THE THREE MUSKETEERS [1948 / 2022] [Warner Archive Collection] [USA Release]
‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ is High-spirited, Vigour, Inventiveness and is a pleasure to behold!
To the cry of “all for one and one for all” comes a version of the Alexandre Dumas classic that's fun for all – a rousing, swashbuckling adaptation that was Gene Kelly's favourite among his non-musical films.
Gene Kelly plays country lad d'Artagnan, who comes to Paris with heady ambition and duels his way into the ranks of King Louis XIII's musketeers. d'Artagnan swashes-and-buckles with brio, bringing to action scenes the virile athleticism that set him apart as a dancer in movie musicals. A top cast – Vincent Price as unctuous [excessively flattering or ingratiating; oily] Cardinal Richelieu, Lana Turner as villainous Milady, Countess de Winter, June Allyson as Constance Bonacieux, Van Heflin as Athos, Robert Coote as Aramis, Gig Young as Porthos, Frank Morgan as King Louis XIII, Dame Angela Lansbury as Queen Anne and joins Gene Kelly in this exuberant tale.
Produced by Academy Award® recipient Pandro S. Berman (‘Ivanhoe’ and ‘Father of the Bride’) and this 1948 adaptation of the classic French tale remains one of the best big screen adaptations ever.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1949 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Cinematography in Colour for Robert H. Planck.
FILM FACT No.2: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spent over $4 million bringing Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel to the silver screen, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had its second biggest box office hit of that year and was out grossed only by the film ‘Easter Parade.’ In mid-1947, it was announced Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was set to produce the film adaptation of ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS.’ Initially, Louis Hayward showed interest in playing d'Artagnan in a film adaptation by Edward Small, but he withdrew when he found out that ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ was already being produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Despite rumours that Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was set to star, Gene Kelly was announced as the film's lead in June 1947, with production slated to begin in September 1947. A week later, Keenan Wynn was confirmed to play a co-starring role. Shortly after, Van Heflin and William Powell were revealed to be in negotiations for the title roles. In October 1948, Gene Kelly broke his ankle, forcing him to give up the leading role in ‘Easter Parade’ [1948], and delaying the start of filming. Though Gene Kelly's ankle had mended sufficiently to begin shooting in January 1948, and Gene Kelly's elaborate fencing scenes required more healing time, and were pushed back to the end of filming. Before June Allyson was cast in the remaining female lead, Deborah Kerr was offered the role in November 1947. While the work was in the public domain in the USA and Britain there was some doubt whether this was the case in some European countries, causing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer much concern. Footage from ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ appears in the film ‘Singin' in the Rain.’ It was used as part of the Lockwood/Lamont film ‘The Royal Rascal.’ Director George Sidney said he approached the film as “a Western with costumes... I didn't approach it as a classic. The duelling was pure choreography and the fights are pure Western stuff.” The big duelling scene was shot in Busch Gardens in Pasadena. George Sidney said, “We shot on the back lot, in a public park, on golf courses.” The film was very successful, earning MGM's second highest gross of the 1940s, even though its large production budget minimised profits. According to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer accounts it made $4,124,000 in the USA and Canada and $4,288,000 elsewhere, recording a profit of $1,828,000. It was one of the most popular films of 1948.
Cast: Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Dame Angela Lansbury, Frank Morgan, Vincent Price, Keenan Wynn, John Sutton, Gig Young, Robert Coote, Reginald Owen, Ian Keith, Patricia Medina, Richard Stapley, Kirk Alyn (uncredited), William Bailey (uncredited), David Bair (uncredited), Gregg Barton (uncredited), Charles Bates (uncredited), Wilson Benge (uncredited), David Bond (uncredited), Wheaton Chambers (uncredited), Gordon B. Clarke (uncredited), Fred Coby (uncredited), Gene Coogan (uncredited), Redmond Doms (uncredited), Vernon Downing (uncredited), William Edmunds (uncredited), Douglas Evans (uncredited), Byron Foulger (uncredited), Sol Gorss (uncredited), Frank Hagney (uncredited), Alec Harford (uncredited), Jean Heremans (uncredited), Arthur Hohl (uncredited), John Holland (uncredited), Noël Howard (uncredited), Roland Hughston (uncredited), Bert Kennedy (uncredited), Burt Kennedy (uncredited), Michael Kostrick (uncredited), Paul Kruger (uncredited), Norman Leavitt (uncredited), Bert LeBaron (uncredited), Dickie LeRoy (uncredited), Paul Maxey (uncredited), Francis McDonald (uncredited), Alberto Morin (uncredited), Paul Newlan (uncredited), Jack Owen (uncredited), Leonard Penn (uncredited), Gil Perkins (uncredited), William 'Bill' Phillips (uncredited), Allen Pinson (uncredited), Ruth Robinson (uncredited), Carl Saxe (uncredited), Irene Seidner (uncredited), Jack Shea (uncredited), Reginald Sheffield (uncredited), Dick Simmons (uncredited), Mickey Simpson (uncredited), Tom Stevenson (uncredited), Jack Stoney (uncredited), William Tannen (uncredited), David Thursby (uncredited), Tom Tyler (uncredited), Robert Warwick (uncredited), Harry Wilson (uncredited), Marie Windsor (uncredited) and Jeff York (uncredited)
Director: George Sidney
Producer: Pandro S. Berman
Screenplay: Alexandre Dumas (novel) and Robert Ardrey (screenplay)
Composer: Herbert Stothart
Costume Design: Walter Plunkett
Cinematography: Robert H. Planck, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Technicolor Color Director: Natalie Kalmas and Henri Jaffa (Associate)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 125 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Warner Archive Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: In the year of Our Lord 1625, William Shakespeare was not long dead, America not long settled, and the calm of France not long for this world. A Gascony villager was preparing to go forth and shake the world till his teeth rattled.
