Abel Gance 's 1955 version was based on Dumas's play but this French-German one is closer to Michel Zevaco's swashbucklers;it's definitely inferior to the fifties' effort,but the French Lead, Jean Piat,essentially a stage actor, has plenty of go and wields the sword with gusto; he does not take the story too seriously, the right thing to do when you deal with a part unworthy of your talent, and his playing verges on tongue-in- chick.
First thing you've got to bear in mind is that it's not history:it's legend; Marguerite de Bourgogne was Philippe Le Bel's daughter-in -law and this king was no joker:when he learnt that his son's wife had an affair with Philippe d'Aulnay and her sister-in-law Blanche was sleeping with brother Gaultier,he had both unfortunate young men flayed alive and Marguerite was strangled in her dungeon;as for Buridan,he was never a victor,but a scholar:he used to teach philosophy at the university. It's François Villon's poem "ballade des dames du temps jadis" who spawned the legend of "this man thrown into the Seine in a bag." All these characters are featured in the film.
There were already nudities in Gance's work,which was risqué at the time;in 1968 it was more common,but the plot involved an incestuous relationship (consummated in the movie).
The first part was certainly influenced by Gance,but the second one turns melodramatic,confused,the queen changing her mind every five minutes; the king seems to be out of a card game,and the giant chess game out of "Alive in wonderland";the cinematography is nice and shots of the tower are particularly successful; the director already showed a fondness for soft eroticism which he would carry on in the seventies.
