Recently, there have been efforts to create sequels for Dumas's original novel. Among them, The Fifth Musketeer has been given a screen treatment, as well as a movie featuring d'Artagnan as an aging swordsman, still gallant and dashing, but now more of a Don Quixote figure.
Of all the movie versions, however, most movie critics agree that the best were released in 1949 and 1974. The 1949 Three Musketeers featured an all-star cast of MGM notables. Director George Sidney cast Gene Kelly as d'Artagnan; Van Heflin as Athos; June Allison as Constance; Lana Turner as Milady; Vincent Price as Richelieu; and Angela Lansbury as Queen Anne. This film version, unlike the 1974 production by Richard Lester, is unusually faithful to Dumas's novel. Consider, for instance, the fidelity of the film to the novel in the following key scenes.
Scene 1. As d'Artagnan departs from home, he is cleanly and neatly dressed, although he is a peasant lad; he receives gifts from his father and departs on a very comic-looking horse. In contrast, this same scene in the 1974 Richard Lester film, starring Michael York as d'Artagnan, shows the hero dressed in dirty, ragged clothes, conducting himself rather basely and departing on a perfectly acceptable-looking horse.
Scene 2. D'Artagnan's arrival in Meung is memorable because of his impetuous attack on "the man from Meung"; d'Artagnan attempts to duel with the stranger, but is defeated, beaten, and robbed. In Lester's film, the duel scene and the fighting are played wholly for comedy.
Scene 3. D'Artagnan's arrival in Paris and his admittance to Treville's house shows him overhearing Athos, Porthos, and Aramis being reprimanded for dueling in a tavern. This scene is omitted in Lester's film.
