The Three Must-Get-Theres

Max Linder's American feature, a full-length parody of The Three Musketeers shot in 1922 after he had already been a star in France for a decade. Linder is Dart-In-Again; the must-get-theres are his seconds; Richelieu is a villain who has seen too many American serials. Directed by Linder himself for United Artists. The gags are literate (they assume you know Dumas), and the physical comedy is still Linder's, lighter than Chaplin, more boulevard than music hall. It is the film that proves he could have been a Hollywood comic if Hollywood had wanted a French one. He went home. Two years later he was dead.