The Return of the Musketeers

Dir: Richard Lester

1989

***

Richard Lester's 1973 hit The Three Musketeers is a brilliant adventure and something of an unsung masterwork. His follow up, The Four Musketeers, was made from half of the footage that was unused due to length restraints. The producers, the Salkind brothers, decided to make two films from the many hours of footage they had without asking the permission - or more to the point, not paying the actors extra - thus receiving many lawsuits and a clause added to every member of the Screen Actors Guild protecting them from such deception in the future, named 'The Salkind Clause'. Only about a third of the cast return, mainly because their characters don't feature in Alexandre Dumas' novel Twenty Years After - which the film is loosely based on, and the actors that do return only did so because the Salkind's weren't involved and for their friend Richard Lester. I dare say it was something they all went on to regret, because as good as the film is, it is always remembered for its tragic end. It's not as funny or as charming as the original but it is far more a return to form than the sequel was. In all honesty it was very average, but nice to see what the Musketeers were up to and what their enemies had in store for them. However, it'll always be remembered for the film in which the much loved actor Roy Kinnear died. Due to a translation issue with the largely Spanish crew, a cobbled street was washed and left wet before the actors rode through on their horses. Roy Kinnear's horse slipped and he fell off breaking his pelvis. A day later he had a massive heart attack due to his injuries and died before filming was completed. Director and close friend Lester carried on filming as best he could. His role was completed by using a stand-in, filmed from the rear, and dubbed-in lines from a voice artist. Lester was so affected by the tragedy he never made another feature again, only getting behind the camera once more to film 1991's Get Back, a concert performed by his friend Paul McCartney. There is a lot to be said for the film. The changes to the source material are quite intriguing, the character of Mordaunt, Milady de Winter's son in the original novel, being replaced by Milady's daughter, called Justine de Winter (played by Kim Cattrall) works surprisingly well and I loved how Jean-Pierre Cassel, who played Louis XIII in the original films, has a cameo as Cyrano de Bergerac. It was also nice to see Christopher Lee return as Comte de Rochefort and Alan Howard made quite a good Oliver Cromwell. Bill Paterson is good as Charles I and Billy Connolly has a great little cameo as a Scottish golf caddie. It is close to the original but with obvious elements missing. The fact is that Alexandre Dumas' novel Twenty Years After is not as compelling as his Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask wouldn't have suited the tone set by the first film at all. However, for all that is good and for all that isn't quite as good, the film is a sad one due to the tragic loss of Roy Kinnear, so much so that it is incredibly hard to get into it or even love it. Average to be fair but I don't want to watch it again as it saddens me too much. Kinnear lived just a few roads from me as a child and he did much for the community and for local charities. I remember he would buy the town's Christmas tree every year and it was so sad that first festive season without him.