The Three Musketeers

In 1625 France, country bumpkin D’Artagnan hopes to join the king’s elite musketeers in Paris. After proving himself with brilliant swordsmanship in duels against three musketeers, he is duly admitted to the ranks. He soon becomes the leader of the gang of four sworn to challenge the machinations of Cardinal Richelieu. Along the way, D’Artagnan makes a deadly enemy of Richelieu’s confederate, the artful and nefarious Countess de Winter, once he learns of her shady past … This Dumas adaptation, with its ironic undertones and colourised content, goes from tumultuous farce, owing a blatant debt to the 1921 silent film version starring Douglas Fairbanks, to a drama with tragic touches. The Technicolor process plays its role, as the effeminate, candy-coloured full military dress of the early scenes gives way in the course of the story to powerful, manly fighting gear in dark brown leather. In Lady de Winter’s camp, on the other hand, chromatic continuity is the order of the day, with the only superficially flawless Milady and her entourage enrobed almost entirely in green, the colour that has, since the silent era, stood for disgust, avarice and perfidy.