Les trois mousquetaires (1913)

Today's film special is about the two-part film Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1913). This early silent adaptation of Alexandre Dumas père's' famous novel was directed by Henri Pouctal for Le Film d'Art. The film starred Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan and Nelly Cormon as Milady. The cards were unnumbered and the film is lost, so we tried to follow the order of the novel, but we have some hesitations about the cards on Milady's past.


Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan.


Caption: At the inn of Meung-sur-Loire the outfit of the Chevalier d'Artagnan raised the sarcasm of Count Rochefort whom Richelieu sent to Milady de Winter, who is charged by Buckingham with a secret message for the Queen.


Caption: Charlotte Backson, who has taken refuge in an inn, notices the Count de la Fère, a rich gentleman who lives in the neighbourhood. She decided to conquer him and to hide her past.


Caption: When he discovers the past of his wife, the Count de la Fère avenges his honour by chastening the miserable woman who abused him.


Caption: D'Artagnan helps Athos, Porthos and Aramis to take their revenge on the Cardinal's guards.


Caption: In the presence of D'Artagnan, Mr De Treville, the Captain of the King's Musketeers saddles Athos, Porthos and Aramis with reproaches because they have been beaten by the Cardinal's guards.


Caption: the Musketeers and D'Artagnan appreciate the stratagem by Planchet, who to enable his master to fittingly receive his friends, draws liquid and solid from Mrs. Bonacieux' table.


Caption: D'Artagnan saves Mrs Bonacieux and he takes charge to bring the Queen's letter to Buckingham reclaiming from the Duke the twelve studs. On advice of the Cardinal, the king has demanded her to appear with these studs at the upcoming ball at the Hotel-de-Ville.

Extreme length

The very first cinematic adaptation of Dumas' Les trois mousquetaires was a French short made by Georges Méliès in 1903, Les trois mousquetaires et le collier de la reine/The three Musketeers and the Queen's Necklace.

The next adaptation, Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (1913) by Henri Pouctal was the first feature-length film version of the classic novel. In the early 1910s, feature-length films were just starting, but Pouctal's Les trois mousquetaires had already the extreme length of 4000 metres.

The film was released in two parts, La Haine de Richelieu (Richelieu's Hate) and Le Triomphe d'Artagnan (D'Artagnan's Triumph). While several sources list the film as being made in 1912, actually, it was released in Paris and elsewhere in Europe in the fall of 1913 and in the US in 1914.

Henri Pouctal wrote the script too, while cinematography was by Louis Chaix. Sets were by Emile Bertin. The leading actors were Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan and Nelly Cormon as Milady.

In addition, the film featured Marcel Vibert (Athos), Adolphe Candé (Porthos), Stellio (Aramis), Philippe Garnier (Cardinal Richelieu), Jean Peyrière (Count Buckingham), Guizelle (Constance Bonacieux), Henri Legrand (Planchet), Marcel Marquet (Louis XIII), Aimée Raynal (Queen Anne), Edouard Hardoux (Bonacieux), Jacques Volnys (Count De Rochefort). Bit parts were for Jean Duval, Rolla Norman, Édouard de Max, and Marsa Renhardt.


Caption: Thanks to the passport taken from the Count De Rochefort, D'Artagnan can embark for Dover.


Caption: Called back to Britain, the Duke of Buckingham has brought to London twelve diamond studs as a remembrance of their pure love, offered by the Queen of France, and which she had gotten from the King.


Caption: Buckingham returns the twelve diamond studs to D'Artagnan. They are reclaimed by the Queen to satisfy the King's demands.


Caption: Back from London. D'Artagnan has just returned to the Queen the twelve diamonds reclaimed from Buckingham.


Caption: Adorned with the diamond studs, the Queen appears at the Aldermen's Ball, to the great discomfiture of the Cardinal who was already convinced of his triumph.


Caption: Charged to win over D'Artagnan to Richelieu's side, Milady de Winter entertains him at her place, confiding that her charms will conquer the resistance of the ardent knight.


Caption: The stigma.


Caption: Milady de Winter realizes with terror that D'Artagnan has discovered her shameful secret and swears revenge.

The highlight of the season

In his thorough study on 1910s, French silent film, The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema 1896-1914 (1994), Richard Abel wrote that the film was distributed by AGC, the biggest distributor after Pathé and Gaumont around 1913.

From April to October 1913, AGC led a huge campaign to promote Les trois mousquetaires as the highlight of the season. As part of a new distribution strategy, it was pre-screened in the Fall of 1913 at the Paris' cinema Majestic.

Abel states that Pouctal was the sole director of the film, while the Cinémathèque française, IMDb and Wikipedia also list André Calmettes as a co-director.

According to Abel, Les trois mousquetaires is still a lost film, but these postcards give a nice impression.

After the version of Pouctal, many later versions would follow, such as the 1921 and 1933 version by Henri Diamant-Berger. Check out our post on the 1921 version.


Caption: Having become the spy of the Cardinal and the lady-in-waiting of the Queen, Milady de Winter copies Buckingham's message to communicate it to the Cardinal.


Caption: The Cardinal de Richelieu meets Milady de Winter at the Inn of the Red Dove in La Rochelle.


Caption: At the Inn of the Red Dove, Athos recognizes the voice of his wife whom he thought dead. He hears her pleading to Cardinal Richelieu to sentence D'Artagnan to death.


Caption: Unmasked, Milady de Winter leaves the Inn of the Red Dove, swearing revenge.


Caption: As D'Artagnan has escaped her, Milady de Winter decides to hit the one he loves. She pours poison in the glass of Madame Bonacieux, whom the young man has just joined in the Monastery of Bethune.


Caption: D'Artagnan and the Musketeers swear to avenge the death of Madame Bonacieux.


