The Secret Mark of D'Artagnan (1962)

THE SECRET MARK OF D'ARTAGNAN is another lacklustre swashbuckler from the Italians - they certainly seemed to be more assured when making their peplum pictures. This one features exactly half of the musketeers - D'Artagnan and Porthos - and a nice little role for Massimo Serato as Cardinal Richelieu, but that's all you'll be getting. Mostly it's a slightly stuffy and boring tale in which D'Artagnan hits on the novel method of attacking traitors and cutting a cross into their foreheads to later identify them as villains. The bad guys scheme and plot a lot, the running time slows right down for the usual romantic guff, and the fight scenes feel pretty half-hearted.

Within minutes of this film's opening, director Siro Marcellini stages an exciting, running sword fight with George Nader (of all people!) fighting against overwhelming odds – thirty-nine to one, in fact! And would you believe, George is almost cornered – but not quite? He stumbles through a conveniently unlocked door and finds himself in a bedroom and into the arms of one of my favorite actresses, Alessandra Panaro. But even Alessandra cannot pin our hero down. In fact, the pace slows somewhat and I was just about to pack it up and go home when George's co-star, Magali Noel, finally makes her entrance and starts breathing. For those who are unacquainted with Miss Noel, she merely has to breathe to get your undivided attention. I stayed. And I'm really glad I did. Carlo Rustichelli's music score is delightfully rousing too!

The chance of learning of an obscure "Peplum" while leafing through Leonard Maltin's Film Guide on one day and coming across the film in its entirety on "You Tube" on the next is very remote…but this is exactly what just happened to me with this Italian variation on the classic Alexandre Dumas tales - in its original language but with hardcoded Greek subtitles, no less! While my rating agrees with the one bestowed on it by the genial American film critic, I have to say that overall this was a rather half-hearted entry in the prolific screen adventures of the altruistic quartet…so much so that only two of them (D'Artagnan and Porthos) put in an appearance here, they are on Cardinal Richelieu's side this time around(!) and, worse still, all that the 40-strong band of villainous conspirators against the French King seem prone to do are meet in various mansions around Paris to discuss what their next move shall be! Consequently, D'Artagnan is forced to show his eminence a secret fencing trick (as per the film's original title) with which he will mark the traitors' foreheads and rout them out…alas, it is nothing more elaborate than a scar in the shape of an "X"! If the plot (co-written by the American Milton Krims!) is no great shakes, the solid production values and interesting cast make up for that: the enemies of France take to meeting dressed up as friars in a church at the start of the film – which is how we first meet D'Artagnan (George Nader)!; at the same time, we are also introduced to his main antagonist here, treacherous nobleman Georges Marchal (in his official "Peplum" appearance) – whose niece (Magali Noel), unsurprisingly, lives nearby, still roots for the King and nurses the musketeer back to health and right into her heart! True to formula, she also has a swooning maid who falls for Porthos' gruff charm – who, incidentally, had been whisked out of his farmyard retirement by D'Artagnan earlier on. Massimo Serato only has a few scenes as the resourceful Cardinal but easily steals every one of them from under the noses of his colleagues; Carlo Rustichelli's rousing score is another welcome addition to the generally pleasing if unassuming mix. In conclusion, director Marcellini only helmed a handful of movies and I should be watching the Gianni Maria Canale-starring THE DEVIL'S CAVALIERS (1959) before this Epic Easter marathon has run its course; besides, Marchal had already appeared in previous adaptations of "The Three Musketeers", namely as D'Artagnan to Gino Cervi's Porthos in Andre Hunebelle's 1953 eponymous film version.

George Nader seems miscast and out of place in this Grade B adventure. He sports a dainty mustache, is wrapped in 17th-century costumes, and has little opportunity to display any of his on-screen charm. What's worse, he never once gets to take his shirt off. What's a George Nader without some good ol', all-American "beefcake?" The plot here is routine and while there's a bit of swordplay, the movie's modest budget keeps everything disappointingly small-scale and constricted. (The fact that only D'Artagnan and Porthos show up from the original "Three Musketeers" indicates that corners are being cut.) The result isn't so much bad as just oh-so-forgettable, and if you're wondering what the "Secret Mark" of the title is, it refers to the "X" which our hero cuts into the foreheads of his enemies with the tip of his sword.