D'artagnan (Gene Kelly) is a feisty country bumpkin who manages to join the company of three devil-may-care musketeers (Van Heflin, Gig Young, and Robert Coote). The four find themselves up to their feather plumes in intrigue, romance, and action. Madame de Winter (Lana Turner) is a treacherous murderer. Constance (June Allyson) is a virginal Queen's maid. The King is supposed to rule France but Richelieu (Vincent Price) is the eminence rouge behind the throne -- nasty, power-hungry, and manipulative. Both ladies are killed, but France is saved from something-or-other and the four musketeers get what they want.
I managed to follow the business about the diamond studs well enough, I think, but I got lost later on. There's never much doubt about who is good and who is evil, though. Richelieu, by this time, was a Cardinal in the Catholic church but he's identified only as a politician -- I guess for obvious reasons. He's obviously on the bad side because he wants to go to war. It must be the Thirty Years War. I've forgotten whatever I learned in high school about the Thirty Years War. It had to do with Catholics against Protestants and turned political over time and there was a great deal of suffering among innocent people. That's all I know. I'm only happy it wasn't the HUNDRED Years War because I remember even less about that one.
The first half of the film is sort of fun, in a family-oriented way. (This is MGM in its hay day.) Gene Kelly overacts outrageously, as he did during the send up of silent movies in "Singin' in the Rain," but it somehow seems appropriate, since everybody seems full of ham. And of course it's always exhilarating to see Kelly jumping from roof to roof, swinging on ropes, and fighting with furniture during sword play. (He didn't do his own stunts on horseback, though. He couldn't ride well, there having been so few chances to gallop a horse through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was growing up there.) Aramis and Porthos have little to do or say in the film. Only Athos has pathos. Van Heflin's role is mostly dramatic and he handles it well. Lana Turner's wicked charm has always eluded me. And June Allyson is no Queen's Maid. She's Jimmy Stewart's devoted and patient wife. The part would have suited her well if the film had been turned into a musical -- "The Dueling Cavalier", maybe.
The costumes will coagulate your eyeballs. The plumes, the flowing capes, the floppy boots and hats. And what colors! From Chinese red, through chartreuse, to powder blue.
Kids will enjoy the first half especially, since it's mostly constructed of fights, horse play, and wisecracks among the musketeers. It doesn't try to get serious until the second half, which deals mostly with tragic love stories bolstered or undone by one of Tchaikovsky's symphonies.
I managed to follow the business about the diamond studs well enough, I think, but I got lost later on. There's never much doubt about who is good and who is evil, though. Richelieu, by this time, was a Cardinal in the Catholic church but he's identified only as a politician -- I guess for obvious reasons. He's obviously on the bad side because he wants to go to war. It must be the Thirty Years War. I've forgotten whatever I learned in high school about the Thirty Years War. It had to do with Catholics against Protestants and turned political over time and there was a great deal of suffering among innocent people. That's all I know. I'm only happy it wasn't the HUNDRED Years War because I remember even less about that one.
The first half of the film is sort of fun, in a family-oriented way. (This is MGM in its hay day.) Gene Kelly overacts outrageously, as he did during the send up of silent movies in "Singin' in the Rain," but it somehow seems appropriate, since everybody seems full of ham. And of course it's always exhilarating to see Kelly jumping from roof to roof, swinging on ropes, and fighting with furniture during sword play. (He didn't do his own stunts on horseback, though. He couldn't ride well, there having been so few chances to gallop a horse through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was growing up there.) Aramis and Porthos have little to do or say in the film. Only Athos has pathos. Van Heflin's role is mostly dramatic and he handles it well. Lana Turner's wicked charm has always eluded me. And June Allyson is no Queen's Maid. She's Jimmy Stewart's devoted and patient wife. The part would have suited her well if the film had been turned into a musical -- "The Dueling Cavalier", maybe.
The costumes will coagulate your eyeballs. The plumes, the flowing capes, the floppy boots and hats. And what colors! From Chinese red, through chartreuse, to powder blue.
Kids will enjoy the first half especially, since it's mostly constructed of fights, horse play, and wisecracks among the musketeers. It doesn't try to get serious until the second half, which deals mostly with tragic love stories bolstered or undone by one of Tchaikovsky's symphonies.