The Three Musketeers (1948)

Simply Perfect

Fantastic!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The Three Musketeers (1948): Dir: George Sidney / Cast: Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, Van Heflin, June Allyson, Angela Lansbury: Pure swashbuckling action that is often corny but also entertaining. I never understood the title since Gene Kelly shows up and ends up becoming a fourth Musketeer. Why not call it The Four Musketeers? At any rate he shows up and ends up in confrontation with the original three Musketeers but after they are nearly arrested, they fight the odds and tick off a lot of high rise officials. There are two lovely femme fatales in this film. One of course, he cannot seem to trust, and the other one risks herself while Kelly follows her around in deep suspicion. There is no point to this spectacle but it is entertaining with its sword play and its lame kill scenes where people drop without any puncture wounds. One can say that children would not be able to watch it then. Kelly is in top spirit as the new Musketeer. Van Heflin plays a fellow Musketeer who seems more experienced with the sword. Lana Turner and June Allyson are the two ominous women and there are jewels involved here as well. Angela Lansbury plays Queen Anne who acts as one of the film's symbols of authority, which the Musketeers make little regard for. This is the typical version of the classic story and it represents it effectively right down to the point of the fourth sword. Score: 7 / 10

Boy is this thing all over the place. Sumptous to be sure it has the MGM touch in spades as far as lavishness goes but an inconsistent tone and some terrible casting choices. The good-Vincent Price and Lana Turner are perfect in their roles with Lana looking astonishing in some beautiful and some ridiculous costumes. Angela Lansbury, wasted playing Queen Anne, campaigned for the role of Milady; in hindsight it seems incredible that Mayer said no, how great and truly evil she could have been but Lana was a huge star at the time and she is silkily wicked so no real harm was done to the film. June Allyson may not have been the ideal choice but she doesn't disgrace herself as Constance. The average-Van Heflin, Gig Young and Richard Coote are merely adequate as the musketeers and while Frank Morgan is always a welcome sight he is just so wrong as the king of France. The bad-Gene Kelly as d'Artagnan, and very bad he is, of course he handles the sword fighting episodes well with a dancers grace. It's his over eager and downright dreadful line readings and reactions that are painful and irritating to watch. Whenever he is on screen the movie stops dead in it's tracks. A very mixed bag.

D'artagnan (Gene Kelly) is a feisty country bumpkin who manages to join the company of three devil-may-care musketeers (Van Heflin, Gig Young, and Robert Coote). The four find themselves up to their feather plumes in intrigue, romance, and action. Madame de Winter (Lana Turner) is a treacherous murderer. Constance (June Allyson) is a virginal Queen's maid. The King is supposed to rule France but Richelieu (Vincent Price) is the eminence rouge behind the throne -- nasty, power-hungry, and manipulative. Both ladies are killed, but France is saved from something-or-other and the four musketeers get what they want.I managed to follow the business about the diamond studs well enough, I think, but I got lost later on. There's never much doubt about who is good and who is evil, though. Richelieu, by this time, was a Cardinal in the Catholic church but he's identified only as a politician -- I guess for obvious reasons. He's obviously on the bad side because he wants to go to war. It must be the Thirty Years War. I've forgotten whatever I learned in high school about the Thirty Years War. It had to do with Catholics against Protestants and turned political over time and there was a great deal of suffering among innocent people. That's all I know. I'm only happy it wasn't the HUNDRED Years War because I remember even less about that one.The first half of the film is sort of fun, in a family-oriented way. (This is MGM in its hay day.) Gene Kelly overacts outrageously, as he did during the send up of silent movies in "Singin' in the Rain," but it somehow seems appropriate, since everybody seems full of ham. And of course it's always exhilarating to see Kelly jumping from roof to roof, swinging on ropes, and fighting with furniture during sword play. (He didn't do his own stunts on horseback, though. He couldn't ride well, there having been so few chances to gallop a horse through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was growing up there.) Aramis and Porthos have little to do or say in the film. Only Athos has pathos. Van Heflin's role is mostly dramatic and he handles it well. Lana Turner's wicked charm has always eluded me. And June Allyson is no Queen's Maid. She's Jimmy Stewart's devoted and patient wife. The part would have suited her well if the film had been turned into a musical -- "The Dueling Cavalier", maybe.The costumes will coagulate your eyeballs. The plumes, the flowing capes, the floppy boots and hats. And what colors! From Chinese red, through chartreuse, to powder blue.Kids will enjoy the first half especially, since it's mostly constructed of fights, horse play, and wisecracks among the musketeers. It doesn't try to get serious until the second half, which deals mostly with tragic love stories bolstered or undone by one of Tchaikovsky's symphonies.

MGM pulled out all the stops for this 1948 version of "The Three Musketeers." Filmed in color and directed by George Sidney, it has a large, all-star cast consisting of Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Cornell Wilde, Vincent Price, Angela Lansbury, Robert Coote, Frank Morgan, Keenan Wynn and John Sutton. Gene Kelly is D'Artagnan, who arrives to join the Musketeers and ends up having to fight three duels in a day with Athos (Heflin), Porthos (Young) and Aramis (Coote). They all wind up friends.The Musketeers' first assignment is to steal the Queen's jewels back for her - a gift of twelve diamond studs from her husband (Morgan). She has given them to her lover, the Duke of Buckingham, but now needs them back to wear in nine days' time. Cardinal Richlieu (Price), anxious to reveal the secret relationship between the two, dispatches his evil mistress, Lady De Winter (Turner) to steal two of the studs. Richlieu wants France to declare war against England and completely destroy the King's powers.The Musketeers have to get the jewels from the Duke and return with them to Paris. With two diamond studs missing, they have an added task of picking up two replacements from a jeweler and getting them to the Queen in time to wear them at a banquet. In the process of all of this, D'Artagnan falls in love with the Queen's lady-in-waiting, Constance (Allyson).All of the acting is wonderful, with the role of Lady De Winter expanded from the original book. Lana Turner is perfect as De Winter - gorgeous, cool, irresistible and deadly. The scenes between Constance and De Winter toward the end of the film are among the best in the movie, very suspenseful (and different from the book). Turner to me looks carefully made up to hide some extra pounds, not to mention being tightly corsetted. The movie was filmed right after Lana had broken up with the great love of her life, Tyrone Power, which may have had something to do with it.Van Heflin is sympathetic and strong as Athos, who has a past with De Winter and still loves her, and Vincent Price makes an excellent Cardinal Richlieu. Gene Kelly is the ideal D'Artagnan, and his casting is very clever, giving him a chance to show the great athleticism that contributed so much to his dancing. His swordplay is amazing, really making the swordfights entertaining. Though the role has very serious moments, Kelly gives it a lightness and humor when needed. Especially fun is the scene where D'Artagnan, in the dark, poses as Lady De Winter's lover.There are, as mentioned, many versions of this Dumas classic. This one is vividly entertaining, colorful and energetic, with a very attractive cast, good direction, and a thrilling score. Highly recommended.