The Four Musketeers (film)

Infobox Film
name = The Four Musketeers

---

caption = 1975 movie poster
director = Richard Lester
producer = Alexander Salkind
Pierre Spengler
writer = George MacDonald Fraser
based on the novel by
Alexandre Dumas, père
starring = Oliver Reed
Charlton Heston
Raquel Welch
Faye Dunaway
Richard Chamberlain
Frank Finlay
Michael York
Christopher Lee
music = Michel Legrand
Lalo Schifrin
cinematography = David Watkin
Paul Wilson
editing =
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = flagicon|USA February 26, 1975
flagicon|UK September 1, 1975
runtime = 108 min.
country = UK / Panama / Spain
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by = "The Three Musketeers"
followed_by = "The Return of the Musketeers"
amg_id = 1:18326
imdb_id = 0073012

"The Four Musketeers" is the title of a 1974 Richard Lester film, which follows upon his film of the previous year, "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. Charlton Heston — who was handsomely paid for what was essentially a cameo role — was the only actor who did not feel cheated.

This is much the darker of the two films. There is less of the lighthearted horseplay seen in the first film. Constance is murdered by Milady, Rochefort is gravely wounded by d'Artagnan, and Milady is executed by a headsman as the Musketeers look on. We also see the backstory of the tangled relationship between Athos and Milady, and an extended prison sequence in which Milady uses her feminine wiles to turn the Duke of Buckingham's Puritan manservant into an assassin. In the end d'Artagnan triumphs over Richelieu's plotting and becomes an officer.

Cast

* Michael York as d'Artagnan
* Oliver Reed as Athos
* Frank Finlay as Porthos
* Richard Chamberlain as Aramis
* Jean-Pierre Cassel as ("King") Louis XIII
* Geraldine Chaplin as ("Queen") Anne of Austria
* Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu
* Faye Dunaway as Milady de Winter
* Christopher Lee as the Count De Rochefort
* Raquel Welch as Constance Bonacieux
* Roy Kinnear as Planchet

ee also

* See The Three Musketeers (film) for a list of other Musketeer adaptations.

External links

*imdb title|id=0073012|title=The Four Musketeers
*amg title|id=1:18326|title=The Four Musketeers