The Three Must-Get-Theres - 1922
ABOUT THE FILM : The Three Must-Get-Theres
Deutsche KinemathekYear: 1922
A young talented lad from Gascony goes up to Paris with the mad hope of becoming a King's musketeer. The desire and dexterity of the pretendant combined with the fortunes of destiny will lead him to take up the cause of Queen Anne of Austria, but above all that of Constance, the next queen, with whom he falls madly in love.
While the narrative workings of the extremely famous story of Alexandre Dumas have been respected, Max Linder had fun in adding many unexpected comic details that make this film a marvel of the burlesque genre.
Nationality: French
Actor: Max Linder
Length: 55' 2"
Genre: comedy
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: tinted
Producer: Max Linder
Composer: Maud Nelissen
Original language: English
A BRIEF HISTORY : The Three Must-Get-Theres
Max Linder (1883-1925) produced, wrote, and directed 3 feature films for his own company: Seven Years Bad Luck (released 6 February 1921), Be My Wife (released December 1921), and The Three Must-Get-Theres (released 27 August 1922).
These were the only features directed by Linder alone; and he is said to have considered The Three Must-Get-Theres the best film of his career. It came out almost exactly one year after the release of The Three Musketeers, but the success and furore of Douglas Fairbanks’s opulent spectacle were still fresh enough in the audience’s memory to justify Linder’s parody.
With his wig always a little awry, Max parodies Fairbanks’s elegance, athleticism, and beaming self-satisfaction. The story and characters are directly caricatured from the original: Richelieu becomes Rich-Lou, and Buckingham, Bunkumin, while Max becomes Dart-in-Again, and Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are whimsically renamed Walrus, Porpoise, and Octopus.
The best-remembered moment of Max’s emulation of Fairbanks’s balletic athleticism is his deft and lethal stratagem when surrounded by a ring of swords. Much of the humour depends on surreal anachronism, so that Max is inclined to change his faithful donkey for a motorcycle, or cross the channel on a sailing horse. Fairbanks clearly appreciated the parody, and is said to have sent Linder a gracious congratulatory telegram.
David Robinson
The original music for this film was composed by Maud Nelissen in 2009 and played by The Sprockets.
