This is the best Fairbanks costume drama I've seen in terms of his agility, the dialogue, quality of action scenes and acting, and set. He just seemed to have it all together with this one, with his character's physical qualities impressing the King and a surprisingly deft battle of wits with Cardinal Richielieu impressing that dangerous man. It is said Fairbanks was a huge fan of Dumas, and indeed he showed deep enough acquaintance with the original "Three Musketeers" to successfully keep the original feel of the book (particularly the last section) while neatly cleaning it to be acceptable to 1920s morals (the Twenties may have roared, but they weren't yet ready for the Executioner of Lille; the darker side of Milady and Athos; Constance's infidelity and tragic end; the anti-Puritan stereotyping; D'Artagnan's becoming not just the talk of Paris but that city's most popular and busy lover of high-society ladies, including just about everybody but the Queen), and so forth.
The original three musketeers did much to keep all that subplot going, and this may be why Fairbanks gives them relatively little to do in the movie. Too, he seems to be focusing on the latter part of the book where D'Artagnan does come to the fore, though if anything, he toned down D'Artagnan's role, too (if you haven't read the book, you're in an over-the-top tour de force, believe me!).
Anyway, the physical performances by Fairbanks that stand out here include, of course, the famous left-handed handspring during the duel (in which we learn what happens when the bad guy, not Indiana Jones, brings a gun to a sword fight); the horsemanship Doug displays; the skill shown in the fencing scenes (he had come a long way from "Mark Of Zorro," which was not bad either); and the general agility he shows whether he's leaping into a cupboard or through a window or tiptoeing across the tip of a rooftop with a damsel in distress on his shoulder. Two sword-fights that stand out, besides the duel, are the one in the apothecary's shop, where not a single jar or bottle is broken in spite of the general mayhem going on between D'Artagnan and the Cardinal's best swordsman, and the scene where Fairbanks squares off against Milady (is this the only scene where Douglas Fairbanks fought a woman?).
The original three musketeers did much to keep all that subplot going, and this may be why Fairbanks gives them relatively little to do in the movie. Too, he seems to be focusing on the latter part of the book where D'Artagnan does come to the fore, though if anything, he toned down D'Artagnan's role, too (if you haven't read the book, you're in an over-the-top tour de force, believe me!).
Anyway, the physical performances by Fairbanks that stand out here include, of course, the famous left-handed handspring during the duel (in which we learn what happens when the bad guy, not Indiana Jones, brings a gun to a sword fight); the horsemanship Doug displays; the skill shown in the fencing scenes (he had come a long way from "Mark Of Zorro," which was not bad either); and the general agility he shows whether he's leaping into a cupboard or through a window or tiptoeing across the tip of a rooftop with a damsel in distress on his shoulder. Two sword-fights that stand out, besides the duel, are the one in the apothecary's shop, where not a single jar or bottle is broken in spite of the general mayhem going on between D'Artagnan and the Cardinal's best swordsman, and the scene where Fairbanks squares off against Milady (is this the only scene where Douglas Fairbanks fought a woman?).