The Three Musketeers (1933 serial)
| The Three Musketeers | |
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The Three Musketeers title sequence screenshot
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| Directed by | |
| Produced by | Nat Levine |
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| Starring | |
| Music by | Lee Zahler |
| Edited by | Ray Snyder |
| Distributed by | Mascot Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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12 chapters (210 min), film (96 min) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Three Musketeers is a 1933 American Pre-Code film serial produced by Mascot Pictures which updates Dumas' The Three Musketeers by setting the story in contemporary North Africa. The Musketeers are soldiers in the French Foreign Legion, and D'Artagnan (renamed Lt. Tom Wayne and played by John Wayne), is a pilot in the United States military. The supporting cast features Raymond Hatton, Francis X. Bushman, Jr., Lon Chaney, Jr. and Noah Beery, Jr.. The serial is in the public domain. In 1946 Republic Pictures edited the serial into a feature film called Desert Command.
When Lt. Wayne is framed for the murder of his fiancé's brother, Armand Corday (Lon Chaney, Jr.), he vows to capture the real killer, a mysterious Arab terrorist known only as El Shaitan. He is aided by the Three Musketeers: Clancy (an Irishman always spoiling for a fight), Renard, and Schmidt (who loves sausages). Nicknamed the "Devil of the Desert", El Shaitan leads a desert cult and a secret society against French authorities, with a meeting point called Devil's Circle. He remains a shadowy figure, hiding his face and his true identity, as a result of which many people are mistakenly suspected of being El Shaitan, while other characters impersonate him for their own ends.
The Three Musketeers was loosely adapted from the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père and updated to a contemporary time period. The Three Musketeers are legionnaires in the French Foreign Legion: Clancy (Irish), Renard (French) and Schmidt (German). The D'Artagnan character is Tom Wayne, an American aviator played by John Wayne, who rescues the three from attacking Arabs while flying over the desert.
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