THE RETURN OF THE MUSKETEERS (1989: Dir. Richard Lester)
Fifteen years after the their previous Musketeer film, Lester and Fraser reunited with cast and crew to make this creaky but fun adaptation of Dumas' Twenty Years After. Unfairly abandoned, it was pulled from North American release at the eleventh hour when Universal Pictures cowardly balked at pitting their aging feather-hatted heroes against the indestructible icons of Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Batman. Although hampered by the death of actor Roy Kinnear (Planchet) after an on-set accident, Lester admirably rallied a demoralized company into completing the film with very few seams showing. Despite their reaching middle-age, the actors playing the Musketeers, including the ever youthful Richard Chamberlain (Aramis), appear as physically game for adventure as their characters. This time they are joined by Kim Cattrall, bearing a striking facial similarity to Faye Dunaway, convincingly cast as the energetic rapier-wielding daughter of Milady. Alan Howard also pops up, in an artfully droll performance as Oliver Cromwell, and he is nearly bested by a lip-smackingly sly Phillippe Noiret, as Cardinal Mazarin (regrettably re-voiced). Lester's last narrative film and a satisfying epilogue to his idiosyncratic oeuvre. DVD REGION 2
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