The Three Musketeers (1933)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Directors:

Colbert Clark
Armand Schaefer

Writers:

Colbert Clark (story)
Bennett Cohen (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 April 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

A Story of the Modern Escapades of the Most Famous Adventurers in all Fiction!

Plot:

Tom Wayne rescues Clancy, Renard and Schmidt in the Arabian desert and they join him in going after El Shaitan...

Plot Keywords:

Desert | Arabian | Foreign Legion | 12 Chapters | Serial

Cast

Jack Mulhall	...	Clancy
Raymond Hatton	...	Renard
Ralph Bushman	...	Dutch Schmidt (as Francis X. Bushman Jr.)
John Wayne	...	Lt. Tom Wayne
Ruth Hall	...	Elaine Corday
Lon Chaney Jr.	...	Lt. Armand Corday [Chs. 1, 10] (as Creighton Chaney)
Hooper Atchley	...	El Kadur
Gordon De Main	...	Col. Duval
Robert Frazer	...	Major Booth, USA
Noah Beery Jr.	...	Noah Stubbs [Chs. 1-2, 10]
Al Ferguson	...	Ali
Edward Peil Sr.	...	Leon Ratkin (as Edward Piel)
William Desmond	...	Capt. Boncour
George Magrill	...	El Maghreb
Robert Warwick	...	Col. Brent, USA [Ch. 1]

Runtime:

210 min | USA:210 min (12 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (International Film Recording Co.)

Certification:

UK:U

Filming Locations:

Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Mascot Pictures

Trivia:

Chapter Titles: - 1. The Fiery Circle - 2. One For All, All For One - 3. The Master Spy - 4. Pirates of the Desert - 5. Rebel Rifles - 6. Death's Marathon - 7. Naked Steel - 8. The Master Strikes - 9. The Fatal Cave - 10.Trapped! - 11.The Measure of a Man - 12.The Value of Comrades

Movie Connections:

Edited into Desert Command (1946)

Dumas Would Not Have Approved

In the last of three serials that John Wayne did making his bones in B picture Hollywood, he does what is described as a modern adaption of Alexander Dumas's classic The Three Musketeers. Any resemblance to that novel and this film is completely coincidental.

Wayne is an American pilot who is flying in North Africa and saves Jack Mulhall, Francis X. Bushman, Jr. and Raymond Hatton, Foreign Legionaires, from certain death by machine gunning from the air an attacking Berber tribe. The group of them strike up a great friendship and the three decide to call themselves The Three Musketeers and adopt Wayne as their D'Artagnan.

The Duke with that little action apparently messed up a planned revolution against the colonial occupiers so the would be revolutionaries frame him for gun running and later murder. It takes twelve chapters for Wayne to clear himself and unmask the mysterious masked leader of the Devil's Circle conspiracy, El Shaitan.

In the mess of a film where not one of the white dudes speak with any kind of an accent including the multi-national Foreign Legionaires, you can see elements of The Desert Song, Gunga Din, and Beau Geste. But other than the title not a hint of The Three Musketeers.

Lon Chaney, Jr. and Noah Beery, Jr. both make brief appearances in The Three Musketeers and both get killed early on in the serial. I'm sure neither of them counted this serial as anything they talked up in reminiscing about their careers.

Only confirmed and solid fans of John Wayne should watch this film. I can safely say that Alexander Dumas's spirit becomes most restless when this film is shown.