacements from a jeweler and getting them to the Queen in time to wear them at a banquet.

In the process of all of this, D'Artagnan falls in love with the Queen's lady-in-waiting, Constance (Allyson).

All of the acting is wonderful, with the role of Lady De Winter expanded from the original book. Lana Turner is perfect as De Winter - gorgeous, cool, irresistible and deadly. The scenes between Constance and De Winter toward the end of the film are among the best in the movie, very suspenseful (and different from the book).

Turner to me looks carefully made up to hide some extra pounds, not to mention being tightly corsetted. The movie was filmed right after Lana had broken up with the great love of her life, Tyrone Power, which may have had something to do with it.

Van Heflin is sympathetic and strong as Athos, who has a past with De Winter and still loves her, and Vincent Price makes an excellent Cardinal Richlieu.

Gene Kelly is the ideal D'Artagnan, and his casting is very clever, giving him a chance to show the great athleticism that contributed so much to his dancing. His swordplay is amazing, really making the swordfights entertaining.

Though the role has very serious moments, Kelly gives it a lightness and humor when needed. Especially fun is the scene where D'Artagnan, in the dark, poses as Lady De Winter's lover.

There are, as mentioned, many versions of this Dumas classic. This one is vividly entertaining, colorful and energetic, with a very attractive cast, good direction, and a thrilling score. Highly recommended.

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.