The Four Musketeers
(Sequel to The Three Musketeers)Porthos (Frank Finlay) recaps the events leading to D'Artagnan (Michael York) becoming a musketeer. The original trio, including Porthos' companions Aramis (Richard Chamberlain) and Athos (Oliver Reed) find themselves on a rescue mission behind enemy lines during the battle of La Rochelle. D'Artagnan's enemy Rochefort (Christopher Lee) was caught spying and is enduring a wait before an amateur firing squad learning to load their rifles on the job. While they figure out how to blindfold a condemned man who has only one eye, Athos and Aramis prepare to launch a smoke bomb as cover while Porthos brings the horses for their escape, but the fuse goes out just as the order is given to fire. Fortunately the entire firing squad misses their target, and while they reload the trio manages to extract the spy. He is returned to his master, Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston), then is sent to obtain D'Artagnan's lover Constance (Raquel Welsh). She is the dressmaker and confidante to Queen Anne (Geraldine Chapman) and a valued hostage if they are to deal with Anne's affair with the Protestant sympathizer, the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward).Rochefort and his men find D'Artagnan and Constance shopping in the public market. When she picks a melon from a basket, a hand appears from within and seizes her. While she is taken away, D'Artagnan engages his enemy in a duel and manages to deliver a slicing blow to Rochefort's hand; Rochefort upsets a cart of potatoes, which spills and buries D'Artagnan. He is rescued by the mysterious and beautiful spy Milady DeWinter (Faye Dunaway) and taken to her private home. He regains consciousness in her bedroom where she is attending him while attired in revealing lingerie, but despite her charms he departs hastily, promising to come back and "thank her properly." When he leaves, Milady undresses and prepares to step into her bath, but recoils when she sees the water is tinged red. Rochefort was hiding there, letting his injured hand bleed into her bathwater. As they embrace, they agree to deal with D'Artagnan later.Back at the musketeers' training facility, D'Artagnan ponders his problems while Porthos demonstrates a new sword technique. He flings the sword from its scabbard to sail through the air and hit its mark. Aramis is unimpressed and shows him that the sword could easily be deflected, and they leave arguing the finer points of disarming oneself.An inebriated Athos appears to question D'Artagnan about his new lover. He replies the he loves Milady with his head and Constance with his heart. When asked if he has not ever lost his heart, Athos grows reflective and relates a love story about a man who, unlike him, did lose his heart. It becomes apparent that he is speaking of himself in his life before he became a musketeer. As a nobleman he was a man of honor who fell in love with a mysterious woman and married her, bestowing his title and wealth on her. One day when she fell from her horse, the garter she always wore on her upper arm slipped to reveal the brand of the fleur de lis, identifying her as a criminal. In that moment he lost his honor. Though he had throttled her in his anger, he never knew whether or not she had died. He warns D'Artagnan that such women cause trouble, and the young musketeer agrees that he should stay faithful to Constance.Still needing to repay his debt, D'Artagnan returns to Milady's home and is admitted by her attendant Kitty (Nicole Calfan). Her mistress is away and Kitty has her own interests, so they slip into her bedroom. When Milady returns, Kitty stalls for time and D'Artagnan overhears Milady talking to Kitty about Constance while donning her jewels for the evening; D'Artagnan slips out and re-enters by the front door to pay his proper visit to Milady in her bedroom. Afterward, he calmly asks her where she has taken Constance, and when he grabs her arm the garter there pulls away from a brand of the fleur de lis, and Milady produces two glass daggers filled with acid to attack him. He manages to grab his sword and hold her at bay while he leaves the bedroom, clad only in the sheet, and locks the door. Kitty hands him a cloak and he jumps out the window to escape, finding he has Milady's necklace in his hand. Kitty finally releases her mistress from the bedroom and endures her frustrated blows.Later at the bar, Porthos asks D'Artagnan for money and the necklace slips from his pocket. Athos recognizes it at once, confirming that his wife is still alive. D'Artagnan promises to keep it a secret from the others. Later he goes to the palace to see if the Queen can help find Constance, and is instead captured by the Cardinal's men and taken to his private office. Richelieu remarks upon D'Artagnan's continued good luck and offers friendship in return for the musketeer becoming one of his men, but D'Artagnan refuses and Richelieu warns him that his journey into the battlefront at La Rochelle will be a perilous one.Milady and Rochefort discuss Constance, whom the spy has sent to a private estate. Kitty dutifully gives the information to the musketeers, who agree to help rescue her while D'Artagnan goes ahead toward the battlefront. Constance is fettered in an upstairs room but manages to land a kick on one of the guards when he brings her food; once she has freed herself she runs to the window and finds the courtyard is filled with vicious attack dogs, preventing her escape. The next time a guard comes, she kicks him in the groin before realizing it is Aramis in disguise and she is being rescued. Porthos uses stilts to cross the courtyard with Constance perched on his shoulders to avoid the dogs. The three take her to the convent at Armentieres.D'Artagnan stops at an inn where he plans to meet his friends and finds a note that they were thrown in jail for drunken behavior and sent on a few bottles of wine to drink their health. He declines, saying they will share the wine when they're together again.On the road D'Artagnan is set upon by Rochefort and his hired men, and when the other three musketeers hear dueling