Wed 24 Jul 2019
Movie Review: AT SWORD’S POINT (1952).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[4] Comments
AT SWORD’S POINT. RKO Radio Pictures, 1952. Also released as The Sons of the Three Musketeers. Cornel Wilde (D’Artagnan Jr.), Maureen O’Hara (Claire, daughter of Athos), Robert Douglas, Gladys Cooper, June Clayworth, Dan O’Herlihy (Aramis Jr.), Alan Hale Jr. (Porthos Jr.), Nancy Gates. Director: Lewis Allen.
I don’t wish to insult anyone, but if you can’t tell from the credits above what this movie is all about and 90% of the plot, you may be reading the wrong blog. But not being a person to send anyone packing without a second chance, I’ll talk some about the movie anyway.
After the death of Cardinal Richelieu, it seems as though the ailing Queen of France is once again in trouble — the evil Duke de Lavalle is making plans to marry the Queen’s daughter Henriette and kill the young Prince, next in line for the throne. She calls for the assistance of The Three Musketeers and D’Artagnan. They have aged, however, and while willing, they each send one of their offspring in their stead.
Three men and one woman, and she may be the best swordsperson of them all:
Enemy soldier: I’ll not fight with a lady.
Claire: I’m no lady when I fight!
The movie is in Technicolor, and deservedly so. Maureen O’Hara was meant for color movies, and her presence in one must have doubled the box office receipts, at least.
This one is told with a great sense of fun, and it only bogs down when things start to turn serious, as they do, but only every once in a while, but not too often. There are a lot of swordfights in this movie, and I mean a lot, and I meant it when I said Maureen O’Hara’s is right there, mixing it up with the rest of them, thrusting her sword into the enemy, through and through.
It all turns out well, you can count on that. I enjoyed this one.
BONUS TRIVIA: Taken from the IMDb page. Alan Hale Jr. plays the son of Porthos here. His father, Alan Hale, appeared in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) as an aging Porthos. When that film was remade as The Fifth Musketeer (1979), that role was taken by Alan Hale Jr.. In that same movie the role of an aging D’Artagnan was played by Cornel Wilde, this picture’s son of D’Artagnan. Also here, the elderly Porthos is played by Moroni Olsen, who played that character in his younger days in the film of the original Dumas novel, The Three Musketeers (1935).
July 25th, 2019 at 6:27 am
I haven’t seen this – I’ll look for it – but one of my fvourite films Bertrand Tavernier’s LaFille d’Artagnan may be a remake or – at the least – inspired by it. It has one of the most realistic lines of any action film: after a long day’s ride the musketeers are painfully dismounting from their horses. “Oh,” says one of them, “That’s the wonderful thing about rheumatism. You don’t notice your haemorrhoids.”
July 25th, 2019 at 7:43 am
My laugh for the day!
July 25th, 2019 at 8:22 pm
It’s a fun film, and O’Hara wields a pretty good sword. One scene to notice when they are being pursued by French troops through the forest if you look closely (it’s deliberately very dark) it appears to be Technicolor stock footage from Warner’s THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD because the 17th Century French soldiers appear to be wearing 12th Century Norman armor.
I’ve seen this footage in other films so it does appear Warner’s sold it as stock footage to other studios.
July 28th, 2019 at 9:01 am
This one’s a lot of fun — THE THREE MUSKETEERS: THE NEXT GENERATION. I couldn’t help noticing the sex appeal oversell of that poster, aimed at both the male and female audiences; they probably couldn’t have gotten away that a decade earlier. In her heyday, Maureen O’Hara, like Virginia Mayo, was a living work of art.