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A combination adventure/comedy/romance, it is simply superb. It has flair and it moves fast. Everyone is good in it, even, surprisingly, Racquel. There's more than a touch of parody and self-parody. It's like they all watched too many swashbuckling movies. To wit: D'Artagnan (York) tries to extinguish a candle with a flourish of his sword across the flame. It doesn't work; he shakes his head, removes his gauntlet; and puts it out with his finger and thumb. Racquel's husband, Spike Milligan, keeps trying to arrange to have sex with her, but something always goes wrong, including and especially the interference of the Cardinal Richelieu and his henchmen.
And Heston is superb as Richelieu. Great turn as villain. Great because he plays it straight. That's what makes him so effective. He and Christopher Lee play off each other brilliantly. (He walks into his torture chamber, talking to either Spike or Chistoperher Lee (I forget which), and one of the victims hanging from within one of the cages says very respectfully, "And how are you, Your grace." The fey king who has his courtyard lawn manicured like a chessboard plays the game with live dogs. He is perfect, too.
The swordplay, of which there is plenty, is brilliantly choreographed. They actually had to learn to fight with swords. Lee almost was killed. If there is a hero, it's D'Artagnan's man-servant. When I saw it as a young man when it came out, the audience cheered loudly when the guys came to the rescue at the end.
score 10/10
mortycausa 22 July 2016
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3509782/ |
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30-11-2019 13:18:16
