Faye Dunaway "The Extraordinary Seaman", a comedy adventure directed by John Frankenheimer and also starring David Niven that she shot right after "Bonnie and Clyde", was released to poor reviews and proved to be a commercial failure. Despite protests from her agent, Dunaway turned down a lot of high-profile projects in order to spend time with Mastroianni. In 1970, Dunaway took a supporting role as a favor to Arthur Penn in his western, "Little Big Man". In a rare comic role, Dunaway played the sexually frustrated wife of a minister who helps raise and seduce a boy raised by Native Americans, played
Faye Dunaway as the villainous Milady de Winter in Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers", based on Alexandre Dumas' novel of the same name, co-starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Charlton Heston. Eventually, producers decided to split the film into two parts: "The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers" (released in 1974). Critics and audiences alike praised the film for its action and its comic tone, and it was the first in a line of successful projects for Dunaway. Director Roman Polanski offered Dunaway the lead role of Evelyn Mulwray in his mystery neo-noir "Chinatown" (1974). Although its producer, Robert Evans,