Trivia / The Three Musketeers (1973)

• Acting for Two: Frank Finlay (Porthos) also played O'Reilly, the jeweler tasked by Buckingham to reproduce to two missing diamond studs.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Cardinal Richelieu says to d'Artagnan that he has no personal enemies, only enemies of France. This line is in neither the original novel, nor the script. Charlton Heston came across this quote of the Cardinal's when researching the role, and asked Richard Lester to find a place to include it in the film.
• Actor-Shared Background: Anne of Austria was born in Spain and, being a member of the House of Habsburg, was actually Spanish royalty. Geraldine Chaplin married a Spaniard, and her daughter, Oona Chaplin, was born in Spain.
• All-Star Cast: And how. The cast list is a who's-who of American and British stars of the 1970s. Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, and Frank Finlay as the Musketeers, Geraldine Chaplin as Queen Anne, Jean-Pierre Cassel as Louis XIII, Charlton Heston as Richelieu, Faye Dunaway as Milday, Christopher Lee as de Rochefort, Raquel Welch as Constance, Georges Wilson as Tréville and Simon Ward as Buckingham. In total, the film's cast has a whopping 5 Oscar noms, 10 BAFTA noms, and 27 Golden Globe noms.
• Billing Displacement: Despite playing the lead, Michael York is billed fourth. Oliver Reed gets first billing.
• California Doubling: The movie(s) were shot in Spain and England.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Charlton Heston was originally offered the role of Athos.
• Creative Differences: In August 1973, Raquel Welch withdrew from the film due to creative and artistic differences. She announced she would instead make a film Decline and Fall of a Very Nice Lady. However Welch wound up rejoining the film.
• Creator Killer: An unintentional example: During the filming of The Return of the Musketeers, Richard Lester's longtime collaborative partner Roy Kinnear fell off a horse and broke his pelvis. He died of a heart attack the next day. Lester grew so distraught that he quit making films, though he would make one last project, a concert film, for Paul McCartney two years following Return's release.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Thirty-three year old Raquel Welch as twenty-two year old Constance Bonacieux.
  • Thirty-nine year old Richard Chamberlain as twenty-three year old Aramis.
  • Thirty-one year old Michael York as eighteen year old D'Artagnan.
  • Porthos was between Athos and Aramis in age, the former being thirty and the latter twenty-three. Frank Finlay was forty-seven.
  • There is a certain level of ambiguity about Rochefort's age. He was either in his early or mid forties. Christopher Lee however was fifty-one making the former unlikely.
  • Forty-one year old Jean-Pierre Cassel as twenty-four year old Louis XIII. Ironically, Louis only lived to be forty-one.
  • Fifty year old Charlton Heston as forty year old Richelieu. This is at least justified, as the original novel points out that Richelieu is younger than he looks.
• Died During Production: Roy Kinnear died from a horseback riding accident during filming of The Return of the Musketeers in 1988. His role was completed with a stand-in, filmed from the rear and with lines dubbed by a voice actor.
• Executive Meddling: What was supposed to be a four-hour long epic became split into two films because the producers didn't think that people would want to see a film that long. Since the actors were only paid the rate for one film, most of them sued and won. (This also directly affected Superman: The Movie and Superman II from the same producers, as they were also originally shot as one long production, though still separate films. Richard Lester replaced Richard Donner for Superman II.)
  • Richard Lester has said in interviews the producers cast Simon Ward and Raquel Welch. "Raquel is very big in all the small countries," said Ilya Salkind.
  • The Salkinds refused to let Lester use any footage from the first two films when he was making The Return of the Musketeers.
• Fake Nationality:
  • With the exception of Jean-Pierre Cassel (Louis XIII), Georges Wilson (de Tréville), and Nicole Calfan (Kitty); none of the actors were actually French. Ironically, the three had their lines re-dubbed so their accents would match the rest of the cast.
  • In The Return of the Musketeers, the French Philippe Noiret plays the Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin.
• Fatal Method Acting: Roy Kinnear died from complications of a broken pelvis after accidentally falling from his horse on the set of The Return of the Musketeers.
• No Stunt Double:
  • Roy Kinnear did his own riding stunts, as the production company could not find a stunt double.
  • Michael York claimed that at one point he had to double for his own injured stunt double.
• On-Set Injury:
  • Michael York had his leg cut in one duel and almost lost an eye in another. It got so bad that at one point, York remembers doubling for his injured stunt double. He later resorted to stuffing his script inside his clothes for protection.
  • Oliver Reed was stabbed in the throat while filming the fight near the windmill and almost died. He also took a sword to the hand.
  • Frank Finlay was struck in the face by a two-by-four, and burned in separate fight scenes.
  • Christopher Lee fared better than most of the cast, getting off with just a sprained knee and a pulled shoulder muscle.
    • Lee did later recount, though, that he had to remind Reed during a sword fight that they weren't actually trying to kill each other.
  • While filming their fight scene, Faye Dunaway accidentally pushed Raquel Welch for real, causing her to fall and sprain her wrist.
• The Other Marty: Kim Cattrall was cast in The Return of the Musketeers at short notice because the original choice dropped out.
• Playing Against Type: Charlton Heston as Richelieu. He rarely played movie villains.
• The Production Curse: The Return of the Musketeers: British character actor Roy Kinnear died on set when a formerly placid horse he was riding, one thought suitable for the actor, became uncontrollably wild and galloped away, eventually bucking him off into a wall. He died a day later from complications to a broken pelvis. Kinnear's family successfully sued the film makers for negligence. Richard Lester was so shaken by the incident (he had worked many times with Kinnear and considered him a friend) that he retired prematurely from the film business, despite a series of successes.
• Recycled Set: The Duke of Buckingham's billiard room and the long hall behind it at his English estate is a leftover set from Patton. It is also seen in The Four Musketeers, where Milady and Buckingham speak about American Indians and also serves as a set of rooms in The Return of the Musketeers for a different character in France some 10 years after the action of the first two films.
• Role Reprise: Michael York played D'Artagnan again in the 2004 Made-for-TV Movie La Femme Musketeer.
• Sequel Gap: 15 years between The Four Musketeers and Return of the Musketeers.
• Uncredited Role: Frank Thornton as a man in a small carriage.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Richard Lester originally envisioned this as a film for The Beatles.
  • Lester wanted Malcolm McDowell to play d'Artagnan.
  • Alan Bates was the first choice for Athos.
  • Timothy Dalton and Jon Finch turned down the role of Aramis.
  • Julie Christie was considered for Constance in case Raquel Welch said no.
  • When this was in its early stage of development, Richard Burton and Ursula Andress were being pursued by the Salkinds.
  • Charlton Heston was interested in returning as Cardinal Richelieu for the third film although the character had died between the novels. As a concession the film features a portrait of Heston as Richelieu which was gifted to Heston after the filming wrapped.
• You Look Familiar: Jean-Pierre Cassel played King Louis XIII in the first two films and Cyrano de Bergerac in the third.

---