Word: artagnan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay), Aramis (Richard Chamberlain) and D'Artagnan (Michael York). But Lester has added to their motto, "All for one and one for all," his own realistic coda: "And every man for himself." His musketeers are mercenaries, albeit loyal ones, and their adventures occur on the mud-puddled roads and in the filthy rooms of 17th century France...
...prodigal range of appeal: the grandeur of the court of Louis XIII; the scandalous romance between his Queen and England's Chief Minister, the Duke of Buckingham; the political intrigues of Cardinal Richelieu; and most of all, the high-flying exploits of young Musketeer-Aspirant D'Artagnan and his three companions as they battle to foil the Cardinal's schemes and thus cover themselves with glory, honor and material reward...
...OTHER aspects of the picture fit just as comfortably into this tension-releasing pattern. Michael York's D'Artagnan would be romantic and gallant in a normal film like this, but here he never gets a chance to set his chin and gaze into the horizon because the comedy keeps him too busy being wide-eyed and gulpy. The wonderful period sets, costumes and scenery (filmed in Spain, with horses and falconry and royal picnics galore) might have seemed heavy and historically meticulous except that there's always something faintly ridiculous going on, which never distracts because the plot keeps...
...musketeers-Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay and Michael York as D'Artagnan-all perform admirably. When the casting threatens to become too capricious (Raquel Welch as the Queen's confidante, Faye Dunaway as the archvillainess, Charlton Heston as Richelieu), Lester exploits the absurdity. He made the discovery, for example, that Welch and Dunaway, for all their physical dissimilarity, are basically the same actress. So a climactic brawl between them is funny not just for itself but because of the two people playing them...
...Winter. With a curiously pathological doggedness, the play heaps all the injustices in its world at the doorstep of the woman. Unfortunately, Lori Heineman isn't quite capable of infusing the role with the stature and presence it demands. She is simply not convincing as a foil for D'Artagnan and the rest of the boys in his band, and so ends the play more a pathetic scapegoat than tragic villainess...