Here is a glamorous motion picture that nearly has it all. A shimmering Technicolor spectacle complete with swashbuckling adventure, romance, the glitz of Hollywood showmanship, and bright Hollywood stars adapting one of best known tales of classic storytelling all packed within one motion picture produced by the biggest movie studio in the industry. However, it also is a feature that may be all show and very little substance. This Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer version of ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS,’ is a glorious film that contains all the glamour and prestige one would want from big name feature film of the 1940’s.
‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ [1948] is an adventure-romance of a young man who joins an elite group of soldiers that fight to protect France from a plot to disgrace its King and Queen. The skilled and scrappy d'Artagnan [Gene Kelly] joins the a trio of the elite King’s musketeers, Athos [Van Heflin], Pothos [Gig Young], and Aramis [Robert Cooke] as a cadet to help save Queen Anne [Dame Angela Lansbury] from a plot concocted by the secretly fiendish Prime Minister Richelieu [Vincent Price]. With the aid of Milady, Countess de Winter [Lana Turner], Athos’ beautiful yet long separated treacherous wife, Richelieu plots to disgrace the Queen Anne by entrapping her in an affair with the Prime Minister of England, France’s moral enemy, politically ruin the Queen Anne and her husband King Louis XIII [Frank Morgan]. d'Artagnan with the Musketeers uses their skill and cunning to thwart Milady, Countess de Winter, but not before d'Artagnan loses his beloved Constance Bonacieux [June Allyson] along with d'Artagnan adventure. In the end our heroes save France cleverly using Richelieu’s power against him to earn themselves honours and rewards, including d'Artagnan finally being commissioned as a Musketeer.
With the picture being a veritable feast for the eyes and embodying what appears to everything grand about the movies of this classic age of Hollywood, ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ is a totally lavish Technicolor spectacle evoking the charm and wonder of a literary classic in the adventurous romantic 1625 French setting.
On the whole ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ evokes the swashbuckling adventures that made motion pictures so well received in early 20th century popular culture. The film is a massive prestige picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but it feels it was assembled as if the studio was working under an unwatched automatic mode setting. Headed by director George Sidney, whose career started him out from studio messenger and working his way up to a feature director, is allowed to use all the greatest budget great skills that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has to offer. With the finest of cameras, film stock, stars, elegant production designing, costumes, a lavish back lot to shoot on, and even location shooting in beautifully green spaces of Southern California, and I feel the film is a totally glorious version of the Alexandre Dumas’ novel and fitting tribute, as only Hollywood could deliver in the 1940’s.
Star Gene Kelly embodies the very nature of the heroes that would be considered cliché many years down the road. Gene Kelly’s handsome good looks are likened to Errol Flynn with a smile and athleticism of Douglas Fairbanks, Gene Kelly’s style here personifies the classic swashbuckling star. His dancing background easily allowed him to slide right into the role, replacing his dancing shoes on his feet it was a fencing sword in his hand as he finesses and bounds throughout his multiple action scenes. On occasions Gene Kelly would bow out to the performance of his stunt double due to an ankle injury, the same one that would keep him from staring in the lavish M-G-M musical ‘The Easter Parade.’ Even limited from his full skill, Gene Kelly remains the all-round star of the feature that shines with the eternal of heroes, perhaps even to a sickening truest sense. Gene Kelly does provide moments of levity in random scenes of comedy where Kelly displays his charm and a bit of hamming it up for the audience as breaks for this massive period piece that takes itself very seriously.
