Scene 4. D'Artagnan catches sight of "the man from Meung," runs after him, bumps into Athos and agrees to a 12 o'clock duel; he knocks Porthos down, revealing a half-golden (instead of an entirely golden) shoulder belt, and agrees to a 1 o'clock duel; then he enrages the usually quiet Aramis and agrees to a 2 o'clock duel. In the Lester film, there are so many extraneous things happening that one loses all sense of any individuality among the three musketeers.
Scene 5. During d'Artagnan's duel with Athos, while the other two musketeers wait their turn, the duel is interrupted by the appearance of the cardinal's men, who arrive to arrest them; d'Artagnan sides with the musketeers and thereby becomes an unofficial "fourth" musketeer.
While this is a rather short scene in the novel, it is usually presented in the movies in the grand tradition of the great dueling scenes established by Douglas Fairbanks. In the Sidney film, it is a continuous, running scene, marvelously orchestrated and brilliantly choreographed. Each of the duelists is individualized with the ultimate and final attention focused on the magnificent performance by Gene Kelly as d'Artagnan. In his heyday, Kelly was one of the finest dancers on the silver screen, and this particular scene emphasizes his masterful ability to move and dance.
The three musketeers finally retire to the background and function merely as an appreciative audience as this fantastic peasant lad from Gascony deliciously combats with finesse and, at times, with humor — always in control of the situation. The entire scene functions as a complete cinematic unit.
In contrast, the Lester version is filmed as though it were a back street brawl, with no continuity of camera work; each short, jerky shot has little or no relation to the next short, jerky shot. Instead of long, lyric passages of classic dueling, Lester has his swordsmen doing karate chops, kicking, gouging, jumping, bludgeoning with rakes and poles, and other such related nonsense. There is absolutely no sense of d'Artagnan's being a superior swordsman.
