The Return of the Musketeers

The Return of the Muketeers marks the reunion of the cast of the best adaptation of Dumas' novel. Here, they take up the story of the sequel, The Twenty Years After. Unfortunately, it would mark the untimely end of the life and wonderful career of actor Roy Kinnear. Ironically, the tragedy is in keeping with the darker tone of the novel.

Spoliers-D'Artagnan is still a lieutenant in the King's Musketeers, his companions having retired to estates and abbeys. D'Artagnan finds himself tasked by Cardinal Mazarin to undermine the rebellion of Beufort and the Frondists. He also finds himself the target of Milady's legacy; her evil daughter.

The film starts out a bit slow, seemingly having trouble finding its footing. It picks up when the other Musketeers enter the picture and as the film progresses. Unfortunately, the tragic accident suffered by Roy Kinnear casts a palor over the ending.

The original cast is as good now as in the original films. Philippe Noiret was a fine addition as Mazarin. Jean-Pierre Cassel returns, this time as Cyrano De Bergerac. Kim Cattrall is a mixed bag; she has some good moments, but her overall performance is lacking. C. Thomas Howell is completely forgettable as Athos' son, Raoul.

Part of the problem with this film is that Mazarin never seems as formidable as Richelieu and Cattrall is a poor caricature of Faye Dunaway. The scheming nature of Aramis is nicely illustrated by Richard Chamberlain, and Frank Finlay provides a wonderful turn as Porthos. Oliver Reed was sliding quickly into the depths of his career at this point, but he has many fine moments.

One wonders if the film would have been better without the tragedy that befell it? Certainly, it affected the actors' performances. Still, the script was a bit lacking and budgetary restraints did hurt as well. It would have been interesting to see the group tackle the final Musketeer installment, The Man in the Iron Mask. They certainly could have improved upon the Randall Wallace version. All-in-all, the film is fine entertainment for a quiet evening or a rainy weekend.

One note of trivia: Philippe Noiret would later play D'Artagnan in Bertrand Tavernier's Revenge of the Musketeers.

Richard Lester attempts to recreate the magic of his '70s "Musketeer" films, and for the most part he succeeds, but "The Return of the Musketeers" is a bit too episodic at times and occasionally feels rushed, particularly at the end. It's fun to see the foursome back together again, though, and Jean-Pierre Cassel (who played Louis XIII in the earlier films) has a nice turn as a delusional Cyrano de Bergerac. Too bad this turned out to be Lester's last film (not counting the Paul McCartney concert film "Get Back").

The third installment in the Lester saga ,the fourth ("Le Vicomte De BRagelonne" feat. the iron mask) was never filmed ,because this one was not very commercially successful.

Roughly based on "Vingt Ans Après" ,"the return" was made sixteen years later ,with the same actors (Faye Dunaway ,Raquel Welch and Charlton Heston are not present ,their characters being all dead).Also Louis the Thirteenth is dead,Jean-Pierre Cassel who played his role,returns as Cyrano De Bergerac who comes at the most awkward moment.

The historical background is thin,although dealing with "La Fronde" ,a noble rebellion,and Mazarin's struggle to maintain the absolute monarchy ;and in spite of the musketeers,he was successful ,for the Sun King's reign only began with his death in 1661 ,when he was already 23.

Unlike in the book,it's a daughter (Justine De Winter) and not a son who wants to avenge her mother Milady.It's first surprising but becomes repetitive in the long run.It lacks some imagination:why not an affair with Raoul for instance?

The first movie of the saga remains the most successful:in this one,time has taken its toll,and what could have been another magnificent "Robin and Marion" ,a journey through the past tinged with nostalgia ,remains here a moderately entertaining swashbuckler.

A great hoax circulates about this movie. Unfortunately, we are at a time when there are no principles and the websites copy here and there, without more, without citing provenance, including the supposedly serious ones. And so repeated ends up looking true. On September 18, 1988, during the filming in Toledo, at the great Puente de Alcántara, the actor Roy Kinnear fell from his saddle. He was taken to the hospital in Toledo and was diagnosed with a partial pelvic fracture. Not having a serious prognosis, he was transferred that afternoon to the Ruber clinic in Madrid. The next day, when he was hospitalized, he had a heart attack and died. It is said that Richard Chamberlain, angered by the event, left the shooting. This rumor was fueled by the fact of his brief role in the film. Well, ... IT IS COMPLETELY FALSE. Chamberlain had gladly accepted to participate in the film, but on condition that his already signed commitments were respected. It was filming a few days, until Friday, September 3 in San Lorenzo de El Escorial (nearby Madrid). On September 4, 15 days before the unfortunate event, he set course for Los Angeles. This is reflected in the chronicle of diary La Vanguardia of September 4, 1988.

Lester's musketeer films were some of the first films I ever saw in the movie theatre, and I was entranced. Disappointingly I also saw "The Fifth Musketeer" with a different set of actors, and a different production team. Fast forward ten to fifteen years after that, and I'm channel surfing one evening when I come across some kind of period piece that happens to looks like a musketeer film on WTBS.

And it is. Complete with Michael York and gang to reprise their roles.

Huh? Wha-? "Return of the Musketeers"? How is it that I never heard of this movie? Particularly when it came out a few years before airing on Ted Turner's Superstation?

Unfortunately I only caught the final twenty minutes or so, but I knew WTBS would reair it at some point, or it'd be available on VHS somewhere. Right?

Nope.

Just like the book upon which the film was based I had to wait twenty years to get a DVD of this film, and from where? France. Fitting, if somewhat ironic given the production team. As part of a three film set I had to repurchase the original 1970's films, but at least I finally have the full set of Richard Lester's renaissance tales.

But, to the film. I like it. It's not quite as extraordinary as the first two films, but it does manage to recapture some of the atmosphere set by the previous two films. We see the decadence of the privileged aristocracy, but we don't quite see the visual juxtaposition of what was filth ridden Europe at that point in history.

I have to admit that the film feels somewhat cobbled together, but I enjoyed it all the same. As you probably already know comedic actor Roy Kinnear's life was tragically cut short working on this production, and the film is appropriately dedicated to him.

I guess the one thing that really stands out in this film is the fact that it's a relatively low budget affair. When the first musketeer films were shot the film makers had the advantage of shooting under Franco's Spain, making the production a cheap affair for en epic scale production. I guess when democracy spreads the wealth it also spreads the demand for wealth, making things more expensive, therefore reducing the scale of the action and truncating any large battle scenes. You can tell that in spite of this being an expensive production that the money just wasn't there to do proper Richard Lester justice for this third installment of the musketeer movies.

All in all I enjoyed it. As I say the production values aren't quite there. Noticeably the one real critique that I had with the second film "The Four Musketeers" was the fact that Michael Legrand's adventurous score was absent. So it is with this film. Which is a shame, because an adventurous film needs an adventurous score. Oh well.

Like I say, it's not the best film in the series, but I'm glad to finally have it in my collection, albeit on Region 2 DVD. Give it a chance if you're new. If you remember the 70's musketeer films, then give this one a spin for a small bit of remembrance.