1974 - THE FOUR MUSKETEERS, aka The Revenge of Milady

The conclusion of The Three Musketeers story directed by Richard Lester.  The original film The Three Musketeers was clearly intended as an epic film with a lengthy running time however for what ever reason the producers split the film in two and re titled the remaining film The Four Musketeers much to the annoyance of the actors who thought they were only signing on for one film.

The conclusion of the story more or less follows the plot of the Alexandre Dumas book which frankly is kind of depressing.  Milady De Winter played by Faye Dunaway schemes to get her revenge on the Musketeers for defeating her plans during the first film.  All the expected sword fights and the Richard Lester slapstick touches are here but overall the fun and hi jinks of the first film are missing.  Frankly this film is kind of a downer. I recall one critic at the time speculating that the splitting of the original film was deliberate because all of the fun stuff was in the first film.

 

There are compensations viewing this film.  The all star cast is fun.  The cinematography of David Watkin  looks great and the overall production is impressive with lots of on location filming in Spain.  

 

Thia film was a commercial success.  It gave Richard Lester the hit film he needed although his later films never seemed to live up to his earlier films.  Lester and most of the cast reunited for a sequel in 1989 called The Return of the Musketeers, but it was a disappointing rehash of the earlier films.

Written by George MacDonald Fraiser, the runing time is 108 minutes.