"ALL FOR ONE..." I finished The Three Musketeers yesterday and even though I knew the ending was coming it was still devestating. "A sigh escaped from Madame Bonacieux's lips, which d'Artagnan felt like a gentle breath on his cheek. That sigh was Constance's pure, loving soul escaping from its mortal coil and mounting to heaven." Not a dry eye in the house. I immediately re-watched Richard Lester's version with Oliver Reed and Michael York (also: Roy Kinnear, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay, Christopher Lee, Spike Milligan, Faye Dunaway, Charlton Heston and the voice of Richard Briers - what a cast!). Like the novel, it's as much fun as I remember from first seeing it as a youngster. Maybe a touch too much slapstick (probably left over from the fact that it was originally conceived as a Beatles movie - what a horrible idea) but all the scenes with Oliver Reed are wonderful. It's especially good after reading Reed's biography. It turns out that he refused to train with the rest of the cast finding the whole thing too tedious. This resulted in very nervous stuntmen drawing straws to see which of them would have to face him. You can see how terrified they are as Reed hurls himself at them, improvising sword moves and screaming all the time. Awesome. It seems a lot of the time Reed is forced to drop his sword and use less lethal objects before the stunt guys will go anywhere near him. This results in one poor bastard getting a very severe SLAP in the chops with a wet shirt. Wonderful. I am already well into Twenty Years After. I guess I don't want these adventures to come to an end... Which reminds me. Yesterday I found out that my friend Johnny in Australia never finished reading Preacher: "I dun wanna ever feel like Jesse and Tulip had an end. They are the best romantic couple in fiction since Sailor an Lula. Bless em. I just have it goin on forever in me head..." I always thought that Johnny's head would be a scary place to visit but now I'm not so sure. I need to convince the fucker to finish it because I think he will be surprised how it all turns out... More later. Mike is blogging to: The Pixies