The Three Musketeers (1939 film)

The Three Musketeers is a 1939 musical comedy film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's 1844 novel The Three Musketeers directed by Allan Dwan and starring Don Ameche as d'Artagnan, with the Ritz Brothers as his cowardly helpers. While the film can be found online, it did have an original copyright notice and renewal.^[1][2]

The Three Musketeers
Directed by	Allan Dwan
Screenplay by	William A. Drake M. M. Musselman Sam Hellman Ray Golden (special material) Sid Kuller (special material)
Based on	The Three Musketeers 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas
Produced by	Raymond Griffith (associate producer)
Starring	Don Ameche The Ritz Brothers
Cinematography	Peverell Marley
Edited by	Jack Dennis
Music by	David Buttolph Samuel Pokrass
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	February 17, 1939 (1939-02-17)
Running time	73 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Cast

• Don Ameche as d'Artagnan
• Ritz Brothers as Three Lackeys
• Binnie Barnes as Milady de Winter
• Gloria Stuart as Queen Anne
• Pauline Moore as Lady Constance
• Joseph Schildkraut as King Louis XIII
• John Carradine as Naveau
• Lionel Atwill as De Rochefort
• Miles Mander as Cardinal Richelieu
• Douglass Dumbrille as Athos (as Douglas Dumbrille)
• John 'Dusty' King as Aramis (as John King)
• Russell Hicks as Porthos
• Gregory Gaye as Vitray
• Lester Matthews as Duke of Buckingham
• Egon Brecher as Landlord
• Moroni Olsen as Bailiff
• Georges Renavent as Captain Fageon
• C. Montague Shaw as Ship Captain (as Montague Shaw)

Songs

Music: Samuel Pokrass, lyrics: Walter Bullock.

• d'Artagnan song (Vara-vara-vara), Don Ameche.
• Chicken Soup, Ritz Brothers.
• Voila, Ritz Brothers.
• My Lady, Don Ameche.

Reception

Frank Nugent, critic for New York Times, wrote: "That isn't a buzzing in your ears you've been hearing; it's Dumas, fils, spinning in his grave as the Ritz Brothers play his Three Musketeers ... It seems ironic that Mr. Zanuck's first attempt to deal reverently with a classic—in every respect but the Ritzes' share in it—should be impeded by its very reverence to the classic. The trouble, it appears, is that his burlesques are too serious and that his serious efforts are too often burlesques."^[3]

In the Leave it to Beaver episode "The Book Report" (1963), young Beaver Cleaver gets in trouble at school when he is assigned to write a book report about the Dumas novel, but instead of actually doing his homework and reading it, just watches the movie on television and bases his report on the film's comedic scenes and Ritz Brothers' zany antics.