Lana Turner is surprisingly given top billing in this feature, no doubt because she was the biggest name in the cast. However, in this feature her role as Lady de Winter feels to neither the main villain, nor the chief love interest. Lana Turner’s performance is rather lacklustre, more serving her as yet another film that capitalizes on her sex appeal than her acting ability. The real love story in the film is between d'Artagnan and a confidant of the Queen Anne, Constance Bonacieux, played by rising starlet June Allyson. Briefly appearing as the Queen Anne is a young Dame Angela Lansbury, carrying the role with dignity and style, even though she was the youngest of the three main actresses in the film. Also featured in the picture is Frank Morgan, the ‘Wizard of Oz’ himself, as King Louis XIII, as a slightly foppish version of the monarch.
Vincent Price is presented as the primary villain of the picture in the role of Prime Minister Richelieu, the politician who is secretly attempting to gain power by creating controversy amount the monarchy. Scholars of the Alexandre Dumas story may realize that Richelieu in the novel was a Cardinal, but in this motion picture adaption the character saw his position changed in order for the studio to dodge controversy with Catholic Church who still carried a moral influence on general audiences at the time. Vincent Price’s performance comes off as evil, yet not menacing, a fact hindered by how the character was written as a politician instead of an all powerful and influential religious figure.
The film is beautifully shot in glorious Technicolor, showcasing the lavish costumes, the fanciful setting created on the famed M-G-M backlots and beautifully manicured parks of the Los Angeles area standing in for the French countryside. Also shot well were the action sequences, the sword fighting, stunt work, and even battles on horseback all done in a timeless Hollywood fashion. However all that said the film fails in to capture the imagination as the story is presented in what can be considered a hurried muddled mess.
Van Heflin’s performance as Athos as a jaded soldier who is to be the leader of the trio of the King’s men feels lacking as a character who was intended to have a massive arch in the overall story. What we get from Van Heflin is a deconstructed character that is drunk more often than not making jokes at others expense, but suddenly has a deep emotional turn when he sees his wife, Milady, Countess de Winter, whom he still loves despite not building up enough of their relationship for the audience to understand.
‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ was a massive hit amongst audiences. It is easy to understand why, because the film had massive appeal. It was the greatest box office draw for M-G-M that year and would even receive an Academy Award® nomination for Best Cinematography for a Technicolor feature film. Critics were generally kind to the feature, but those not influenced by the massive media market observed the same faults with plotting and execution of the Musketeer story. Of course, ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ would be adapted many times over in the coming decades since this version, in forms of numerous feature films, animated pictures, and even made for television films. This so happened to be the first Technicolor version of the story and would create much of the fond imagery many may picture when they think of the Three Musketeer story. While there have been many versions of the ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS,’ this is my very favourite thanks to wonderful writing, acting and cinematography. I just love the incredibly vivid colours of the 1940’s Technicolor and this is perhaps the best example of this type of colour film that emphasized very bright primary colours and more intense than real life but perfect for showy spectacles like this. The film is a perfect example of the “full M-G-M treatment” with top production values, crisp screenwriting, excellent direction and the best ensemble cast around. See it and have a ball!
