The Three Musketeers *** (1939, Don Ameche, The Ritz Brothers, Binnie Barnes) – Classic Movie Review 2307

The British title The Singing Musketeer tells the tale behind director Allan Dwan’s pleasant 1939 movie, remaking the 1921 silent classic and the 1935 first sound version.

Don Ameche is lively and colourful as the singing D’Artagnan in this bright and breezy 20th Century Fox musical version of the Alexandre Dumas adventure classic, which is true to the spirit of the Dumas original but with a leaning to the kind of silly slapstick comedy that slightly undermines it.

However, Binnie Barnes and the Ritz Brothers score bullseyes as Milady De Winter and the cowardly substitute Musketeers, the Three Lackeys. Miles Mander re-appears from the 1935 version, though this time he’s not playing the King but Richelieu.

Gloria Stuart, Joseph Schildkraut, Lionel Atwill and John Carradine are essential ingredients too, as Queen Anne, King Louis XIII, the Conte De Rochefort and Naveau.  Douglass Dumbrille, Russell Hicks and John ‘Dusty’ King are the real Musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2307

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