Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers) is a 1953 French swashbuckler film directed by André Hunebelle (Le Bossu, Le Capitan) and based, of course, on The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. The script was written by Michel Audiard.
The cast included Georges Marchal as D'Artagnan, Jean Martinelli as Athos, Gino Cervi as Porthos, Jacques François as Aramis, Bourvil as Planchet, Yvonne Sanson as Milady de Winter, Danielle Godet as Constance Bonacieux, Renaud Mary as the Cardinal Richelieu, Jean-Marc Tennberg as the Count of Rochefort, Marie Sabouret as Queen Anne of Austria and Louis Arbessier as Louis XIII.
This version provides examples of:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Milady de Winter is a blonde in the novel. Here she's played by the brunette Yvonne Sanson.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Constance Bonacieux is the niece of Mr. Bonacieux instead of his wife here, in order to remove the Sympathetic Adulterer trait from the book version of the character.
- The Alleged Steed: D'Artagnan's first horse is as good a mount as any other, but it's covered with spots, which causes much mockery in every town and village he comes across. He sells it upon reaching Paris.
- Anachronism Stew: At one point, Planchet says "We should create a union for house servants". The first unions were created in the mid-19th century.
- Blatant Lies: D'Artagnan promises to Annette (the woman he has a romance with at the beginning) that he will be back to her upon leaving her. She doesn't buy it, and indeed he doesn't come back.
- Double Entendre: D'Artagnan is initially not satisfied with the room Mr. Bonacieux rents him, but upon seeing Constance enter the room, he changes his mind and says that the view is "charming".
- Florence Nightingale Effect: At the beginning, D'Artagnan has a 8-days stand with Annette, a woman who nurses him after he gets hit on the head during his duel with Rochefort, then leaves.
- The Narrator: Actor Claude Dauphin narrates the film.
- Same Language Dub: As with his role in the Don Camillo film series, Italian actor Gino Cervi (Porthos) had to be dubbed in French, since he spoke French with an Italian accent that was too thick.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Planchet gets as much focus if not more than Athos, Porthos or Aramis in this version. It's because he was played by Bourvil, who was one of the most famous stars of French cinema back in the 1950s. He also got top billing and much more presence than the Three Musketeers themselves on the posters.
