The Four Charlots Musketeers (1974)
This French slapstick comedy stars the musician/comedian foursome Les Charlots, as valets to the Four Musketeers. One of the film's highlights is a mutual kicking session between Cardinal Richelieu, the King, and a monk. This comedy foursome was enormously popular in 1970s France, and they made a huge number of films during that period.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
So much average
Lack of good storyline.
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
...on what Hunebelle used to do fifteen years before:swashbucklers.The Charlots are abominable actors but André Hunebelle is a veteran.He never made anything but commercial flicks but who could blame him?We have seen worse since.Daniel Ceccaldi/Paul Préboist /Bernard Haller are quite funny as the Louis the Thirteenth /Father Joseph/Richelieu threesome.The Charlots do not play the part of the four musketeers but those of their valets. Dumas must be turning in his grave :the musketeers are not up to scratch ,that's why the valets are here for!Milady was played by Karin Petersen who starred in the made-for -TV series "la Dame de Montsoreau" ,a must for Alexandre Dumas fans.Sadly ,she was to commit suicide in the early eighties.
This movie is not about the three (or four) musketeers. It is a funny parody of all those movies, and it centres around the four servants of the musketeers. As a kid, I enjoyed it immensely, and it was the only musketeer movie I liked, simply because it is such naive and harmless fun. The main plot: The three (or four) musketeers are useless. They are lazy and drunk and barely ever appear in the film. It is their four servants who do all the work and all the rescuing. And they faithfully tell the stories to Alexandre Dumas, the pub landlord who likes to write things down. The rest sticks to the main premise of the novel (a French queen in distress, an English Baron dating her, etc.) but always with a wink in the eye. This is a slapstick movie, a parody and a funny one, although not really a clever one. The finale is big fun, involving lots of people sneaking up on each other and kicking each other in the butt, so you can see that this is not clever or subtle humour at all. Think of the average Bud Spencer & Terence Hill movie and you're quite close to this. I'm not sure whether it has as much appeal to adults as it has for kids...