‘The Three Musketeers' and ‘The Four Musketeers': Richard Lester's Spirited Swashbucklers

Few works have sparked the cinematic imagination as routinely as Alexandre Dumas's 1844 novel 'The Three Musketeers.' A hasty count indicates some 40 movie versions (the first and latest from France, in 1903 and 2023) and many more made just for television. But by common consent, the best yet is Richard Lester's 'The Three Musketeers' (1973) and 'The Four Musketeers' (1974), originally conceived as a single film with intermission but ultimately released as two separate pictures. Both have now been fetchingly restored in 4K and this week debut on home video in that form as part of the Criterion Collection. (Enthusiasts may select a two-disc Blu-ray set or a four-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo pack.)
The Philadelphia-born Mr. Lester worked primarily in the U.K. and remains best known today for 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Help,' his mid-1960s filmed collaborations with the Beatles. At an early stage, there was apparently some thought of casting the Beatles as Dumas's sword-fighting trio plus their protégé D'Artagnan—an idea quickly quashed.

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