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The Three Musketeers (1973 film)

The Three Musketeers
Three Musketeers 1974.jpg
1974 poster
Directed by Richard Lester
Produced by Alexander Salkind
Ilya Salkind
Pierre Spengler
Written by George MacDonald Fraser
Based on The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas père
Starring Oliver Reed
Charlton Heston
Raquel Welch
Faye Dunaway
Richard Chamberlain
Frank Finlay
Michael York
Christopher Lee
Music by Michel Legrand
Cinematography David Watkin
Edited by John Victor Smith
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • 11 December 1973 (1973-12-11) (France)
  • 29 March 1974 (1974-03-29) (US/UK)
Running time
105 minutes
Country United Kingdom
United States
Language English
Box office $10.1 million (US/ Canada)

The Three Musketeers (also known as The Three Musketeers: The Queen's Diamonds) is a 1973 film based on the The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser. It was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for The Beatles, whom Lester had directed in two other films.

The film adheres closely to the novel, but also injects a fair amount of humor. It was shot by David Watkins, with an eye for period detail. The fight scenes were choreographed by master swordsman William Hobbs.

Having learned swordsmanship from his father, the young country bumpkin d'Artagnan arrives in Paris with dreams of becoming a king's musketeer. Unaccustomed to the city life, he makes a number of clumsy faux pas. First he finds himself insulted, knocked out and robbed by the Comte de Rochefort, an agent of Cardinal Richelieu, and once in Paris comes into conflict with three musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, each of whom challenges him to a duel for some accidental insult or embarrassment. As the first of these duels is about to begin, Jussac arrives with five additional swordsmen of Cardinal Richelieu's guards. D'Artagnan sides with the musketeers in the ensuing street fight and becomes their ally in opposition to the Cardinal, who wishes to increase his already considerable power over the king, Louis XIII. D'Artagnan also begins an affair with his landlord's wife, Constance Bonacieux, who is dressmaker to the Queen, Anne of Austria.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Buckingham, former lover of the Queen, turns up and asks for something in remembrance of her; she gives him a necklace with twelve settings of diamonds, a gift from her husband. From the Queen's treacherous lady in waiting, the Cardinal learns of the rendezvous and suggests to the none-too-bright King to throw a ball in his wife's honor, and request she wear the diamonds he gave her. The Cardinal also sends his agent Milady de Winter to England, who seduces the Duke and steals two of the necklace's diamonds.


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