The Three Musketeers is a 1921 American silent film based on the 1844 novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Fred Niblo and stars Douglas Fairbanks as d'Artagnan. The film originally had scenes filmed in the Handschiegl Color Process (billed as the "Wyckoff-DeMille Process"). The film had a sequel, The Iron Mask (1929), also starring Fairbanks as d'Artagnan and DeBrulier as Cardinal Richelieu. Plot summary Cast In opening credits order: Adolphe Menjou as Louis XIII Mary MacLaren as Anne of Austria Nigel De Brulier as Cardinal Richelieu Thomas Holding as Duke of Buckingham Marguerite De La Motte as Constance Bonacieux Willis Robards as Captain de Treville Boyd Irwin as Comte de Rochefort Barbara La Marr as Milady de Winter Lon Poff as Father Joseph Walt Whitman as d'Artagnan's Father Sidney Franklin as Bonacieux Charles Belcher as Bernajoux Charles Stevens as Planchet Léon Bary as Athos George Siegmann as Porthos Eugene Pallette as Aramis Douglas Fairbanks as d'Artagnan Production The athletic Douglas Fairbanks's one-handed handspring to grab a sword during a fight scene in this film is considered one of the great stunts of the early cinema period. Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance enthuses, "The Three Musketeers was the first of the grand Fairbanks costume films, filled with exemplary production values and ornamentation. Indeed, one ornament extended beyond the film: Fairbanks wore d'Artagnan's moustache—cultivated for The Three Musketeers—to the end of his life. With The Three Musketeers, he at last found his metier and crystallized his celebrity and his cinema." Preservation status In April 1939, Fairbanks donated his entire film collection to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), including both a 35mm nitrate negative and a tinted positive print. The negative was duplicated in 1963, and this print was used for the restoration completed in May 2017 by MoMA, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and Film Preservation Society. MoMA and Image Protection Services also finished a color restoration in February 2021. References External links Color poster 1921 films 1921 adventure films 1920s color films American silent feature films American historical adventure films American black-and-white films American swashbuckler films Films based on The Three Musketeers United Artists films Films directed by Fred Niblo Films set in the 1620s Films set in France Films set in Paris Articles containing video clips Cultural depictions of Cardinal Richelieu Cultural depictions of Louis XIII Early color films 1920s American films Silent