This comic interpretation of Alexandre Dumas's classic adventure saga picks up where 1974's
The Three Musketeers left off, as D'Artagnan (
Michael York), Athos (
Oliver Reed), Aramis (
Richard Chamberlain), and Porthos (
Frank Finlay) scuttle the plans of Lady de Winter (
Faye Dunaway) to remove Queen Anne (
Geraldine Chaplin) from the seat of power. De Winter is determined to get revenge against the Musketeers, and when she learns that D'Artagnan is infatuated with the lovely Constance (
Raquel Welch), she first tries to foil their romance by seducing D'Artagnan herself, and then by persuading Rochefort (
Christopher Lee) to kidnap Constance. She then engineers the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham (
Simon Ward), a close friend of D'Artagnan; when word of the Duke's death and Constance's imprisonment reaches D'Artagnan and his comrades, the foursome ride off to rescue the fair lady and see that justice is done against de Winter. The Four Musketeers was filmed concurrently with
The Three Musketeers; it was originally intended to be one film, but when director
Richard Lester realized the movie would be over three and a half hours long, the decision was made to release it as two separate features instead. This led to lawsuits filed by several of the stars, claiming that they were hired under false pretenses and entitled to be paid for making two films rather than one. The actors won their case, but their settlement was significantly less than the salary they hoped to receive. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide