When D'Artagnan (Gene Kelly), a brilliant swordsman, left his Gasgon village, in 1625, with a letter to Monsieur De Treville, captain of the King's Musketeers (Reginald Owen), he didn't expect to have in his first day, three duels with the three best swordsmen in Paris: Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young), and Aramis (Robert Coote).
But as the duels were forbidden in Paris by Cardinal Richelieu, Chief Minister to King Louis XIII, D'Artagnan had to challenge, first, Jussac, captain of the Guard (Saul Gorss).
The duel, under Tchaikowsky themes, was hilarious and explosive, with great acrobatic skills, good for lots of laugh, specially when D'Artagnan didn't kill the nobleman but he sent him to Richelieu well humiliated "trousers dropping." This amusing scene opens the door of an eternal friendship between D'Artagnan and the three famous Musketeers...
Cardinal Richelieu (Vincent Price) was unpopular, but extremely powerful... He was an ambitious man who wanted war against England and the complete destruction of the King's powers...
King Louis XIII (Frank Morgan) opposed Richelieu's plan for war with England... But the Cardinal, who well knows everything that transpires or has transpired in France, discovers that George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham (John Sutton) in love with the Queen - was in possession of a set of diamonds studs, twelve studs to be exact, that were delivered to him only last night by the elegant Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury) in love with the Duke...
Richelieu asks his mistress, lady De Winter (Lana Turner), to travel to England and to steal two of them... His plan is to demonstrate Buckingham's relation with the Queen, in order to make the poor King "lessen," and "lesser."
The mission of the Musketeers is to return the Jewels to Paris in nine days time, as the Queen has to wear them at the banquet...
Lana Turner gives her finest performance as the cool Lady De Winter, the most notorious woman of France, that Duke of Buckingham even couldn't resist... This lethal lady is rather a peripheral character but so forbidding a creature is she as she lies, steals and murders her way from France to England, from palace to boudoir, that she makes Lucrecia Borgia look like Mary Poppins... Turner's character remained Evil Incarnate from the beginning to the end and the decision to sustain her satanic nature throughout was a great asset to the film and true to the spirit of the original Dumas delineation...
Kelly's D'Artagnan was just as Dumas portrayed hima 17th-century country bumpkin who combines cockiness with courage, ingenuity and a fine gift of swordsmanship... His first meeting with the three musketeers; their consternation at finding that each is to fight a duel with the newcomer at almost the same hour; their sudden enduring friendship with the country lad; D'Artagnan's romance with Constance (June Allyson), the Queen's lady-in-waiting-all this leads into a rapid succession of adventures on land and sea, in tavern, court and boudoir, as they slash their way through a dozen ambushes to save the Queen's honor and to foil the scheming Prime minister and his evil accomplice in their plot to dethrone the King...
Van Heflin is powerful enough in his colorful role as Athos, a man in love with a woman who was evil, selfish, death, poison, a lady whom he don't dare to forgive...
Vincent Price is exciting as the strong Cardinal... I remember him whispering to the weak King quietly at the end of the film: 'I am the State your Majesty. I am France!'
Loaded with spectacular Swordsplay, and with excellent action scenes, and under George Sidney's good direction, this colorful swashbuckling adventure romance is visually great entertainment...
But as the duels were forbidden in Paris by Cardinal Richelieu, Chief Minister to King Louis XIII, D'Artagnan had to challenge, first, Jussac, captain of the Guard (Saul Gorss).
The duel, under Tchaikowsky themes, was hilarious and explosive, with great acrobatic skills, good for lots of laugh, specially when D'Artagnan didn't kill the nobleman but he sent him to Richelieu well humiliated "trousers dropping." This amusing scene opens the door of an eternal friendship between D'Artagnan and the three famous Musketeers...
Cardinal Richelieu (Vincent Price) was unpopular, but extremely powerful... He was an ambitious man who wanted war against England and the complete destruction of the King's powers...
King Louis XIII (Frank Morgan) opposed Richelieu's plan for war with England... But the Cardinal, who well knows everything that transpires or has transpired in France, discovers that George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham (John Sutton) in love with the Queen - was in possession of a set of diamonds studs, twelve studs to be exact, that were delivered to him only last night by the elegant Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury) in love with the Duke...
Richelieu asks his mistress, lady De Winter (Lana Turner), to travel to England and to steal two of them... His plan is to demonstrate Buckingham's relation with the Queen, in order to make the poor King "lessen," and "lesser."
The mission of the Musketeers is to return the Jewels to Paris in nine days time, as the Queen has to wear them at the banquet...
Lana Turner gives her finest performance as the cool Lady De Winter, the most notorious woman of France, that Duke of Buckingham even couldn't resist... This lethal lady is rather a peripheral character but so forbidding a creature is she as she lies, steals and murders her way from France to England, from palace to boudoir, that she makes Lucrecia Borgia look like Mary Poppins... Turner's character remained Evil Incarnate from the beginning to the end and the decision to sustain her satanic nature throughout was a great asset to the film and true to the spirit of the original Dumas delineation...
Kelly's D'Artagnan was just as Dumas portrayed hima 17th-century country bumpkin who combines cockiness with courage, ingenuity and a fine gift of swordsmanship... His first meeting with the three musketeers; their consternation at finding that each is to fight a duel with the newcomer at almost the same hour; their sudden enduring friendship with the country lad; D'Artagnan's romance with Constance (June Allyson), the Queen's lady-in-waiting-all this leads into a rapid succession of adventures on land and sea, in tavern, court and boudoir, as they slash their way through a dozen ambushes to save the Queen's honor and to foil the scheming Prime minister and his evil accomplice in their plot to dethrone the King...
Van Heflin is powerful enough in his colorful role as Athos, a man in love with a woman who was evil, selfish, death, poison, a lady whom he don't dare to forgive...
Vincent Price is exciting as the strong Cardinal... I remember him whispering to the weak King quietly at the end of the film: 'I am the State your Majesty. I am France!'
Loaded with spectacular Swordsplay, and with excellent action scenes, and under George Sidney's good direction, this colorful swashbuckling adventure romance is visually great entertainment...