Les trois mousquetaires: La vengeance de Milady

When TV was not very common in France ,some theatrically released movies looked like miniseries,divided into two parts called "Epoques" ;this is the second part of "Les Trois Mousquetaires" called "Milady's revenge".

At the time,it was the swashbucklers craze and when they could not get Jean Marais,they hired his then alter ego Gérard Barray who was to become a specialist of the genre (see also "Pardaillan").

Bernard Borderie was a costume drama specialist,and he was about to hit the big time with his "Angelique Marquise Des Anges " saga which,unfortunately ,did not do the excellent books justice.

The same can't be said of this poor adaptation;Borderie once said he had to hide the paucity of his budgets with beautiful costumes,nice cinematography (wide screen)and plenty of horses :it shows here:neither the events in England nor the siege of La Rochelle are shown on the screen;even the death of Milady is botched (no "Bourreau De Béthunes"!) Mylène Demongeot is an attractive Milady but she is sadly unsupported by a poor script;Barray is dashing and has plenty of go;the three musketeers have a relatively short time on the screen .

NB:Gerard Barray has made few movies after the sixties,but one of them is a masterpiece :Amenabar's "Abre Los Oyos" ,the part of Serge Duvernois ,from L.I.,remade as "Vanilla skies".