The Three Musketeers (1939)
The Ritz Brothers are a comedy team that I’ve always wanted to check out, but I never really got around to it. Being well aware that their one public domain film, The Gorilla, is not considered good in the slightest, I decided to pass on that. Taking into consideration how much I love Wheeler and Woolsey’s Cockeyed Cavaliers, I decided to check out a period piece as my introduction to the team: 1939’s The Three Musketeers.
d’Artagnan (Don Ameche) travels to Paris aiming to join the King’s Musketeers. He mistakes three cooks (Al, Jimmy, and Harry Ritz) for the Musketeers and ends up teaming up with them when he discovers the Queen needs their help in retrieving an emerald brooch that she gave to the Duke of Buckingham (Lester Matthews), which could threaten to start a scandal.
Even as someone who’s not too familiar with the Alexander Dumas novel, it’s pretty easy to tell that this is not a faithful adaptation of the original work. The actual Musketeers (Athos, Porthos, and Aramis) themselves barely appear, which leads me to question why they didn’t just have the Ritz Brothers themselves be the actual Musketeers? It’s already not a serious adaptation; they may as well have had them be a comedic take on the Musketeers. Like I said, though, I’m not too familiar with the original book, so I’m going to judge this simply as its own movie rather than as an adaptation.
As far as the story and characters go, they’re not bad, but there’s definitely room for improvement. The lead, d’Artagnan, is rather egotistical and not always likable. For example, there’s one scene in which he and the Ritz Brothers force themselves into someone’s home, and take a room that was already reserved for someone else. The owner ends up helping the antagonist, but prior to this, he comes across as just a homeowner scared for his life, to the point where d’Artagnan feels like an antagonist at this point. He shows almost no concern for the actual citizens. Yes, I get that his main loyalty is to the King and Queen, but having him be this abrasive to the citizens makes him a hard character to root for. The romance between d’Artagnan and Lady Constance also feels pretty rushed.
Then we have the Ritz Brothers. First, let’s start with the positives. Their music and dance numbers are legitimately entertaining, which isn’t surprising considering they started off as a dancing act in vaudeville. They do have some funny moments, especially during the drinking scene early on and in the first swordfight after they encounter d’Artagnan. The problem is that they’re not very distinct. It’s incredibly hard to tell which brother is which (Harry’s a bit easier to distinguish, but not by much) and overall feels like we’re watching three clones. On the one hand, this lack of personality gives them less restrictions on what kinds of gags they can do, but the major appeal to comedy teams like The Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and the Three Stooges is that we can differentiate between each individual member and enjoy their individual personalities, which allow for really funny gags based off of these personalities. The Ritz Brothers couldn’t do this. The one real personality trait they have here is that they’re cowards, which also makes them hard to like considering that they abandon the one guy they consider to be their friend, only to rescue him by chance. Again, they do have some comedic highlights and I appreciate the energy that they clearly gave to their performances, but I can easily see why they’re not as highly regarded today as their fellow comedy teams from this time period.
In the end, The Three Musketeers just didn’t leave much of an impression on me. While I do like the set, costume, and title card design as well as some comedic and musical elements, as a whole the film just didn’t stand out that well as a comedy or a dramatic film. I’m going to be optimistic and think that the Ritz Brothers might have starred in better films than this one.
5 out of 10
d’Artagnan (Don Ameche) travels to Paris aiming to join the King’s Musketeers. He mistakes three cooks (Al, Jimmy, and Harry Ritz) for the Musketeers and ends up teaming up with them when he discovers the Queen needs their help in retrieving an emerald brooch that she gave to the Duke of Buckingham (Lester Matthews), which could threaten to start a scandal.
Even as someone who’s not too familiar with the Alexander Dumas novel, it’s pretty easy to tell that this is not a faithful adaptation of the original work. The actual Musketeers (Athos, Porthos, and Aramis) themselves barely appear, which leads me to question why they didn’t just have the Ritz Brothers themselves be the actual Musketeers? It’s already not a serious adaptation; they may as well have had them be a comedic take on the Musketeers. Like I said, though, I’m not too familiar with the original book, so I’m going to judge this simply as its own movie rather than as an adaptation.
As far as the story and characters go, they’re not bad, but there’s definitely room for improvement. The lead, d’Artagnan, is rather egotistical and not always likable. For example, there’s one scene in which he and the Ritz Brothers force themselves into someone’s home, and take a room that was already reserved for someone else. The owner ends up helping the antagonist, but prior to this, he comes across as just a homeowner scared for his life, to the point where d’Artagnan feels like an antagonist at this point. He shows almost no concern for the actual citizens. Yes, I get that his main loyalty is to the King and Queen, but having him be this abrasive to the citizens makes him a hard character to root for. The romance between d’Artagnan and Lady Constance also feels pretty rushed.
Then we have the Ritz Brothers. First, let’s start with the positives. Their music and dance numbers are legitimately entertaining, which isn’t surprising considering they started off as a dancing act in vaudeville. They do have some funny moments, especially during the drinking scene early on and in the first swordfight after they encounter d’Artagnan. The problem is that they’re not very distinct. It’s incredibly hard to tell which brother is which (Harry’s a bit easier to distinguish, but not by much) and overall feels like we’re watching three clones. On the one hand, this lack of personality gives them less restrictions on what kinds of gags they can do, but the major appeal to comedy teams like The Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and the Three Stooges is that we can differentiate between each individual member and enjoy their individual personalities, which allow for really funny gags based off of these personalities. The Ritz Brothers couldn’t do this. The one real personality trait they have here is that they’re cowards, which also makes them hard to like considering that they abandon the one guy they consider to be their friend, only to rescue him by chance. Again, they do have some comedic highlights and I appreciate the energy that they clearly gave to their performances, but I can easily see why they’re not as highly regarded today as their fellow comedy teams from this time period.
In the end, The Three Musketeers just didn’t leave much of an impression on me. While I do like the set, costume, and title card design as well as some comedic and musical elements, as a whole the film just didn’t stand out that well as a comedy or a dramatic film. I’m going to be optimistic and think that the Ritz Brothers might have starred in better films than this one.
5 out of 10
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