The Three Musketeers (1973 film)

The Three Musketeers — also known as The Three Musketeers: The Queen's Diamonds — is a 1973 film based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser. It was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for The Beatles, whom Lester had directed in two other films. It was intended to run for three hours with intermission, but when during production, it was determined the film could not make its announced release date in that form, it was split into two, the second part becoming 1974's The Four Musketeers. In 1989, the cast and crew returned to film The Return of the Musketeers, loosely based on Dumas' Twenty Years After.