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Archive Collection presents us the film ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ with a new 2022 1080p HD master from a 4K scan of the Original Nitrate Technicolor Negatives. This transfer is a stunner as Warner Archive showcases how they are of the best in the business with ease as this one boast some outstanding Technicolor saturation to go with great depth and strong details in this crisp image and of course shown in the standard 1.37:1 aspect ratio of that period. Depth of field is very impressive as the interior sets feel quite spacious, pushed back and multi-dimensional. Movements are smooth and natural with no issues occurring from any sort of rapid motions causing jitter or blur. Blacks are deep and close to natural as can be here. We get to view good shadow and dark surfaces that still showcase lots of pattern, texture and other information. The Technicolor is also outstanding, especially with its costume fabrics, when it comes to scene-stealers, especially worn by Lana Turner, Vincent Price, and Dame Angela Lansbury definitely stole the show. The amount of detail on these costumes was also exquisite! In one scene, the Duke of Buckingham wore a purple shawl. Gold embroidery complimented the shawl’s shade of purple and prevented the piece from becoming plain. At a dinner party, Queen Anne of Austria wore a white gown. This gown also contained gold details, which were found on the skirt and bodice. Small jewels near the top of the dress completed Queen Anne of Austria’s elegant look. The set design: If you’re going to create a period film, you have to pay attention to the finer details that go into each set. These details will reflect the effort, research, and care that went into how these sets look and are equally gorgeous, and marvels with luscious visual experience and gives the upholstery a dazzle image experience. ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ details will reflect the effort, research, and care that went into how these sets look and show how much the film’s creative team cared about the presentation of their final product. What I love about the sets in this movie are the fine details that can be found. Carved images are shown in the Duke of Buckingham’s study, covering the fireplace and doorframe in these wooden pictures. They can also be found in other rooms and on other materials, such as on a tin-plated cabinet in a General’s office. My favourite design detail can be found in Queen Anne of Austria’s sitting room. On top of all that, even the green colour of the grass and trees looks totally marvellous and quite rich in texture. Skin facial tones are natural and consistent throughout the runtime of the film and again textures are quite impressively seen with great detail from any given distance in the frame.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Archive Collection brings us the film ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ with one standard 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio experience, which was originally released as a theatrical mono mix. It is very much of its time and age in this presentation. Dialogue has been exquisitely recorded and has been superbly blended with Herbert Stothart’s background film score which borrows heavily from Tchaikovsky in all of the D’Artagnan and Constance scenes and the multiple sound effects. There are no traces anywhere of hiss, pops, crackle, or flutter. Overall, it is a very fine audio presentation and even gives a much more authentic mood for the period the film is set in France.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Vintage FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks Short: Looking at London [1946] [480i] [1.37:1] [10:09] A colourful travelogue of London's most historic buildings and the residual damage still left from World War II. The TravelTalks Short also looks at London as it rebuilds after World War II. Also featured are views of Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, and the destruction caused by the bombing of areas surrounding St. Paul's Cathedral. Produced and narrated by James A. FitzPatrick.
Special Feature: Vintage Tex Avery Cartoon: What Price Fleadom [1948] [1080p] [1.37:1] [6:57] A dog lives in harmony with Homer the flea. But Homer spots a lady flea on a passing dog, and soon he's being attacked by that dog. And he just can't leave the lady flea alone. Meanwhile, his original host finds a goodbye note from Homer and goes looking. Voice Cast: Tex Avery and William Hanna (uncredited). Director: Tex Avery. Screenplay: Heck Allen (uncredited).
Special Feature: M-G-M Radio Promo [Audio only] [1948] [1080p] [1.78:1] [14:04] With this special radio promo, we have the actress Lana Turner promoting herself and informing us why she likes to be Lana Turner ad also talks about some of the films she has appeared in and we hear clips from those films and also talks about appearing in the film ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS,’ along with some information snippets which sounds totally hilariously un-spontaneous and with the actress coming over more like the Duchess of Kent.
Theatrical Trailer [1948] [1080p] [1.37:1] [1:56] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS.’
Finally, with the 1948 film ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ there of course have been many films that have brought all or part of Alexandre Dumas’ classic swashbuckling tale of the legendary The Three Musketeers to the screen, but George Sidney’s 1948 effort brings not only a star-studded cast to the fore but tremendous verve and action-packed excitement as well. Its ambitions are great: to bring the entirety of the narrative to the screen in one film and it took director Richard Lester two films to accomplish this feat almost a quarter of a century later, and while much has been omitted and the pacing sometimes lags, the brilliant Technicolor and seeing all of the familiar faces occupying the classic roles makes this version a tremendous amount of fun. ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ is brought to you via the wonderful Warner Archive Collection and again is bringing to you one of the many takes on a legendary tale to this brilliant and stunning Blu-ray disc. Even in 1948, ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ had already been adapted countless times, but with director George Sidney came some major star power both of the time. Warner Archive Collection’s Blu-ray debut features a handful of fun extras and with a new 4K scan taken from the original nitrate Technicolor negative and produces a totally gorgeous transfer of the film that looks quite stunning and now showcases a totally superb Blu-ray disc. This 1948 ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ is a totally unique version and a great deal of fun and a bonus of a totally hilarious swashbuckling romp. The extras allotted to this Blu-ray disc are pretty fun also and a great bonus to this Blu-ray release. ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ is a great classic Hollywood film and is a must of for all Collectors out there and especially with all of the multi-talented performers and especially the film itself and of course we should be very pleased that Warner Archive Collection has been the one to release the 1948 version of ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS.’ Swordplay, derring-do, and intrigue help spin the story of the 1948 ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ film and of course is based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas. The film features an all-star cast and was the second highest grossing film of the 1940’s. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
