The Three Musketeers

"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.

And an updating of sorts of the Dumas novel, from Mascot Pictures and directors Colbert Clark and Armand Schaefer. The "musketeers" are soldiers in the French Foreign Legion: Clancy (Jack Mulhall), Renard (Raymond Hatton), and Schmidt (Francis X. Bushman Jr.). They are stationed in North Africa where they battle frequent Arab uprisings. During one such battle they are saved by American military pilot Tom Wayne (John Wayne). When Tom is later framed for murder by the insidious "El Shaitan", mysterious leader of the Devil's Circle, the three legionnaires promise to help Wayne is whatever way they can, leading to much high-flying mayhem, desert sands survival, and dangerous shoot-outs.

Despite the title, this is much more Wayne's show than the three legionnaires. Wayne is good at the action scenes, even if his character should be a complete wreck by the end, after multiple fist-fights, falls from great heights, and even being shot a few times. Both Chaney and Beery Juniors have early roles, and it was fun seeing them so young. The story gets repetitive (a drawback for many lesser serials), and I would have liked the three musketeers to have been featured more. The masked bad guy El Shaitan was physically performed by Yakima Canutt with a voice dub from Charles Middleton.

An old creaker of a 12 chapter Foreign Legion serial actually puts John Wayne in the forefront of the action despite having him appear only fourth in the credits. The production standards of course were nothing to write home about then and are certainly slapdash now but the action has some nifty inventive moments and it was all shot on location which was a big plus. The good natured comraderie between the "musketeers" was definitely used as a prototype for Gunga Din, made six years later by RKO. Some notable appearances by Noah Beery Jr, Lon Chaney and Yakima Canutt will interest film historians and the adventure is entertaining enough even if you can't get through all the chapters in one sitting. Not the greatest old-time serial ever made I'm sure but I'll watch John Wayne in anything and the DVD was worth the purchase.

According to the authors of "Forgotten Horrors," this serial, "The Three Musketeers" is "the last and best of John Wayne's Mascot's serials is everything a Saturday serial fan could want...There is skillful photography." One reviewer wrote about this serial recently and seems to write reviews just so he can complain about films he does not like and so that he can call people stupid and imbeciles. It appears to give him pleasure to humiliate long deceased people, but this is beyond my understanding.

An American action adventure; A story set in North Africa about three French Foreign Legion soldiers rescued by an army lieutenant. They join forces to find and arrest a mysterious Arab terrorist as he tries to wipe out the Foreign Legion. This film is loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' famous 1844 novel and a truncated version of the story. Its theatrical release came from an original 12-installment serial stitched together in chapter form so there is some summarising of the story throughout but it is unhampered by harsh editing that enfeebled the 70mins version release known as Desert Command (1946). It is a long swashbuckler for its slight storyline and it is not helped by some occasional stilted acting. John Wayne as a d'Artagnan-type is at the forefront of the action and is impressive. The trio of legionnaries: an Irishman, German and Frenchman provide light relief in their good-natured camaraderie. The air of mystery is thin but it there is enough distraction in impressive stunts, chases and physical conflict to make it barely watchable in one sitting. It also has some alluring desert photography shot on location.