Kurt-25

The best movie made from the Dumas' musketeer novels. Lester's skillful direction adds a touch of 1960's anti-authoritarianism to the movie, but never underestimates its characters. It's light entertainment in the word's best sense.

Oliver Reed is the best Athos ever, and the rest of the cast are also fully up to the task. Richard Chamberlain is a ladies' man long before his starring role in the Thornbirds.

You realize just how bad the "Man in the Iron Mask" is if you compare it to The Three Musketeers. With the exception of di Caprio's powerful performance, the "Mask" is a star vehicle which takes itself far too seriously, without displaying anwhere near the same amount of love to the settings, lighting, or camera.

The Three Musketeers is a buddy movie, a swashbuckling movie, and a love story, but more than anything else, it's a showcase example of the mere, undiluted entertainment.

" Valentino's 'Beyond the Rocks' found

April 18, 2004

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A copy of Rudolph Valentino's silent film ''Beyond the Rocks'' has been found in the Netherlands, becoming the only known existing print of the 1922 classic, the Amsterdam Film Museum said Saturday.

The film is ''basically complete and basically undamaged,'' museum historian Jan van den Brink said.

''Beyond the Rocks,'' directed by Sam Wood, was the only film in which Valentino starred opposite Gloria Swanson.

The melodrama was the 24th of Valentino's 32 films. It is about a woman forced to marry an older man. The woman then falls in love with Valentino's character. "

AP

One of the best movies ever. Very dark, very deadpan, perfect acting. Great script, too.

The La Paloma version in the blind man's villa is by Hans Albers.