The Four Musketeers

This ‘sequel’ to director Richard Lester’s 1973 swashbuckling adventure was made the following year and once again features all the gang. The stakes are even higher this time as d’Artagnan (now a fully fledged musketeer himself) and his three comrades once again get caught up in the action and have more than their hands full trying to thwart the plans of the evil Milady and Cardinal Richilieu.

The year is 1627 and the four musketeers d’Artagnan (Michael York), Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay) and Aramis (Richard Chamberlain) find themselves in the thick of it what with the Anglo-French War raging and Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) still sore over his failure to humiliate Queen Anne (Geraldine Chaplin) on account of her apparent infidelity towards her husband, King Louis XIII (Pierre Cassel). Mind you, the Cardinal isn’t the only one miffed because one of his agents – the dangerous Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway) is just as angry that d’Artagnan managed to retrieve the two stolen diamonds from the Queen’s necklace after dressmaker Constance (Raquel Welch) had alerted her paramour.

Now Milady wants blood – namely that of d’Artagnan and the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward) while the Cardinal entertains plans of having Constance kidnapped and later on ‘dispatched’. The Comte de Roquefort (Christopher Lee) is tasked with kidnapping Constance but of course, things don’t go quite as planned thanks to d’Artagnan and his friends. Now Milady – hellbent on revenge – conjures up a dastardly plan… and the Cardinal gives his blessing. In a brief flashback sequence, we find out that Milady once was married to the unassuming Athos who is aghast when he finds out that none other than d’Artagnan seems to have fallen for her seductive charms… and warns him that the lady in question is not what she seems to be without initially disclosing his private secret. Of course, d’Artagnan hopes that by playing along with Milady’s game of seduction he will be able to save his beloved Constance from further kidnap attempts (or worse) but Milady already has begun to entrap her various victims in her spider’s web and next on her list is the Duke of Buckingham. Has Milady, by overestimating herself, gone too far this time?
Although this sequel offers even more derring-do and humour than the original, the final half hour or so takes a considerably more sinister and bloody turn… meaning that for some, a happy end looms on the horizon while for others, the saga will end in death and tragedy…

Cinematographer David Watkin once more works magic with his camera although this time, the rousing score for this sequel is down to Argentine-American composer Lalo Schifrin (in the 1973 original, Michel Legrand was responsible for the score). The acting is flawless throughout and the same goes for the pacey direction.

Special Features on this 4K restored release include ‘The Saga of the Musketeers Part 2’ / Neil Sinyard on ‘The Four Musketeers’ plus original trailer.