Caption: Milady de Winter is captured by the Musketeers and D'Artagnan in the hovel where she had taken refuge after her murder, and is delivered to the henchman.


Caption: JUSTICE!

Sources: Richard Abel (The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema 1896-1914), Ciné-Ressources (French), Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

Émile Dehelly

French stage and screen actor Émile Dehelly (1871-1969) was a sociétaire of the Comédie-Française from 1903 to 1928 and had a prolific career at Le Film d’Art between 1909 and 1913. He is the father of film actor Jean Dehelly.


French postcard, no. 17. Photo: Cliché Bert. Publicity still for Les trois mousquetaires (Henri Puctal, André Calmettes, 1913) with Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan.


French postcard in the 'Nos artistes dans leur loge' series, no. 158. Photo: Comoedia, Paris.


French postcard. Photo: publicity still for Les trois mousquetaires (Henri Puctal, André Calmettes, 1913) with Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan.

Propaganda tours

Emile Léon Auguste Dehelly was born in 1871 in Fresnoy-le-Grand, France. At a young age, he moved with his father to Epernon.

In 1893, he was drafted and performed his military service at the 102nd Infantry Regiment in Reuilly. Later, he remained a reservist, and Dehelly was drafted in 1915 for the 30th Territorial Regiment Chartres. He would be released in 1917, after which he focused on acting at the Théâtre aux Armées. He performed on propaganda tours in Norway and Sweden, and for interned soldiers in Switzerland.

In 1890 Dehelly entered the Comédie-Française. Between 1903 and 1928 he was sociétaire, a regular member of the organisation and as such received a pension after 20 years of service. He acted mostly in the typical Comédie classics by Molière such as L'École des maris (The School for Husbands) but also plays by William Shakespeare and Victor Hugo.

In 1928 he became sociétaire honoraire and in 1931 he said goodbye to the Comédie. As a farewell, he once more performed his famous role of Dorante in Le Menteur (The Liar) by Pierre Corneille. In 1909 Dehelly started to act at the newly founded Le Film d’Art, initially often under the direction of André Calmettes. He acted in several short films on historical characters who previously had inspired the stage and history painting (Delaroche et. al.).

Examples are Rival de son père/Rival to his father (André Calmettes, 1909), based on Friedrich Schiller’s Don Carlos, Louis XI (André Calmettes, 1909) with Rolla Norman, Héliogabale/Heliogabalus (André Calmettes, 1909), Les enfants d’Édouard/The Children of Edward IV (André Calmettes, 1910), La reine Margot/Queen Margot (Camille de Morlhon, 1910) with Berthe Bovy in the lead, and Camille Desmoulins (Henri Pouctal, 1911) with Dehelly himself in the lead. At the Éclair company, Dehelly also acted in short comedies such as Un coup de vent/The gale (Émile Chautard, 1910) with Suzanne Goldstein and Amour et science/Love and Science (?, 1912) with Renée Sylvaire.


French postcard. Photo: publicity still for Les trois mousquetaires (Henri Puctal, André Calmettes, 1913) with Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan, Marcel Vibert (Athos), Adolphe Candé (Porthos) and Stellio (Aramis).


French postcard. Photo: publicity still for Les trois mousquetaires (Henri Puctal, André Calmettes, 1913) with Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan and Guizelle as Constance Bonacieux (at right).

D’Artagnan

In 1913, Émile Dehelly had the lead as D’Artagnan in the two-part, lengthy feature film Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers, produced by Le Film d’Art. André Calmettes was replaced as the main director at the Film d'art by Henri Pouctal. With Pouctal he previously had acted in the short La comtesse Sarah, a Georges Ohnet adaptation, which starred Nelly Cormon, who would become Dehelly’s antagonist in Les trois mousquetaires as Milady De Winter.

Though Les trois mousquetaires was intensely promoted and internationally well received, Dehelly stopped his film acting for some years. He returned in only one more silent film, Graziella (Marcel Vandal, 1926), and two early sound films: Maurin des Maures (André Hugon, 1932), and Chair ardente/Burning Flesh (René Plaisetty, 1932). In Graziella, he played the writer Alphonse de Lamartine in his older years, while the young Lamartine was played by his own son Jean Dehelly, Graziella by Nina Vanna and Graziella’s lover Cecco by Antonin Artaud.

Chair ardente was director Plaisetty’s last film and was not a huge success. This may have contributed to the fact that Dehelly afterwards didn’t act in film anymore. He was past 60 by then and had already stopped at the Comédie française the year before.

His son Jean Dehelly, born in 1896, had a prolific career in French silent cinema of the 1920s. He also stopped his film acting in 1932. There may be a connection here.

Émile Dehelly died in 1969 in Paris, at the extremely high age of 98. He survived his son Jean by five years.


French postcard. Photo: publicity still for Les trois mousquetaires (Henri Puctal, André Calmettes, 1913) with Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan.


French postcard. Photo: publicity still for Les trois mousquetaires (Henri Puctal, André Calmettes, 1913) with Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan and Nelly Cormon as Milady.


French postcard. Photo: publicity still for Les trois mousquetaires (Henri Puctal, André Calmettes, 1913) with Émile Dehelly as D'Artagnan and Jacques Volnys as Count De Rochefort.


French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: A. Bert. Caption: Emile Dehelly de la Comédie Française. Emile Dehelly as D'Artagnan in the Le Film d'Art production of Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Pouctal, 1913), based on Alexandre Dumas' famous novel.

Sources: Ciné-ressources (French), Gallica (French), INA (FRench), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb. Watch also this television interview of 1958 in which a lively Dehelly recalls his work at the Comédie but also a radio performance of Le menteur he once did.

This post was last updated on 11 December 2023.