The Three Musketeers (1933)

Tom Wayne rescues Clancy, Renard and Schmidt in the Arabian desert and they join him in going after El Shaitan, a bad guy who is never seen as he tries to wipe out the Foreign Legion.

Directors:

Colbert Clark, Armand Schaefer

Writers:

Alexandre Dumas père (story), Norman S. Hall (story),

Stars:

Jack Mulhall, Raymond Hatton, Ralph Bushman

Cast

Complete credited 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	...	Colonel 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	...	Captain Boncour
George Magrill	...	El Maghreb
Robert Warwick	...	Col. Brent, USA [Ch. 1]

Storyline

American aviator Tom Wayne (John Wayne)and his co-pilot, Stubbs (Noah Beery Jr.)are flying over an African desert when they see trouble below...Arab bandits are attacking three troopers of the French Foreign Legion. Using the machine gun mounted on his airplane, Wayne quickly stops the Arab attack. The rescued Legionaires---Clancy (Jack Mulhall), Renard (Raymond Hatton) and Dutch Schmidt (Ralph Bushman)introduce themselves as "The Three Musketeers." They inform Wayne that the attackers were followers of "The Devil's Circle," a fanatic cult out to destroy the Foreign Legion by gun-running and insurrection. The cult's leader is El Shaitan, a masked man whose real identity is known to none. Wayne is drawn into the fight through the encouragement of his new friends, and a call for help from an old friend, Armand Corday (Lon Chaney Jr.), who has been duped into The Devil's Circle, but is trying to break away. But Armand, is killed by an assassin before he can tell what he knows about the ...

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Plot Keywords:

cult | foreign legion | desert | sister | rescue | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Mystery | Thriller | War

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 April 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die drei Musketiere

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mascot Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

210 min 210 min (12 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono (International Film Recording Co.)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Retitled, re-edited and re-released in 1946 as a feature, Desert Command.

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Connections

Edited into Desert Command (1946)

User Reviews

Weakest of Wayne's Three Serials!

"The Three Musketeers" was the third and final serial made by John Wayne for producer Nat Levine's Mascot Pictures. Oddly enough for Wayne, who made mostly westerns during this period, none of the three serials are westerns. In fact, in all three, he plays a pilot.

The story takes place somewhere in an Arab country where three members of the French Foreign Legion are the only survivors of an attack by Arabs. The three, Clancy (Jack Mulhall), Renard (Raymond Hatton) ans Schmidt (Francis X. Bushman Jr.) are rescued from certain death by Tom Wayne (John Wayne), an American pilot. The three legionnaires dub themselves "The Three Musketeers" (you know: "One for all, and all for one") and Wayne their "D'Artagnan.

A mysterious masked figure known as El Shaitan plots a rebellion against the Legion. Wayne is framed for the murder of his friend Armand Corday (Creighton Chaney) and spends the rest of the story trying to prove his innocence while at the same time attempting to learn the identity of El Shaitan.

Wayne is aided by the Musketeers and Corday's sister Elaine (Ruth Hall). There are of course several suspected "El Shaitans" over the course of the 12 chapters. Among the suspects are Col. Duval (Gordon De Main), the company commander, El Kador (Hooper Atchely) and others. Of course we don't learn the identity of the villain until the last chapter.

As in most of the Mascot serials, there is plenty of action, perilous situations and lots of racing around. I found that this serial had far too many flashback sequences and predictable situations. In its favor, it had Yakima Canutt doing most of the stunts and (shudder) even taking a small speaking part. Look closely for Kermit Maynard and I'm sure I saw Wally Wales (aka Hal Taliaferro) as other legionaires. Noah Beery Jr. appears briefly as Wayne's pal Stubbs.

Creigton Chaney is of course better known as Lon Chaney Jr. a name he would adopt in 1935 and use for the rest of his 40 year career. For John Wayne, he would soon move on to his Lone Star western series and would not appear in another serial.