The Three Musketeers (1973 film)

The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) are a two-part film adaptation of the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Directed by Richard Lester from a screenplay by George Macdonald Fraser, they star Michael York as D'Artagnan, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, and Frank Finlay as the three musketeers, and Charlton Heston and Christopher Lee as the villains.

The director, screenwriter and much of the cast reunited for The Return of the Musketeers in 1989, loosely based on the novel Twenty Years After.

These films provide examples of:
"Porthos: God's blood!! Look at that...! Ruined by you and your, your street-corner ruffians! By God, you'll pay for it! [Rifles the purse of a fallen Guardsman] Ten pistoles it cost me! [Reconsiders on seeing the contents of the purse] No -- twenty! Twenty pistoles! And twenty more, as a fine to teach you manners! Hah!"
 * Adult Child: The King.
 * Angrish: Porthos's initial reaction to his hat being destroyed (see Inflationary Dialogue, below).
 * Bedmate Reveal: The Four Musketeers has D'Artagnan waking up in bed with Milady. And then he spots something she doesn't want him to see and she comes after him with a glass dagger filled with acid.
 * Blood Is Squicker in Water: In The Four Musketeers, Milady nearly steps into a bath that has been turned pinkish-red by Rochefort's blood.
 * Combat Haircomb
 * Cool Sword: D'Artagnan is given a sword with a spring-activated knife blade in the hilt by the Duke of Buckingham.
 * Divided for Publication: Planned and shot as a single film before the decision was made to split it into two, resulting in some legal wrangling over how many films' worth of payment the actors were due.
 * The Dragon: Rochefort to Richelieu.
 * Eyepatch of Power: Christopher Lee started a trend for movie Rocheforts by sporting one. Michael Wincott and Mads Mikkelsen had one in the 1993 and 2011 versions, and Tim Roth had one in 2001 though his character wasn't Rochefort, but an Expy of Wincott's (and the actual Rochefort was a separate character.)
 * Drowning My Sorrows: Athos gets drunk to forget about his betrayal by Milady De Winter.
 * Gorgeous Period Dress: Milady's and Queen Anne's are particularly beautiful.
 * Hollywood Darkness: The lantern-light duel between D'Artagnan and Rochefort.
 * Inflationary Dialogue: Porthos ransacks his enemy's purse after his hat gets ruined in a fight:


 * Noodle Implements: One scene shows a group of torturers preparing to torture Monsieur Bonacieux in the Bastille, with the usual rack and branding irons and such, with an incongruous shot of a fist-sized potato being placed in a copper bowl near the end.
 * And then Richlieu glances at the potato and glares at the torturers, who shrug nonchalantly.
 * Prisoner of Zenda Exit: Justine de Winter in The Return of the Musketeers.
 * Reed Snorkel: Used by D'Artagnan in an attempt to escape Rochefort.
 * Sword Fight: Takes pride in giving fiction's most famous swashbucklers decidedly non-Flynn moves. Examples include sucker punching, groin kicking, blinding with cloaks or laundry, bashing with convenient chairs, and reversing the sword to beat the bad guy with the grip.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Double Subverted -- Porthos invents a move involving throwing his sword at the enemy. Aramis, unimpressed, asks Porthos to perform this move on him and easily parries the thrown blade, pointing out that Porthos is unarmed now. Later however, Porthos uses this move anyway, and it does work as intended.
 * This gets a Call Back in The Return of the Musketeers when a wounded Porthos throws his sword at Justine during the final battle. He misses, but does distract her at a crucial moment, allowing D'Artagnan and Raoul to turn the tide of the battle.
 * Unnecessary Combat Roll: D'Artagnan's father teaches him the move. It does not work in actual combat.