The Four Musketeers (1974)

Directed by Richard Lester. Starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay, Faye Dunaway, Charlton Heston, Christopher Lee, Geraldine Chaplin, Raquel Welch, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Roy Kinnear, Simon Ward. [PG]

As producer Ilya Salkind would also do with the Man of Steel a few years later, a single narrative is split into two motion pictures, and 1973’s fanciful but disappointing The Three Musketeers gets its conclusion here, an improvement on nearly all counts. This second episode has ameatier (if muddier) story, less slapstick, and more rousing swashbuckling, especially in the action-filled final act. Villains Dunaway (Milady de Winter) and Heston (Cardinal Richelieu) get more to do as well, but even as they scheme their web of machinations, I bet even they’d find the plot just as impenetrable as it was in the first chapter—all for one, and “huh?” for all. Although only periodically stirring, it’s fun when the movie in motion, which it often is, and only the pervasive shallowness holds it back from being a grand, confusing period adventure. Released internationally months prior to its 1975 premieres in the UK and US. Also known by the extended title: The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge. The unofficial—and, this time, unplanned—“trilogy” concludes fifteen years later with The Return of the Musketeers.

70/100