The Three Musketeers (1935)
Directed by Rowland V. Lee

Film Review

The first English-language sound film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers is a sprightly romp that manages to compress most of the action of the original tome into a hectic ninety minute gallop.  The production values are surprisingly good for an R.K.O. film of this time and Rowland V. Lee directs the film with gusto.  The swordfight scenes are masterfully choreographed but the lack of a charismatic lead prevents the film from have anything like the impact of other adaptations of Dumas' famous swashbuckler.  Fine actor though he is, Walter Abel makes a dreary D'Artagnan, and the eponymous musketeers are so hard to tell apart that they merge into a kind of lumbering three-headed blob.  Margot Grahame spices things up a little with her deliciously evil Milady de Winter, but Ian Keith's villainous de Rochefort has even less presence than the sword-fighting heroes.  Compared with some of the other screen adaptations of The Three Musketeers this one is pretty undistinguished, although it does give the musketeers an amusing little ditty.

Film Synopsis

France, 1625.  The young D'Artagnan leaves his home in Gascony and sets out for Paris, hoping to serve under King Louis XIII as a musketeer.  Within hours of his arrival in the capital, he manages to insult three of the king's musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, but having challenged them to a duel he impresses with his sword-fighting skills, foiling an attempt at capture by the guards of Cardinal Richelieu.  In his lodgings, D'Artagnan is visited by Constance, lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne, who has arranged a secret meeting between her queen and the Duke of Buckingham, an English nobleman.  The latter is threatening to start a war against France but the Queen dissuades him, securing a pact of peace with a gift of diamonds given to her by the King.  When he hears of this, the calculating Count de Rochefort sees an opportunity to discredit the Queen and depose the King.  He enlists the help of Milady de Winter to steal the Queen's diamonds from Buckingham.  Realising that her honour and life are in peril, the Queen appeals to D'Artagnan and his three musketeer friends to recover the diamonds before de Rochefort can bring his wicked plans to fruition...