Nowadays it is common for movies to be shot back to back and be released a few months from each other (Matrix, LOTR), but back in the 1970s it was not that common. Richard Lester (veteran Beatle's director of such follies as "Hard Day's Nigh", 1964, or "Help!", 1965), tackled the subject of Alexandre Dumas' novel not on one, but on two 100 minute movies shot together and released one year apart. This roused a funny story, as the all star cast was hired for one movie, and when they found out it would be split in two, they put the producers in court to receive a two movie fee. These stories aside one thing distinguishes this particular adaptation from others. Basically, it has its very own particular and very special kind of humour. It was like watching George Lazemby's take on James Bond. It was a serious movie (that is, not an assumed comedy), but it was treated in such a way that the characters were all aware of the mockery they made of themselves. Furthermore, the movie is indeed very funny, and never in a cliché way. Every scene has always a very amusing detail, ingeniously though and never gratuitous, that makes you laugh several times. The cast, off course, is a jewel. Michael York is an illiterate D'Artagnan, who looks like a spy from a spy spoof, meaning that he is clumsy, a little dumb, appeals to the ladies with very horrible bed-side lines, but is valiant and fights well, and saves the day often without almost knowing how. Richard Chamberlain is a suave Aramis, Frank Finlay is Porthos, Oliver Reed shines as Athos, Christopher Lee is Rochefort but is overshadowed completely by Charlton Heston's snake-like Richelieu. The ladies are Rachel Welch, as a very idiotic Constance (very idiotic indeed), Geraldine Chaplin as the Queen, and Faye Dunaway as Milady, one of the best in the picture. Unfortunately, I do not know if its the 17th century hairs, or the large clothes (although the director focuses more than often on the breasts...), or the enormous amount of make-up, but none of these sexy screen goddesses from the 60s looked very sexy here... Anyway, this all star cast gives credibilityvto the usual story. The first movie sees D'Artagnan go to Paris, meet the three musketeers, etc, etc. The plot centres around the relation of the Queen with the Duke of Buckingham, and the plans Richelieu has of using that to his advantage in his influence with the King. There is a necklace that the king has given the queen and she in turn gave to the Duke, that she must get back to avoid the affair from being found. So the musketeers go back and fourth from England and France, face Milady and win, and D'Artagnan ends the movie gaining his spot as musketeer. The second movie revolves around war between England and France, the plot to kill the Duke, and Milady's revenge with the kidnapping of Constance. But well, actually the movies have very simple plots, very easy to follow, that are presented and then easily thrown aside. What overlaps are the various fighting and chase scenes that keep on coming, all of them filled with funny elements that never let one take the movie seriously. The musketeers are all children that never grew up, basically, and the movie is set on its own parallel universe of intelligent humour. Only in the end of the second does the movie have a darker tone, but the last scene quickly takes ones mind of that. So, in the end, these two movies are a very original and entertaining adaptation of the novel. They are a blockbuster at a time when that didn't exist, and display lightly action and comedy to a very appealing effect. As a work of art not a masterpiece, but very entertaining 200 minutes, which will let you laugh a lot. I am sure that "Pirates of the Caribbean" must have inherited something from here. Best line: when D'Artagnan enters a room with 4 guards standing on a carpet, he, like a magician, tries to pull the carpet under them to make them trip. He ends up just tearing a piece of it. As D'Artagnan looks astonished at the piece of carpet in his hand, one of the guards, looking incredulously at the other three, just says in the most stupid voice: "He tore our carpet!"... Faithful to the novel but yet with a particularity that makes it unique and very funny. Beats by far another entertaining adaptation: Disney's 1993 with Chris 0'Donnel. Just one more thing, in 1989, the director and most of the cast returned not too successfully in "The Return of the Musketeers" with a young Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City's Samantha) as the daughter of Milady, in a movie set really 20 years later with the old musketeers being called to a new adventure. Haven't seen that one yet but if it retains the essence of these two then it should be worth it...
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