The Four Musketeers (film)
Encyclopedia
The Four Musketeers is a 1974 Richard Lester
film that follows upon his film of the year before, The Three Musketeers
, and covers the second half of Dumas
' novel The Three Musketeers
. Fifteen years later, the cast and crew returned to film The Return of the Musketeers
, loosely based on Dumas' Twenty Years After
.
During post production on The Three Musketeers, the producers realized that there was enough footage for two films and created The Four Musketeers. Most of the actors were incensed that their work on the long shoot was used to make an entirely separate film. All SAG
actors' contracts now have what is known as the "Salkind clause", which stipulates how many films are being made.
, Cardinal Richelieu orders Count de Rochefort to kidnap Constance de Bonancieux. The evil Milady de Winter, who wants revenge on d'Artagnan, seduces him to keep him occupied. He soon discovers her true nature, however, and that she was once in love with Athos, who had supposedly killed her however, after realizing what she was, a criminal.
Athos, Porthos, and Aramis rescue Constance from her imprisonment in San Cleux and take her to safety in the convent of Armentieres. Milady sends d'Artagnan poisoned wine along with a note to trick him into thinking that the other musketeers got drunk and imprisoned by a marshal. As he goes to bail them out, he is attacked by Rochefort and his men. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis join the fight, at the end of which Rochefort runs away and one of his men is captured and tortured for information, revealing that Richelieu is going to the Dove Cot Inn, before he drinks the poisoned wine and dies, revealing the trap Milady set for d'Artagnan. Athos spies on Richelieu as the cardinal gives Milady the order to persuade the Duke of Buckingham not to send a relieve force to aid the rebels, threatening him with the secret of his love affair with the queen, and to kill him if he does not comply. In return, Milady asks for a death warrant so she can kill d'Artagnan and Constance, and he reluctantly signs one, wording it in a way so that it does not leave any evidence against him.
However, Athos takes the death warrant from de Winter and later tells d'Artagnan of the dastardly plot. d'Artagnan sends out his servant Planchet to warn the Duke. In England, Milady asks Buckingham not to help the rebels, but he refuses, so Milady tries to assassinate him, but is captured. Buckingham's servant Felton locks her away in a tower, but she seduces him and convinces him that Buckingham is his enemy. Felton helps her escape and return to France, and then kills Buckingham before Planchet can warn him. It is not long before La Rochelle surrenders.
Now bent on killing d'Artagnan and Constance, Rochefort and Milady occupy the convent at Armentieres, and battle the four musketeers when they arrive. While Rochefort and his men hold the musketeers at bay, Milady strangles Constance before being captured by Athos. d'Artagnan duels Rochefort to the death and spears him in the chest, killing him. Milady is sentenced to death by beheading by the four musketeers, and they hire an executioner to carry out the punishment. Right afterwards, they are arrested by the cardinal's guards.
Richelieu charges d'Artagnan for killing his two most valuable servants, but d'Artagnan shows him the signed death warrant, which (due to its unclear wording) fully legitimizes d'Artagnan's actions. Utterly defeated and quite impressed at d'Artagnan's achievement, the cardinal gives him a commission for either him or one of his three friends to become an officer. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis turn it down, so d'Artagnan is now promoted to lieutenant of the musketeers.
Richard Lester
Richard Lester is an American film director based in Britain. Lester is notable for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s and his work on the Superman film series in the 1980s.-Early years and television:...
film that follows upon his film of the year before, The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers (1973 film)
The Three Musketeers is a 1973 film based on the novel 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...
, and covers the second half of Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
' novel The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard...
. Fifteen years later, the cast and crew returned to film The Return of the Musketeers
The Return of the Musketeers
The Return of the Musketeers is a 1989 film adaptation loosely based on the novel Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is the third Musketeers film directed by Richard Lester, following 1973's The Three Musketeers and 1974's The Four Musketeers...
, loosely based on Dumas' Twenty Years After
Twenty Years After
Twenty Years After is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père, first serialized from January to August, 1845. A book of the D'Artagnan Romances, it is a sequel to The Three Musketeers and precedes The Vicomte de Bragelonne .The novel follows events in France during La Fronde, during the childhood reign...
.
During post production on The Three Musketeers, the producers realized that there was enough footage for two films and created The Four Musketeers. Most of the actors were incensed that their work on the long shoot was used to make an entirely separate film. All SAG
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
actors' contracts now have what is known as the "Salkind clause", which stipulates how many films are being made.
Plot
During a war between France and the Protestant rebels of La RochelleLa Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
, Cardinal Richelieu orders Count de Rochefort to kidnap Constance de Bonancieux. The evil Milady de Winter, who wants revenge on d'Artagnan, seduces him to keep him occupied. He soon discovers her true nature, however, and that she was once in love with Athos, who had supposedly killed her however, after realizing what she was, a criminal.
