The Three Musketeers

Seventeenth-century France. Young d'Artagnan comes to Paris from the provinces; all he wants is to join the king's musketeers. On his very first day he agrees to separate duels with three of them: Athos, Porthos and Aramis. Instead of duelling, the four end up fighting side by side and become friends. Before long they find themselves in the middle of the reckoning between the king and Cardinal Richelieu; a jewel of the queen's has gone missing. The source is Alexandre Dumas's novel. Douglas Fairbanks plays d'Artagnan, and the film shows how big a star he was in his day: no double, every leap his own, and the swordplay almost like dance. It became one of the biggest earners of the silent era. Fred Niblo directed. Two hours and twenty-four minutes. Fairbanks played the same character again in a sequel eight years later.