A MODERN MUSKETEER (1917) – DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS ACTION-COMEDY

A MODERN MUSKETEER (1917) – This 68-minute film was released on December 30th, 1917, when Douglas Fairbanks was known for his comedies rather than for his later success as cinema’s first swashbuckling superstar.

A Modern Musketeer gave the world the first glimpse of what Fairbanks could do if let loose in sword-swinging tales of derring-do. The opening 5 minutes and 36 seconds of the movie consist of a flashback depiction of D’Artagnan in the 1620s taking on an entire tavern full of rival swordsmen competing to return a fair maiden’s dropped handkerchief.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that that opening segment provides almost as many thrills and spectacular stunts as the entirety of Doug’s 1921 serious turn as D’Artagnan in his silent Three Musketeers film. However, it would not be until 1920’s Mark of Zorro that Fairbanks would get to start his long series of costume swashbucklers.

When the initial 5:36 is over, the movie resumes in 1917 Kansas, where Ned Thacker (Fairbanks), an energetic dynamo of a man, is obsessed with seeking out adventure and protecting women like his fictional idol D’Artagnan. He even runs an organization called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Women.

Well, this IS a comedy, after all, and that’s just one of the many enjoyable jokes in A Modern Musketeer. Another gag attributes Ned’s personality to the fact that his mother read the novel The Three Musketeers while pregnant with him.

Naturally, the modern world just doesn’t get Ned Thacker’s outdated notions of chivalry and championing the downtrodden and he often ends up in trouble with the law after interceding in what he mistakenly believes are opportunities for adventure.

As in his other comedies, Douglas Fairbanks gets to show off his athletic abilities even throughout the modern-day portion of the movie, beginning with a brawl inside an illegal casino. At any rate, after physically forcing a man to give up his seat to a pair of ladies on a bus, it turns out the man that Ned roughed up is really the Chief of Police and he goes to jail for a few days.

Meanwhile, in New York City, the beautiful society lady Elsie Dodge (Marjorie Daw) is being pressured by her money-obsessed mother (Kathleen Kirkham) to marry the evil, much older tycoon Forrest Vandeteer (Eugene Ormonde). Mrs. Dodge tells Elsie that they are almost out of money with which to keep up appearances so she must marry a wealthy man to keep both of them living in style.

Vandeteer is your typical one-dimensional bad guy in a silent movie, and does everything but twirl his mustache as he invites Elsie and her mother to accompany him and his chauffer on a multi-day automobile journey from New York to California. Mrs. Dodge accepts, despite her daughter’s reluctance.

Back in Kansas, Ned Thacker is released from jail and decides to leave Kansas and head for the big city, where he might be able to find the kind of action he craves. He parts with his Kansas lady (Zasu Pitts) and drives off in the car his father just bought for him.

Ned and the Vandeteer/ Dodge party cross paths in Kansas when the tycoon’s chauffer informs him that he can drive the limo no further due to a washed-out road. Car damage now prevents the vehicle from moving at all, but our hero shows up, dazzling the stranded foursome with stunts like standing on various parts of his car while it’s at high speed.

Ned stops to help the tycoon, his driver and the two Dodge ladies. He and Elsie are attracted to each other but her mother disapproves, preferring Vandeteer for her daughter. Ned and Forrest clash, personality-wise, but our hero hits it off with the French chauffer.

As a reminder that the First World War was still raging at the time, the chauffer observes that if all American men are like Ned Thacker, then the Central Powers will be licked any day now. (And no, I don’t know why Ned didn’t just enlist in the army if he wanted action.)

At any rate, Thacker’s ingenuity manages to get him and the traveling New Yorkers to their hotel – THE still-existing El Tovar hotel so near the Grand Canyon that it is actually inside Grand Canyon National Park. A Modern Musketeer was the last film production for decades to be allowed to film throughout the Grand Canyon and the incredible scenery alone would make this movie worth watching.

The next day Forrest Vandeteer and Mrs. Dodge force Elsie to accompany him on a guided horseback tour through the canyon. Their Native American guide is secretly Chin-de-dah (Frank Campeau), a bandit who leads a gang of white and Native American outlaws headquartered in secret Zuni ruins in the Grand Canyon.

When short of other prey, Chin-de-dah poses as a guide to sucker rich customers of El Tovar into following him to remote sections of the canyon, where he robs and kills the men, then he and his thugs have their way with the women.   

Having already had his suspicions raised by his own ugly encounter with Chin-de-dah, Ned uses all his charm to convince Mrs. Dodge to let him go bring back Elsie and Forrest before any harm can come to them.

With the mother’s sanction, Thacker rides to the rescue, and we viewers get treated to several minutes of Fairbanks taking on Chin-de-dah and his gang single-handed. The fight scenes range from the aforementioned Zuni ruins to various cliffs and rivers of the Grand Canyon, both on foot and on horseback.

SPOILERS: Ned Thacker corrals the bad guys, rescues Elsie and exposes Vandeteer as a bigamist (he has THREE other wives so maybe that should be trigamist). In a moment of panic during Ned’s efforts to save him and Elsie Dodge, Forrest agreed in writing to pay Thacker $100,000 (equal to $2,383,664 here in 2023) if he can save his life.

Our hero gets the reward money and, with Vandeteer’s other wives revealed, Mrs. Dodge is just fine with Elsie marrying the now-wealthy Ned Thacker. The two lovebirds kiss as the movie ends.

A Modern Musketeer was based on the book D’Artagnan of Kansas by E.P. Lyle Jr. who also wrote Douglas Fairbanks’ 1927 swashbuckler film The Gaucho. The novel was serialized in Everybody’s Magazine beginning in September 1912.

The novel presented Ned Thacker and three of his friends as literal reincarnations of D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. All four were prominently featured and the action ranged from Kansas to Central Europe during the Belle Epoque.

Obviously, A Modern Musketeer was only loosely based on the book, but it served as a springboard for this excellent Douglas Fairbanks vehicle. Through hindsight a viewer can’t help but see this film as an embryonic preview of the greatness of Doug’s future blockbusters.

Fans of the Robert Downey Jr. movie Chaplin may recall that A Modern Musketeer was the movie that Douglas Fairbanks was throwing a wrap party for when Charlie Chaplin comes to visit.

This is one of those rare silent films in which the action, storyline and comedy are easily relatable for a modern-day audience. At just an hour and eight minutes, why not give it a shot? 

FOR MY REVIEWS OF DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS’ SWASHBUCKLER MOVIES FROM THE SILENT FILM ERA CLICK HERE.

FOR MY REVIEW OF HIS SHERLOCK HOLMES PARODY THE MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH CLICK HERE. FOR HIS COMEDY THE MAN FROM PAINTED POST CLICK HERE.