The Three Musketeers

“One for all, and all for one” – who isn’t familiar with the famous motto of THE THREE MUSKETEERS – Alexandre Dumas’ historical adventure novel which proved to be so popular that it was adapted for screen time and time again. This 1973 version – starring Michael York as aspiring swordsman D’Artagnan, plus Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay as his swashbuckling friends, has just been given the 4K treatment in celebration of the film’s 50th anniversary.

Set in 17th century France, energetic yet naïve and somewhat unpolished country bumpkin d’Artagnan (Michael York) sets off to Paris with his head in the clouds, that is to say, he harbours strong aspirations of climbing the social ladder quickly by becoming a King’s musketeer. Instead, thanks to his bumbling ways and utter inexperience regarding life in the big metropolis, he merely succeeds in descending the ladder by committing one faux pas after another… but even before he reaches Paris he has a nasty encounter with the arrogant Comte de Rochefort (Christopher Lee in his element), the eye-patch wearing villain (otherwise known as the Cardinal’s living blade) who works as an agent for the scheming Richellieu (Charlton Heston) – the Cardinal in question. Utterly humiliated (not to mention robbed by the Comte) d’Artagnan’s misadventures continue when he happens to irritate and insult the three musketeers Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay) and Aramis (Richard Chamberlain) who challenge him to a duel as a lesson for his shoddy mannerisms. However, just as the duels are about to commence the three musketeers find themselves confronted with Jussac (Angel del Pozo) and five of his swordsmen who are all in the employ of Cardinal Richellieu… and don’t see eye to eye with the apparent holyman. Fear not, the ever eager d’Artagnan sees his chance to prove his formidable skills not only as a hothead but a bona fide swordsman… and sides with the three musketeers, resulting in the defeat of Jussac and his men, while a new friendship between the four ‘rebels’ – all of whom oppose the Cardinal - is formed.

Meanwhile, taking up quarters in the rundown guesthouse, d’Artagnan makes the acquaintance of super sexy landlady Constance Bonacieux (the late Raquel Welch), wife of landlord Monsieur Bonacieux (Spike Milligan). Suffice to say, the dashing d’Artagnan and the buxom Constance are instantly attracted to each other, well, can you blame her, seeing how her hubby looks like an old goat and shuffles about wearing a ridiculous nightdress? While d’Artagnan and Constance, who also happens to be the dressmaker to Queen Anne of Austria (Geraldine Chaplin), are busy getting close, Queen Anne and the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward), her former lover, also get close again during a secret rendezvous in a launderette of all places. Everyone knows that there is no love lost between the Queen and her foppish and not exactly bright King, Louis XIII (Jean-Pierre Cassel), so when the dastardly Cardinal finds out that Queen Anne gave the Duke of Buckingham a diamond-studded necklace (a present from her husband) as a ‘remembrance gift’, he immediately sets to plot his next chess move in order to further increase his power and influence over the King.

This he hopes to achieve by suggesting to the King that he should throw a ball in his wife’s honour with the request she wear said diamond necklace and if you begin to wonder how a scheming plot fits into all this: well, as we already know, the Cardinal has an array of agents working for him – one is the seductive and unscrupulous Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway) who is promptly dispatched to follow the Duke of Buckingham to England where she (oh really, the Duke is only human… or simply just a man) sets about seducing the Duke. His eyes wandering up and down her cleavage and other parts, Milady has no trouble locating the necklace and removing two diamonds from it. Imagine the scandal when the Queen appears with an incomplete necklace, a precious present from the King no less… Distressed, Queen Anne confides in Constance who in turn begs d’Artagnan to set sail for England in order to retrieve the stolen diamonds. Together with the three musketeers he finds himself en route to Ole Blighty but how did you guess that they are not the only ones setting sail, for the Cardinal’s men are hot on their heels…

This is splendid fun, injected with a hefty dose of humour. So much so that the film won the ‘1973 Evening Standard British Awards’ in the category for ‘Best Comedy’ while Raquel Welch won a Golden Globe in the category ‘Best Actress’ (this was at a time when actresses were still called actress…). That said, Michael York is just as much fun and the costumes are a real treat!

This 4K release also contains Special Features like trailers and ‘Making of….’