The Three Musketeers (1921)

The young Gascon D'Artagnan arrives in Paris, his heart set on joining the king's Musketeers. He is taken under the wings of three of the most respected and feared Musketeers, Porthos, ... See full summary »

Director:

Fred Niblo

Writers:

Alexandre Dumas père (by: "The Three Musketeers"), Edward Knoblock (adapted by),

Stars:

Adolphe Menjou, Mary MacLaren, Nigel De Brulier

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Adolphe Menjou	...	Louis XIII
Mary MacLaren	...	Anne of Austria
Nigel De Brulier	...	Cardinal Richelieu (as Nigel de Brulier)
Thomas Holding	...	Duke of Buckingham
Marguerite De La Motte	...	Constance
Willis Robards	...	De Treville
Boyd Irwin	...	Rochefort
Barbara La Marr	...	Milady de Winter
Lon Poff	...	Father Joseph
Walt Whitman	...	D'Artagnan's Father
Sidney Franklin	...	Bonacieux
Charles Belcher	...	Bernajoux
Charles Stevens	...	Planchet
Léon Bary	...	Athos (as Leon Bary)
George Siegmann	...	Porthos

Storyline

The young Gascon D'Artagnan arrives in Paris, his heart set on joining the king's Musketeers. He is taken under the wings of three of the most respected and feared Musketeers, Porthos, Aramis, and Athos. Together they fight to save France and the honor of a lady from the machinations of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.

---

Plot Keywords:

musketeer | france | gascon | sword | bad guy | 

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Romance

---

Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

28 August 1921 (USA)

Also Known As:

De tre Musketerer

Filming Locations:

Raleigh Studios - 5300 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Douglas Fairbanks Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White Color (Wyckoff-DeMill Color) (some sequences)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nigel De Brulier who plays Cardinal Richelieu, would also play the role in the 1935 film of the same name. In addition, he also played Richelieu in the 1929 film "The Iron Mask" and the 1939 film "The Man in the Iron Mask."

---

Quotes

Cardinal Richelieu: If you were about to die, what would you do?
D'Artagnan: Your Eminence, I should write the history of France.

---

Connections

Referenced in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Episode #7.175 (2009)

User Reviews

Light But Enjoyable, With Plenty of Material For Fairbanks

This light but enjoyable version of the often-filmed story of "The Three Musketeers" also offers Douglas Fairbanks plenty of material that plays to his best strengths. While he made several other movies that had more substance to them than this one does, the role of D'Artagnan is one of the roles that was best suited to his talents.

The adaptation of the Dumas novel considerably abridges both the story and the characters. It does not really attempt to deal with many of the themes of the book, instead concentrating on the parts with the most action and suspense. In itself, this results in a perfectly entertaining movie with plenty of things going on. But to enjoy it, you do have to set aside any expectation that the movie might come up to the book's standard (which in any case would be a difficult goal for a normal-length film feature to accomplish).

Fairbanks revels both in his early scenes as the ambitious young Gascon and in the rest of his sequences as the companion of the Musketeers. He also gets lots of help from the supporting cast. Nigel De Brulier has probably his best role as Cardinal Richelieu (a role he would also play in several later movies), with the austere, reserved Cardinal providing an ideal match for De Brulier's style. Marguerite De La Motte is appealing as Constance, and Barbara La Marr makes Milady de Winter a worthy adversary.

Everything fits together pretty well, and while this film version is much lighter than the novel, it succeeds at what it intended to do.