While this follows the basic storyline we've seen in more than half a dozen films, this musical comedy is part operetta/part farce, some of it more amusing than the other. With their tongues firmly in their cheeks, the Ritz Brothers are substituted for musketeers which Don Ameche (as D'Artagnon) has made the mistake of insulting in print. They are passed out when Ameche arrives, believing that the disguised Ritz Brothers are actually the men he was arranging to meet. This leads to adventures as they struggle to return a broach belonging to Queen Anne (Gloria Stuart) to her before the King discovers it is missing. The villain is of course the scheming Cardinal Richilieu (Miles Mander looking nothing like George Arliss) who is plotting to reveal the Queen's alleged infidelity with an Englishman (Lester Matthews) she has given a passport to in order to leave the country. Ameche falls in love with the Queen's lady in waiting (a dull Pauline Moore) while the Cardinal conspires with the scheming Lady DeWinter (a fun Binnie Barnes) who must undergo humiliation by the Ritz Brothers as part of her acting assignment. The result is a mixed bag that would later be done more seriously by MGM in 1948 and as a light-hearted comedy/adventure in 1974.
The love songs seem like relics out of the days of Broadway operetta, which it had been in the 1920's, while the comedy tunes seem like spoofs of Gilbert and Sullivan. The Ritz Brothers are amusing, but their buffoonery is inappropriate in its trying to make us believe that Ameche would not see through their silliness. Recent Oscar Winner Joseph Schildkraut is only seen briefly as the King, but popular screen villains John Carradine and Lionel Atwill get to pop up and do their thing. The first Ritz Brothers gag (involving a drinking contest) is straight out of the Three Stooges, while a novelty musical number (involving the brothers clad in pots and pans being used as musical instruments) is slightly amusing. The feathered hat-wearing Ameche lays the over-acting a little thick here, reminding me of the old line about a similar performance being referred to as "a ham with a feather in it". It is enjoyable as light-hearted fare, but serious lovers of the story are better off sticking with the 1935, 1948 and 1974 versions.
The love songs seem like relics out of the days of Broadway operetta, which it had been in the 1920's, while the comedy tunes seem like spoofs of Gilbert and Sullivan. The Ritz Brothers are amusing, but their buffoonery is inappropriate in its trying to make us believe that Ameche would not see through their silliness. Recent Oscar Winner Joseph Schildkraut is only seen briefly as the King, but popular screen villains John Carradine and Lionel Atwill get to pop up and do their thing. The first Ritz Brothers gag (involving a drinking contest) is straight out of the Three Stooges, while a novelty musical number (involving the brothers clad in pots and pans being used as musical instruments) is slightly amusing. The feathered hat-wearing Ameche lays the over-acting a little thick here, reminding me of the old line about a similar performance being referred to as "a ham with a feather in it". It is enjoyable as light-hearted fare, but serious lovers of the story are better off sticking with the 1935, 1948 and 1974 versions.