Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Three Musketeers

George Sidney – 1948 – USA

I always thought this movie was a musical – what with Gene Kelly and June Allyson running around, all the colorful clothes, and direction by musical journeyman George Sidney – so I was pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise.  With the epic story compressed nicely into a two-hour running time, the film has an energetic bounciness to it that also somehow manages to avoid glossing over or ignoring the more dramatic elements.  As happens frequently in Musketeers adaptations, some of the supporting cast steals the thunder from the Musketeers themselves.  Highlights among the cast are Angela Lansbury as Queen Anne, Vincent Price as Cardinal Richelieu and Lana Turner as Milady de Winter.  It’s a solid, well-done adventure story, beautifully photographed - possibly too Golden-Age-Hollywood for some tastes, but fans of vintage movies of that era won’t likely be disappointed.

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