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Neither swashbucklers nor historical dramas are usually at the top of my list as favorite genres, so I thought this one might be a little less interesting. But the Fairbanks Zorro was so good, I figured this one would have to be pretty decent, and, turns out, it was much more than that. Really a good film—a well-paced and well-directed screen adaptation of the Dumas story. (I can't speak for how accurate it is, Kitty—I haven't read it, either, but from what I know of the plot, it would seem pretty accurate—though I'm sure a lot of it is probably omitted of necessity.)
The costumes, sets, and scenic locations were a highlight of this film for me, too. You can tell some money and effort was put into this production, and it definitely shows.
Fairbanks was unexpectedly playful in his role—rather silly, I at first thought—but then later, I agree with you, Kitty, his flippancy (is that the right word?) gives interest and color to the character, and keeps it from being the stereotypical, deadly-serious white knight kind of figure.
One thing I found distasteful was the casual portrayal of death and killing, where swordplay is a game and whoever gets stabbed—hey, no biggie. But that’s par for the course in adventure movies of that era, I guess, though it might seem inappropriately unrealistic to today’s audiences (ok, at least to this audience.
)
Other characters: I liked Mary MacLaren as the Queen, and Menjou made a good Louis. But Nigel De Brulier stole the show in the acting department with his portrayal of Cardinal Richelieu. Such a smoothly sinister character! (The real Richelieu—a fascinating historical character!—was not quite the bad guy Dumas and this film make him out to be, though he was a pretty crafty and enormously powerful political force.) I thought that repeated visual device of the closeup of his hand was very effective, too, as if he is literally preparing to grasp power. (Speaking of which, that little gesture d'Artagnan did when he smelled trouble was pretty neat, too. Fred Niblo must have liked that technique.)
The score: according to the opening credits, there was a score especially composed for the film by Louis F. Gottshalk. If you’re not familiar with the name, he was a prominent American composer of the late 19th and early 20th century. This is obviously was not that score, being a pastiche of various classical pieces that was fairly effective (well, most of the time—there were a few awkward moments.) I loved hearing the Borodin Polovtsian Dances and the Tchaikovsky Marche Slav—that’s such great music!
But I wonder what happened to that Gottshalk score, if it's extant, and if it has been used on dvd or for live screenings.
A couple of other random notes:
I liked the repeat of that "...France of old..." title card at the end to kind of give the film closure.
And did you notice that none other than Walt Whitman played d’Artagnan’s father? Surely that’s not….
Nahh, his beard was longer. 
That must have been a minor trend in those days to take a famous person for your stage name. There’s an actress in one of the lead roles in Lois Weber’s Too Wise Wives named Mona Lisa. And seems like there’s somebody else we’ve run across in our watchfests that I can’t remember…
It was very interesting to watch Fairbanks's footwork during the sword fighting scenes. There was obviously some undercranking going on there. I wonder how much... It would be fascinating to see rehearsals of some of those scenes at normal speed. Undercranking or not, though, there's no way to fake Fairbanks's amazing stunts!
The costumes, sets, and scenic locations were a highlight of this film for me, too. You can tell some money and effort was put into this production, and it definitely shows.
Fairbanks was unexpectedly playful in his role—rather silly, I at first thought—but then later, I agree with you, Kitty, his flippancy (is that the right word?) gives interest and color to the character, and keeps it from being the stereotypical, deadly-serious white knight kind of figure.
One thing I found distasteful was the casual portrayal of death and killing, where swordplay is a game and whoever gets stabbed—hey, no biggie. But that’s par for the course in adventure movies of that era, I guess, though it might seem inappropriately unrealistic to today’s audiences (ok, at least to this audience.
)Other characters: I liked Mary MacLaren as the Queen, and Menjou made a good Louis. But Nigel De Brulier stole the show in the acting department with his portrayal of Cardinal Richelieu. Such a smoothly sinister character! (The real Richelieu—a fascinating historical character!—was not quite the bad guy Dumas and this film make him out to be, though he was a pretty crafty and enormously powerful political force.) I thought that repeated visual device of the closeup of his hand was very effective, too, as if he is literally preparing to grasp power. (Speaking of which, that little gesture d'Artagnan did when he smelled trouble was pretty neat, too. Fred Niblo must have liked that technique.)
The score: according to the opening credits, there was a score especially composed for the film by Louis F. Gottshalk. If you’re not familiar with the name, he was a prominent American composer of the late 19th and early 20th century. This is obviously was not that score, being a pastiche of various classical pieces that was fairly effective (well, most of the time—there were a few awkward moments.) I loved hearing the Borodin Polovtsian Dances and the Tchaikovsky Marche Slav—that’s such great music!
But I wonder what happened to that Gottshalk score, if it's extant, and if it has been used on dvd or for live screenings.A couple of other random notes:
I liked the repeat of that "...France of old..." title card at the end to kind of give the film closure.
And did you notice that none other than Walt Whitman played d’Artagnan’s father? Surely that’s not….
Nahh, his beard was longer. That must have been a minor trend in those days to take a famous person for your stage name. There’s an actress in one of the lead roles in Lois Weber’s Too Wise Wives named Mona Lisa. And seems like there’s somebody else we’ve run across in our watchfests that I can’t remember…It was very interesting to watch Fairbanks's footwork during the sword fighting scenes. There was obviously some undercranking going on there. I wonder how much... It would be fascinating to see rehearsals of some of those scenes at normal speed. Undercranking or not, though, there's no way to fake Fairbanks's amazing stunts!
I was also practically gripping my seat when Barbara La Marr showed up as de Winters and stole the brooch from the Duke of Buckingham right before d'Artagnan arrives. Aughhhh!!
Some disruptive offline stuff happening lately.