in the frigid weather, they join the fray, fighting on an icy lake with unpredictable footing. Still they manage to defeat the gang and take one with them to the inn to question him. He reveals that a meeting is planned at the Red Dove Cote Inn, begs for a drink and is poured some of the wine. Before the others join him, Aramis holds them back as the man quickly goes into convulsions and dies. Sniffing the wine, Aramis says it has been poisoned, probably by Milady.At the Red Dove Cote Inn, Milady meets with the Cardinal and discusses her agenda to rid herself and Rochefort of D'Artagnan and Constance after she does her duty in handling Buckingham, but the Cardinal is unconcerned with her private affairs. She asks for no money for dealing with the duke; she asks instead for carte blanche to deal with her enemies in her own way, and Richelieu produces a vague and craftily written note with his authorization but no words which can be used against him. She tucks it away after he leaves, but suddenly Athos appears and confronts her for the first time since the fateful day when she robbed him of his honor. He asks her for the note, threatening to shoot her if she refuses. Knowing he is capable of it, she surrenders the note.On the battlefield the musketeers have been sent to lend support and see that La Rochelle falls. Athos makes a bet that the four of them can breach the enemy lines and have breakfast atop the bastion--a place where they can discuss matters without the Cardinal's spies within earshot--and they assign Planchet (Roy Kinnear) to bring the ammunition and provisions. They dodge bullets and manage to set up their meal, and Athos gives the note to D'Artagnan and tells them all of the plot to kill Buckingham. Planchet will be assigned to go warn Buckingham, and when the rebels charge the battlement, Athos finds the wall is weak enough that they can push it over to send its stones toppling down on the charging rebels.Milady travels to England to meet Buckingham but fails to convince him to cease aiding the rebels. Outside she prepares a concealed pistol but is caught and sent to the dungeon under the care of his servant Felton (Michael Gothard), a Puritan whose unbreakable faith and detached demeanor the duke trusts. During one visit to check on his prisoner, Milady asks Felton for a Bible, and during his duties he hears her reciting scripture nonstop. Finally she collapses and tells him that she is being persecuted by the Antichrist--Buckingham--and he yields to his doubts and her passions, and later he helps her escape. He proceeds to purchase a knife, meets Buckingham on the docks and uses the weapon to attack his master, who dies from his wounds while Planchet arrives moments too late to warn him.The battle of La Rochelle ends and Rochefort and Milady race the musketeers to Armentieres to claim Constance. The musketeers reach the town nearby just steps ahead of Rochefort, and when they stop for a rest, he gains the lead. The four men remount and give chase, enter the convent by another route but are met by Rochefort and his men. While D'Artagnan and the others battle, the barn next to the convent catches fire, adding to the urgency. Porthos manages to use his new sword technique to dispatch an opponent but catches fire himself; Athos sustains another arm injury and Rochefort escapes.Milady enters the convent disguised as a nun and goes into Constance's room to sit with her. Constance doesn't recognize her in the vestments, continues praying and starts to cry. Milady tells her she should look her best when D'Artagnan arrives, then throws a rosary around Constance's neck and draws it tight.As D'Artagnan finishes dispatching his enemies, Milady leaves Constance's room and attempts to make her escape but is caught by Athos before she can reach her carriage. D'Artagnan bursts into Constance's room to find her strangled body on the floor. He leaves in profound grief and comes upon Rochefort; assuming him the killer, he charges his arch enemy, attacking violently and taking out his anger and misery on him. Again, they are equally matched swordsmen. Aramis and Porthos see them dueling, but Aramis prevents his partner from interfering; it is D'Artagnan's fight alone.By the time the fighting reaches the church, both men have exhausted each other and neither will yield. Rochefort injures D'Artagnan's hand and deals a blow which takes the point off his sword. Desperate, D'Artagnan makes a final lunge and drives his sword home, pinning the spy to the lectern before he falls and dies, and the young musketeer collapses from exhaustion.Later the musketeers gather with their prisoner at a riverbank, standing in judgment of Milady's crimes. They decide the punishment should be death. Athos uses his privileges as a nobleman to hire a headsman and order the execution at the cost of five pistoles. She defiantly demands a trial by a proper court and, when nobody speaks up, she turns to D'Artagnan for help. When he steps forward Athos tells him, in no uncertain terms, that if he moves further the two of them will cross swords and Athos will kill him, so he resumes his place. They watch as the headsman takes Milady in a boat to a small jut of land on the other side of the lake and does his duty; when he returns they grant his request to be paid two pistoles extra for oarsman duties.The musketeers are then rounded up and D'Artagnan finds himself in Cardinal Richelieu's office again. Richelieu reminds him that he refused an offer of friendship and now stands accused of a serious crime. D'Artagnan then produces the Cardinal's own document granting the bearer the privilege to do "what has been done." Knowing he has been defeated, the Cardinal casually burns the note and offers his foe a commission as a lieutenant in the musketeers with the name left blank, saying he and his friends are free to go. Perplexed, D'Artagnan leaves and offers the document to all three of his friends, who politely refuse. He worries that as an officer he will lose his friends, but Porthos assures him that they will always remain "All for one and one for all."
humor, action, murder, historical fiction