Daily Archives: January 14, 2021

The Three Musketeers
Directed by Richard Lester
Written by George McDonald Frasier from the novel by Alexandre Dumas
1973/US/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

Lady de Winter: Your Eminence is a great player. Great enough to lose. I do not like to lose.
Cardinal Richelieu: You must suit yourself, Milady. But, if in the end you should, do it with a becoming grace.

Richard Lester’s version of the old story is a mixture of derring do with slapstick comedy and simply sumptuous production values.

The story takes place during the reign of Louis XIII.  Young D’Artagnon (Michael York) lives in the country with his father, an ex-Musketeer to the King.  He is sent off with his father’s old sword as an introduction to the current Musketeers Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay) and Aramis (Richard Chamberlin).  He challenges each man to a duel.  This is interrupted by guards enforcing the law against dueling. At any rate, D’Artagnon is rejected as a Musketeer until he has proved himself  in combat.  But they do allow him to hang out with them.

D’Artagnan takes lodging with an old man who is married to Constance (Raquel Welch) dressmaker  to the Queen (Geraldine Chaplin).  Constance is fiercely loyal to the Queen and helps facilitate her assignations with the Duke of Buckingham.  Buckingham asks for a memento to take back to England and the Queen gives him an exquisite set of 12 diamond studs that had been a gift from the king.

Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) and his spies Rochefort (Christopher Lee) and Milady De Winter (Faye Dunaway) have been waiting for just such an opportunity.  A word to the King and the Queen is required to wear them at the next ball.  D’Artagnan is on the next ship to England to retrieve the jewels. I’ll stop there.

I saw this on original release and it was as fun now as it was then.  My plot summary does not reflect the huge amount of swordplay throughout the film.  Lester always keeps the fights interesting.  Then there is a healthy dose of slapstick mostly provided by Raquel Welch who does prat falls like a trooper.  The locations and costumes are incredible.

The cast thought it was making one movie but the studio carved it into two – this and The Four Musketeers (1974).  The cast thought in that case they should receive two salaries. One reason may be that Lester’s shooting method (multiple cameras) meant stunt work had to be kept to a minimum.  Virtually every member of the cast that fought was injured and Oliver Reed was nearly killed when he was accidentally stabbed in the neck.

Print on Amazon Prime is much sharper

O Lucky Man!
Directed by Lindsay Anderson
Written by David Sherwin from an original idea by Malcolm McDowell
1973/UK
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Prison Governor: I’ve sensed the spark of idealism in you and I can move mountains, you know that, hmm. Oh, for a man like you, Travis. Michael, for a boy like you, you’re still young! Everything is possible. The world is your oyster. I can see you stripped, building motorways. You have eyes like Steve McQueen. Did anyone ever tell you that?

 

Lindsay Anderson produces a truly unique film that will leave me scratching my head until I see it again.

The story follows the life of young Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) from his first job through his being cast as an actor.  The story is interspersed with Alan Price and his band playing appropriate songs in front of a neutral background for a kind of “Greek Chorus” effect. The story is told in episodes and the same actors reappear, some many times, in various episodes.   The story gets more incredible and fantastical as it proceeds.

The movie is three hours long and I will give only the briefest outline of the plot.  Eager, naive young Mick Travis gets his first job as an apprentice coffee salesman.  The regional salesman for the Northeast has flown the coop.  The training manager (Rachel Roberts) has taken a liking to him and suggests that he be promoted into that job.

Mick proceeds North.  He takes up lodgings and is friendly with his next-door neighbor, a tailor (Ralph Richardson).  He makes one big sale and suddenly is given the entire territory of Scotland in addition.  At parting, the tailor gives him a golden suit and this advice: “Try not to die like a dog.”

En route to Scotland Mick has numerous adventures, many of them life threatening.  He hitch-hikes away from the latest in a van where he finds Patricia (Helen Mirren) hiding under a blanket.  They immediately fall in love.

Patricia’s father (Ralph Richardson) is a ruthless copper tycoon.  Mick decides to see if he can insinuate himself into the company.  He is immediately hired as the tycoon’s assistant and gets involved in an unsavory deal to sell a chemical weapon to an African country.  The father frames Mick for a crime and he goes to jail.

After being released from prison, Mick feels strangely happy though he has hit rock bottom as far as his financial situation is concerned.  He tries to talk a despondent housewife (Rachel Roberts) out of killing herself.

The next morning, he meets a man who is handing out flyers for an open audition for a part in a film.  The film director (played by Lindsay Anderson) thinks Mick has something special.  He takes several head shots but Mick doesn’t find anything to smile about.  The director smacks him in the head with a script.  Mick slowly breaks into a smile and finds himself in ecstasy.

This movie is three hours long and the time flew by, so that itself is something.  Consider that I left many, many incidents out of the plot summary.  The acting is excellent and the production is excellent.  The social satire is sharp.  I think I need another viewing to really wrap my head around it though.  And I just might do it.

I can’t believe black face was still being used in 1973.  But maybe that just went with the same actor being used in different parts.  It’s only in one segment.