The Four Musketeers: The Revenge of Milady

The second half of Lester's brilliant The Three Musketeers is a reasonably beguiling, if noticeably padded coda, with the best bits containing in abundance that quality of penetrating period wit which made its predecessor such a delight. The tone is darker and more oppressive; there are sequences that lapse into boredom; but the scenes involving Dunaway - whether she's lobbing poisoned darts at her lovers or busily seducing her English warder - have a lushly ironic fairytale quality that the movies capture all too rarely.