You won't be disappointed!

People are voting emotionally.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Despite a stellar cast, The Fifth Musketeer still remains just an average retelling of The Man In The Iron Mask, Alexandre Dumas's sequel novel to The Three Musketeers. Ironically in the role of the aging D'Artagnan is Cornel Wilde who I would love to have seen in The Three Musketeers back in the day. Wilde in fact was a fencing champion, he was on the US Olympic team before he became an actor. No preliminary tale of the birth of the twins to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. We meet the grownup Louis XIV and Phillipe of Gascony as grown young men. Phillippe's been trained in the military arts by his foster father D'Artagnan and the other Three Musketeers, Jose Ferrer as Athos, Alan Hale, Jr. as Porthos, and Lloyd Bridges as Aramis. Louis and Phillippe are played by Beau Bridges.That seems to be the main weakness of the film. I think Beau himself would be the first to agree he hasn't the swashbuckling élan of Louis Hayward, but he also isn't as good Leonardo DiCaprio in a later version. As for Queen Maria Theresa whom we meet as the Infanta of Spain, Marie Kristel also lacks some passion. If I were either of these twins I'd have taken up with royal mistress Ursula Andress in a Parisian minute. Now she's full of passion.Rex Harrison and Ian McShane are an interesting pair of dueling ministers, Colbert and Fouquet, both of whom did vie for Louis XIV's favor, but well into his reign. McShane is not as sly as Joseph Schildkraut in the 1939 The Man With The Iron Mask. Harrison seems preoccupied like he was waiting for his salary check to clear. For the very few minutes Olivia DeHavilland is on screen as Queen Mother Anne of Austria, she's completely wasted.The cinematography is grand, it always is when Jack Cardiff does it. The film was shot in Vienna which apparently looks more 17th century than Paris does now. But Ken Annakin who usually does films that roar with action and adventure seems not to be able to get this one to rise to the occasion.

Most of the 9 comments I see here are negative to Luke-warm at best. So I beg to disagree and tell why I liked this film.Firstly, I haven't seen other renderings of the story, except for the Australian Burbank animation (1985), which I also cherished (for different reasons, of course). In fact, that anime made me read up on Wikipedia about the complex back stories, fiction and true, and after that I re-watched this Beau Bridges piece.I found him convincing both as Philippe and Louis XIV, and was thrilled by their duel on the shaky bridge (both dressed similarly, I was briefly on the edge of my seat).Then there's the ladies, who in my European cut expose interesting body parts, and when dressed still deliver strong emotions.But the roles that grabbed me most were Colbert and Fouqué, with their wheelings and dealings, mostly wrapped in courtly etiquette - quite fascinating. In contrast, the name-brand musketeers did not catch my attention so much.Finally, what detracted me most was the mismatch of the French dub and subtitles (DVD labeled Bakker 7812/773). In Vienna, Austria, the film was produced in English, but I wanted the "native" language - though very often I was astonished how many phrases can be translated differently to French, starting from "Je vous en prie" (dub) vs. "s'il vous plait" (subtitle). So I didn't get the convenient read-along experience I had hoped for. But all in all, I really enjoyed this film. And Sylvia Kristel impressed me quite much as Spanish royalty.

It's strange that THE FIFTH MUSKETEER leaves me with the impression that it's hardly worth watching despite a stellar cast and some gorgeous Austrian scenery. BEAU BRIDGES (in a dual role as a commoner and Louis XIV) does a competent but bland job in the film's major role, while assorted guest stars fill the supporting cast with some name value. One of the guest stars is OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND who might just as well have phoned in her role. She has about three minutes of screen time, at the most.None of the main roles are really fleshed out and the plot is a muddled mess. JOSE FERRER, CORNEL WILDE, ALAN HALE, JR. and LLOYD BRIDGES are competent enough as the four musketeers while REX HARRISON and HELMUT DANTINE merely add some name recognition to the cast, as does de Havilland in her tiny role as Queen Anne (about whom little is explained).It's a retread of familiar material done much better in the past, territory that would be revisited in the future with even more dash and vigor. A sleep inducing film that probably only gets male attention because URSULA ANDRESS and SYLVIA KRISTEL provide some feminine pulchritude in provocative period costumes.The most unforgivable aspect are the fight scenes of the swashbuckling kind but badly choreographed duels, unlike the sort of thing done so splendidly in the Flynn epics. The blades flash without much flourish.Summing up: Totally uninspired piece of work notable only for some lavish costumes and good location photography in Austria.

This retelling of Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask makes for an ok film for a rainy day, but is hardly an epic swasbuckler. Beau Bridges is good in the dual roles of Louis and Phillipe, as is Rex Harrison as Colbert. Ian McShayne is delightfully evil as Fouquet and Ursulla Andress is wonderfully bitchy. Cornell Wilde and Alan Hale Jr. reprise their roles (sort of) from the film At Swords Point. Papa Bridges is around as a decidedly unreligious Aramis, and Jose Ferrer trades Cyrano's nose, for Athos' tunic. Sylvia Kristel is rather wooden as Marie Therese. In all, there is little for the actors to work with, but the scenery is nice and a few action sequences are quite good. Still one could have hoped for better things with this cast.