In Richard Lester's semi-slapstick rendition of Dumas's durable tale, the musketeers carry out their appointed exploits apparently only because the book says they shall and not because they are able. It seems a bright idea to show swashbuckling as a loony, heedless, head-over-heels activity; but the swashbuckling genre has always had a strong inclination towards humor, and few examples, from the Douglas Fairbanks-Errol Flynn-Burt Lancaster prototypes to the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope-Danny Kaye travesties to De Broca's wily Cartouche, have shown a sense of humor as pinch-minded as Lester's. Still, its laughs are frequent enough, its pace is quick enough, and its promised sequel is not unwelcome. A wealth of period curiosities were dug up, or dreamed up, but it is characteristic of Lester's stinginess that these things are never displayed in a fashion to enlighten, historically, but always to boggle, surreally. With Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, Richard Chamberlain, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Charlton Heston. (1974) — Duncan Shepherd
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