The Three and Four Musketeers

After seeing the new trailer for the latest incarnation of the Musketeers tale and having just purchased my favourite incarnation of the tale from Amazon I decided the time was right to remind myself as to why the 1973 version of this classic tale is my favourite  to date. Firstly it comes from the hands of Richard Lester a fantastic film maker who gave us a Hard days Night and introduced the cinematic landscape to my favourite pop group the Beatles.
Lester took Dumas tale and injected a healthy dose of ribald humour, and heaving bosoms.  Originally conceived as a single production producers Ilya Salkind and Alexander Michael saw an opportunity to split their production in two to increase their profits.

  It is arguable that the 1948 film is the most loyal to its source material, I love it, with its rich colour palette and Gene Kelly's impressive and acrobatic interpretation of D'Artagnan. But as a 7 year old visiting the Cardiff Odeon this was my first introduction to the tale and Michael York for a period until the arrival of Star Wars and Luke Skywalker was my swashbuckling hero of choice.  But the biggest impression was made by Oliver Reed as the Brooding Athos man of secrets and brawling prowess.
 Revisiting the tale this weekend I found it had aged well, sure it might lack urgency in the second film but Oliver Reed's brooding performance had me caught up in the tale yet again. From his messy fighting style part brawler and master swordsman, to the pained lover relating the sorry tale of his marriage to the evil Malady. Then there is York's  role a country bumpkin innocent to the ways of the world with a dream to be one of the Kings musketeers, and  dare I forget Frank Finlay and the late great Roy Kinnear as capable comic relief.
This is a film with rich villains ably played by Charlton Heston and Christopher Lee, with Faye Dunway memorable in her performance as the evil Milady.

The last Misfire was the 2001 edition produced by Disney which with a star studded cast of Kiefer Suntherland , Charlie Sheen , Oliver Platt deserved to be better than it was.
 No my favourite version in my mind has yet to be bettered. I will see the new version but I Paul W.S Anderson has yet to produce a film I can call great and satisfying. Most of his films though visually great lack something in the execution. My god I love Predator and he managed to take a great Stan Winston creation and screw  up its design in AVP . If you wonder why I am uncomfortable with the idea of him being at the helm of this latest incarnation then take a look at the trailer which is online at http://www.three-musketeers-3d.com/