Usually when films are held up like At Sword's Point are for two years that usually means they're stinkers. I've certainly seen better in the swashbuckling genre. My own opinion is that for whatever reason it was held up RKO decided it might have been to take advantage of the leads being out in big mega hits in 1952, Cornel Wilde in The Greatest Show On Earth and Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man. At Sword's Point shows France in the years of Louis XIV's minority having some big trouble. It certainly had its problems in those years, but the realm was led by a most capable regent in Cardinal Mazarin and the Queen Mother Anne Of Austria. Mazarin's role has been completely eliminated and Louis has a sister instead of a brother.Anne who is dying of a weak heart is being pressured by the grasping and fictional Duc DeLavalle played by Robert Douglas to marry princess Nancy Gates and steal the throne. The Queen Mother is played proudly and regally by Gladys Cooper. Cooper wishes those guys who saved her bacon back in the day were still around. Well Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan may not be, but their kids have all been taught the Musketeer fighting skills and it's time for a new generation of Musketeers to battle for the honor of the throne.The kids are Cornel Wilde as D'Artagnan, Alan Hale,Jr. as Porthos, Dan O'Herlihy as young Aramis and Athos was blessed with a daughter in Maureen O'Hara who keeps up with the boys in terms of fighting skills.One hopes that some kid studying French history doesn't take a short cut and watch this film to learn about France in 1650s. But as a swashbuckler it's not a bad film with heroes and villains cut from some whole cloth. The original Three Musketeers certainly had characters far more complex than these.And hopefully RKO got its money's worth with At Sword's Point in the wake of The Quiet Man and The Greatest Show On Earth.

Sixteen forty-eight and France is in hot water. Robert Douglass and his goons are plotting against the ailing old queen. The number of queens against whom Robert Douglass had plotted are too numerous to count.Time to muster the Four Musketeers -- Athos, Porthos, Aramis, D'Artignan, Paramus, Pasaic, and Patterson -- except that they are either dead or ridden with gout. So the sons of the three musketeers join forces along with the daughter of Athos, Maureen O'Hara at her most ravishing. She's been trained in swordplay and is dressed in masculine garb so at first the others take her for a boy. That's a novel touch.I couldn't make it to the end. It's supposed to be a good-hearted tale of derring-do but it doesn't hold a candle to Errol Flynn's best swashbucklers. It isn't that Cornell Wilde, as the son of D'Artignan, doesn't know how to wield a sword. He was on the fencing team at Columbia University. But he must have been forced to unlearn whatever he knew of fencing and instead learned the arts of fighting with furniture and holding off hordes of swordsmen with a single blade.The costumes are colorful and the hills of California make a serviceable substitute for France but, how to put this?, the atmosphere of action and jollity seems forced. The musketeers laugh uproariously at the corniest remarks. Except when fighting, they laugh in a most unbuttoned manner. They laugh at each other. They laugh at the enemy. They laugh when they're at death's door. Made me feel like the only person at the party who wasn't stoned.It is, however, full of gaudy action and a romance between Wilde and O'Hara. That's about as far as I got. The direction is terrible. The actors don't have a chance in this misguided effort. The kids should enjoy it, though, if they can put up with the absence of the kind of brutal violence they've seen on the screen lately.

At first I was a little wary of watching this, after seeing Miss O'Hara in some clunkers like Forbidden Street, The Black Swan, and Sentimental Journey. But I was pleasantly surprised by its tongue-in-check attitude and the naturalness to it given by its capable stars, in this continuing saga of the three (or four) musketeers' children grown up to defend their country and queen. Gladys Cooper is great as the Queen and gives the film some regard it may not have without such a good actress. And, Robert Douglas is excellent as a duke (our villain) who wants to ascend to the throne by marrying the Queen's daughter and getting rid of others in his way. While I never gave Cornel Wilde much consideration before, he was quite good, and much of the film's dialogue was good without being corny. One line I really appreciated was when Maureen says in response to a man who doesn't fight or duel with a lady that "when I fight, I'm no lady." If you want a good old-fashioned b-picture that gives its heart to a Dumas classic, but really is no classic itself compared to Lana Turner and Gene Kelly's "The Three Musketeers," then this short adventure is for you.

i have this movie in my home library, both as a purchased film and having taped from amc. the fencing sequences are some of the best on film. i do not think enough has been said of robert douglass. his fencing skills must have been superb since he fought with all of the best duelists in hollywood, errol flynn, cornel wilde,burt lancaster to name a few. all good leading men need a bad guy, and r.d. was very good at being bad.