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A Modern Musketeer

Director: Allan Dwan (Dir)
Release Date:   30 Dec 1917
Premiere Information:   New York opening: 30 Dec 1917
Duration (in reels):   5

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Cast:	[In order of appearance:]	Douglas Fairbanks	(Ned Thacker/D'Artagnan)
		Marjorie Daw	(Elsie Dodge)
		Kathleen Kirkham	(Mrs. Dodge)
		Eugene Ormonde	(Forrest Vandeteer)
		Edythe Chapman	(Mrs. Thacker)
		Frank Campeau	(Chin-de-dah)
		Tully Marshall	(James Brown)
		ZaSu Pitts	(Blonde girl on Kansas street)

Summary:

Ned Thacker of Kansas has inherited the spirit of D'Artagnan through the prenatal influence of his mother, an avid fan of French novelist Alexandre Dumas. Unfortunately, his gallant attempts at chivalry are generally misunderstood by the modern women he encounters. On a transcontinental journey, this modern D'Artagnan meets Elsie Dodge, an innocent sixteen-year-old traveling with her mother and Forrest Vandeteer, a middle-aged millionaire who has designs on the young girl. Ned promptly falls in love with Elsie, and his determination to win her is solidified when he learns from New York reporter John Blabb that Vandeteer already has three secret wives. On a trip down the Grand Canyon trail, the Navajo Indian and outlaw Chin-de-dah tries to kidnap the girl, whom he wants to take by force as his bride. With the blessing of Mrs. Dodge, who now prefers the young and charming Ned to Vandeteer, Ned decides to go after Elsie. Alerted to her peril by James Brown, a cohort of Chin-de-dah who, many years before had been defrauded by Vandeteer, Ned goes to Chin-de-dah's cave, fights him and his cohorts off and rescues Elsie. He then forces Vandeteer to sign a confession of his wrongs against Brown, as well as a promissory note for $100,000 in exchange for saving his life. As Brown takes charge of Vandeteer, Ned offers to split the money with him, then kisses his soon-to-be bride.

Production Company:	Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corp.
Distribution Company:	Artcraft Pictures Corp.
Director:	Allan Dwan	(Dir)
Writer:	Allan Dwan	(Photoplay by)
Photography:	Hugh McClung	(Photog)
	Harry Thorpe	(Photog)
Film Editor:	Billy Shea	(Cutter)
	Allan Dwan	(Supv ed)
Country:	United States
Language:	English

Music:
Songs:
Source Text:	Based on the short story "D'Artagnan of Kansas" by Eugene P. Lyle, Jr. in Everybody's Magazine (Sep 1912).
Authors:	Eugene P. Lyle Jr.

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number
Artcraft Pictures Corp.	26/12/1917 dd/mm/yyyy	LP11871

Physical Properties:	Si:
	b&w:


Genre:	Adventure

Subjects (Major):	Chivalry
	Innocents
	Legendary characters
	Rescues

Subjects (Minor):	Caves
	Cyclones
	El Tovar Hotel (AZ)
	Escapes
	Fraud
	Grand Canyon (AZ)
	Hotels
	Kansas
	Kidnapping
	Millionaires
	Navajo Indians
	Playboys
	Reporters

Note:	Following the opening credits, there is a prologue set in a seventeenth century French tavern in which Douglas Fairbanks, as "D'Artagnan," defends the honor of a mysterious woman by duelling with several foes before riding off on his horse. The action then shifts to a brief sequence set in modern day Kansas, in which Fairbanks, as "Ned Thackery," fights a man whom he thinks is abusing a woman, only to find that the woman is angry at Ned for besting the man in a fight. The story then reverts to Kansas before Ned's birth during a cyclone and gradually returns to the modern setting. Contemporary reviews of A Modern Musketeer contradict some of the character names on the intertitles of the film viewed, which was a 2006 restoration of a print from the Danish Film Institute. Reviews from 1917 named the Marjorie Daw character "Dorothy Morane" instead of "Elsie Dodge"; the Kathleen Kirkham character "Mrs. Morane" instead of "Mrs. Dodge"; the Eugene Ormonde character "Raymond Peters" instead of "Forrest Vandeteer"; and the Tully Marshall character "Philip Marden" instead of "James Brown." After the point in the film at which Vandeteer plans to take Elsie riding, intertitles refer to him as either "Barris" or "Forrest Barris." A Modern Musketeer was shot at the Grand Canyon, AZ, and at the Lasky studio in Hollywood. The hotel sequences were filmed at the El Tovar Hotel on the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park, approximately 7,000 feet above sea level. The popular hotel, which opened in 1905 and is identified by its real name within the film, has become a Registered National Historical Landmark. The film was chosen to be the first picture shown at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City, which had been operating as a vaudeville house since its opening in 1910. Although Wid's lists Victor Fleming as the film's cameraman, only Hugh McClung and Harry Thorpe are listed onscreen and in other contemporary sources. Fleming worked on most of the Fairbanks' pictures made in 1917 and it is possible that he did some camera work on A Modern Musketeer . According to a news item, Billy Shea assembled the negative on the way to New York.

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
ETR	5 Jan 1918	p. 424.
ETR	12 Jan 1918	p. 520.
ETR	2 Feb 1920	p. 713.
MPN	4 Aug 1917	p. 811.
MPN	12 Jun 1920	p. 4857.
MPW	29 Dec 1917	p. 1996.
NYDM	22 Dec 1917	p. 40.
NYDM	29 Dec 1917	p. 26.
NYDM	19 Jan 1918	p. 23.
New York Times	31 Dec 1917	p. 5.
Variety	4 Jan 1918	p. 40.
Wid's	3 Jan 1918	pp. 840-41.

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