All for one and one for all! George Sidney’s The Three Musketeers is one of many screen adaptations of Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 novel under the same name. This version stars several screen legends and icons with Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, Van Heflin, Vincent Price, Gig Young and Gene Kelly, who here is in a non-singing role. While there are no songs from Kelly, he wields a mighty good sword as a would be Musketeer!  

Gene Kelly (Singin’ in the Rain, Ziegfeld Follies) stars as d’Artagnan of Gascony, who travels to Paris to become one of the King’s Musketeers after showing off his swordsman skills against the musketeers, Porthos (Gig Young, Captains of the Clouds, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?), Athos (Van Heflin, The Prowler, Possessed, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers), and Aramis (Robert Coote, Theater of Blood, Mr. Moto’s Last Warning). The Musketeers allegiance is for King Louis XIII (Frank Morgan, The Wizard of Oz, the Shop Around the Corner) and Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Death on the Nile). Their enemies are Richelieu (horror icon Vincent Price, House of Wax, The Fly, The Abominable Dr. Phibes) and Countess de Winter (the iconic Lana Turner, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Betrayed, Peyton Place). The murderous de Winter happens to be Athos wife and is caught in an evil scheme that involved robbery and murder. She begs him to save her from being executed, but Athos, who still loves her, is torn by wanting to save her despite her wicked ways.  

This colorful film is blessed with some of Hollywood’s finest with excellent acting by the cast. The movie might be a bit long for some viewers, running just over two hours, but the cast is compelling enough to hold your interest. Robert Planck’s cinematography is fantastic with lots of lovely, panoramic views, and the music by the legendary Herbert Stothart (he was the composer for The Wizard of Oz, which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Score)

Warner Archive has released The Three Musketeers on Blu-ray giving it a new 4K scan from original nitrate Technicolor negatives. The image quality is just perfect, and has never looked so good, so polished as it does now. The colors are sharp, rich, and bold with a clean, pristine appearance with film grain, and deep textures. The scenery and costumes have never looked this robust. Black levels and shadow detail are also as resolved as it gets. Skin tones look spot on perfect. No DNR appears to have been applied.

The English DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track sounds perfectly fine for the most part. The age-old elements due show some minor distortions to the audio that make it a bit hard to follow, but overall, dialogue, music and action scenes sound excellent with no drop-outs, crackling, hissing or sync issues. English subtitles are available only for the main feature, but not the extras.

The supplemental package for this release are all ported over from the DVD.

Looking at London is a short where James A. FitzPatrick looks at the sights of London rebuilding in a post-World War II .

There is a Tex Avery Cartoon White Price Fleadom which is part of the Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 3 Blu-ray.  

We also get the MGM Radio Promo, which is a vintage piece featuring Lana Turner talking about the main feature and finally there is a theatrical trailer.

The Three Musketeers Blu-ray is easily highly recommended with the great video quality and dynamic audio, accompanied by the extras to make this one great package.

The Three Musketeers

Director- George Sidney

Cast- Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, Van Heflin

Country of Origin- United States

Distributor – Warner Archive/Warner Home Video

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –4/11/22