At Sword's Point, also known as Sons of the Three Musketeers, is a 1952 American historical action adventure film directed by Lewis Allen and starring Cornel Wilde and Maureen O'Hara. It was shot in Technicolor by RKO Radio Pictures. The film was completed in 1949 but was not released until 1952.
| At Sword's Point | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Lewis Allen |
| Written by | Aubrey Wisberg Jack Pollexfen |
| Produced by | Jerrold T. Brandt |
| Starring | Cornel Wilde Maureen O'Hara |
| Cinematography | Ray Rennahan |
| Edited by | Samuel E. Beetley Robert Golden |
| Music by | Roy Webb Constantin Bakaleinikoff |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | RKO Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 81 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The sons of the Three Musketeers and Claire, the daughter of Athos, are reunited by the aging Queen Anne to halt the villainy of her treacherous nephew, the Duc de Lavalle.[2]
Plot
The sons (and a daughter) of the original Four Musketeers ride to the rescue of besieged Queen Anne in 1648 France.
D'Artagnan and his companions are alerted that the terminally ill queen is being pressured by the evil Duc de Lavalle into agreeing to a marriage with Princess Henriette. Unable to respond, the musketeers send their sons (and one daughter) to the royal court to help.
The men are imprisoned and betrayal, and a romance forms between D'Artagnan Jr. and Claire.
Cast
- Cornel Wilde as D'Artagnan
- Maureen O'Hara as Claire
- Robert Douglas as Duc de Lavalle
- Gladys Cooper as Queen Anne
- June Clayworth as Comtesse Claudine
- Dan O'Herlihy as Aramis
- Alan Hale Jr. as Porthos
- Blanche Yurka as Madame Michom
- Nancy Gates as Princess Henriette
- Edmund Breon as Queen's Chamberlain
- Peter Miles as Young Louis XIV
- George Petrie as Chalais
- Moroni Olsen as Porthos
- Lucien Littlefield as Cpl. Gautier (uncredited)
Production
In 1947, Republic Pictures announced the purchase of the script Sons of the Musketeers by Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen.[3] Eagle Lion also announced a film titled Sons of the Musketeers, a concern for MGM, which was planning the 1948 film The Three Musketeers.[4] Eventually the project went to RKO where it was devised as a vehicle for Cornel Wilde.[5][6] Lewis Allen was announced as director on November 15, 1949.[7] Filming began on December 14, 1949.[8]
MGM had some difficulties depicting Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers, so the filmmakers decided to not show Cardinal Mazarin in At Sword's Point although the character was in the original script.[9]
Notes
- Porthos is played by Moroni Olsen, who played the same character in the 1935 film of the original 1844 Alexander Dumas novel, The Three Musketeers. Alan Hale Jr., who plays the son of Porthos, was the son of Alan Hale, Sr., who appeared in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) as an aging Porthos.
- In another Three Musketeers movie, The Fifth Musketeer (1979), which retells the story of The Man in the Iron Mask, two of the young musketeers from At Sword's Point reappear in the roles of their own fathers: Cornel Wilde stars as D'Artagnan and Hale Jr. as Porthos.