Athos, Porthos, and Aramis rescue Constance from her imprisonment in San Cleux and take her to safety in the convent of Armentieres. Milady sends d'Artagnan poisoned wine along with a note to trick him into thinking that the other musketeers got drunk and imprisoned by a marshal. As he goes to bail them out, he is attacked by Rochefort and his men. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis join the fight, at the end of which Rochefort runs away and one of his men is captured and tortured for information, revealing that Richelieu is going to the Dove Cot Inn, before he drinks the poisoned wine and dies, revealing the trap Milady set for d'Artagnan. Athos spies on Richelieu as the cardinal gives Milady the order to persuade the Duke of Buckingham not to send a relieve force to aid the rebels, threatening him with the secret of his love affair with the queen, and to kill him if he does not comply. In return, Milady asks for a death warrant so she can kill d'Artagnan and Constance, and he reluctantly signs one, wording it in a way so that it does not leave any evidence against him.
However, Athos takes the death warrant from de Winter and later tells d'Artagnan of the dastardly plot. d'Artagnan sends out his servant Planchet to warn the Duke. In England, Milady asks Buckingham not to help the rebels, but he refuses, so Milady tries to assassinate him, but is captured. Buckingham's servant Felton locks her away in a tower, but she seduces him and convinces him that Buckingham is his enemy. Felton helps her escape and return to France, and then kills Buckingham before Planchet can warn him. It is not long before La Rochelle surrenders.
Now bent on killing d'Artagnan and Constance, Rochefort and Milady occupy the convent at Armentieres, and battle the four musketeers when they arrive. While Rochefort and his men hold the musketeers at bay, Milady strangles Constance before being captured by Athos. d'Artagnan duels Rochefort to the death and spears him in the chest, killing him. Milady is sentenced to death by beheading by the four musketeers, and they hire an executioner to carry out the punishment. Right afterwards, they are arrested by the cardinal's guards.
Richelieu charges d'Artagnan for killing his two most valuable servants, but d'Artagnan shows him the signed death warrant, which (due to its unclear wording) fully legitimizes d'Artagnan's actions. Utterly defeated and quite impressed at d'Artagnan's achievement, the cardinal gives him a commission for either him or one of his three friends to become an officer. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis turn it down, so d'Artagnan is now promoted to lieutenant of the musketeers.
Cast
- Michael YorkMichael York (actor)Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
as d'ArtagnanD'ArtagnanCharles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard and died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War. A fictionalized account of his life by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras formed the basis for the d'Artagnan Romances of... - Oliver ReedOliver ReedOliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
as AthosAthos (fictional character)Olivier d'Athos de la Fère, Comte de la Fère is a fictional character, a Musketeer of the Guard in the novels The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père.... - Frank FinlayFrank FinlayFrancis Finlay, CBE is an English stage, film and television actor.-Personal life:Finlay was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, the son of Margaret and Josiah Finlay, a butcher. A devout Catholic, he belongs to the British Catholic Stage Guild. He was educated at St...
as PorthosPorthosPorthos, Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds is a fictional character in the novels The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père. He and the other two musketeers Athos and Aramis are friends of the novel's protagonist, d'Artagnan... - Richard Chamberlain as AramisAramisC. René d'Aramis de Vannes is a fictional character in the novels The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père...
- Jean-Pierre CasselJean-Pierre CasselJean-Pierre Cassel was a French actor.-Life and career:Cassel was born Jean-Pierre Crochon in Paris, the son of Louise-Marguerite , an opera singer, and Georges Crochon, a doctor. Cassel was discovered by Gene Kelly as he tap danced on stage, and later cast in the 1957 film The Happy Road...
as (King) Louis XIIILouis XIII of FranceLouis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority... - Geraldine ChaplinGeraldine ChaplinGeraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
as (Queen) Anne of AustriaAnne of AustriaAnne of Austria was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish Infanta by birth... - Charlton HestonCharlton HestonCharlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
as Cardinal RichelieuArmand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal RichelieuArmand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac was a French clergyman, noble, and statesman.Consecrated as a bishop in 1608, he later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a... - Faye DunawayFaye DunawayFaye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
as Milady de WinterMilady de WinterMilady Clarick de Winter, often referred to as simply Milady, is a fictional character in the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. She acts as a spy for Cardinal Richelieu and is one of the chief antagonists of the story.... - Christopher LeeChristopher LeeSir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
as the Count De RochefortComte de RochefortThe Comte de Rochefort is a secondary fictional character in Alexandre Dumas' d'Artagnan Romances. He is described as "around forty or forty-five, fair with a scar across his cheek".-In "The Three Musketeers":... - Raquel WelchRaquel WelchJo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...
as Constance Bonacieux - Roy KinnearRoy KinnearRoy Mitchell Kinnear was an English character actor. He is best remembered for playing Veruca Salt's father, Mr. Salt, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
as Planchet - Michael GothardMichael GothardMichael Alan Gothard was an English actor, best remembered for his role as Kai in the television series Arthur of the Britons and for his role as the mysterious villain Emile Leopold Locque in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.-Early life:Michael Gothard was born in London in 1939...
as Felton