The best 3M for me is Lester's =The Three Musketeers= & =The Four Musketeers=, shot as one film but forced to be released as two (much to the actors' collective surprise). The original concept was a 3M starring the Beatles, but by the time the project could get off the ground, the band was no more. Undeterred, Lester went ahead with an all-star cast of Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, Charlton Heston, Oliver Reed, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, Spike Milligan & a host of others. It stays moderately close to the book & retains Constance's & Milady's deaths, although it also kills off Richelieu's chief henchman as well. Mostly, it is full of comedy, but the ending is necessarily dark. The dialogue is witty, sparkling, & full of word-play. The fight scenes are inventive & topnotch, culminating in a duel in a church that is unbelievable, the actors literally crawling across the floor in exhaustion to have at each other. Visually, the film (I think of it as one film, not two) is a stunner: a constant clash between the High Style of 17th century French aristocracy juxtaposed between the rather dirty reality of 17th century life. I never tire of it, and the opening sequence of disembodied swords in strobo-slo-mo gleaming against the dark background still raises the hairs on the back of my neck every time. ken