Every so often I get on a great literary characters kick. The eternal flame burns for Sherlock Holmes and the Hobbits (definitely not a rock band name), but there are others - the denizens of Wonderland, Tarzan, and the Three Musketeers. Thanks to catching the 2011 movie the other day, I'm back on my Musketeers kick.
The first major TV adaptation, near as I can tell, would be from 1966. The two major names in the series are Jeremy Brett as D'Artagnan and Brian Blessed as Porthos. As expected for those times, the production values are rather cheap, but in ten half-hour installments, it basically tells the complete tale by Dumas. And it doesn't hold too much back with regards to the mores on display in the novel.
I'm perfectly happy with accepting this version, especially as it was the first, to be the official version for the main Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time.
I just watched half of the series Thursday morning. And by half, I mean all ten episodes but only the second half of each episode. I don't know why the first parts weren't uploaded to YouTube, but there you are. Being familiar enough with the story, I was able to fill in the blanks, although I would have liked to have seen several of those key missing scenes.
At any rate, here are those ten half episodes found on YouTube. For the most part, you could begin with the first one and it will lead automatically to the next, but for me it changed course in the middle of it all. So I'm including all of the links.
All for one, but only one half of all!
I stopped work on this post long enough to order the DVD from Amazon........
BCnU!
I think you are right about this being the first series, but there was a pilot that aired in the 1950s with Robert Clarke as D'artagnan (who also played Robin Hood in a failed pilot, The Tales of Robin Hood). Budd Boetticher directed the Musketeers pilot, which had the story of D'artagnan first meeting--and challenging--the established trio. I watched it either on You Tube or through Amazon Prime Video.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look for that ! Over the years I've refined my rules (at least regarding adaptations) so that although preference should be granted to the first-comers, it's more important to honor those which provide the most complete presentation.
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