Customer Reviews

The Three Musketeers - 12 Chapter Movie Serial

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Everything that you would expect in a western--the bragging, the shootouts, the fistfights, the outstanding horsemanship, etc., can be seen here. However, the setting is not the American West, but Algeria. Originally filmed many decades ago, it features a young John Wayne. He is caught up within an Arab plot, the French Foreign Legion, and El Shaitan--a mysterious figure. Wayne is falsely accused of murder and gun-running, and is placed before the firing squad. The guns go off before the reprieve can be delivered. Is Wayne dead? Will El Shaitan every be identified? See it and find out.

MASCOT PICTURES made serials under its own name from 1926 to 1935. After that, MASCOT and four other lesser "Poverty Row" studios were combined under the REPUBLIC PICTURES banner.

THE STORY of THREE MUSKETEERS (1933):
An American pilot rescues two soldiers from certain death at the hands of Berber tribesmen. They later battle El Shaitan-- a man with a mission: the annihilation of all Legionnaires. Not to be confused with the Dumas book of the same name.

CAST:
Jack Mulhall - Clancy
Raymond Hatton - Renard
Francis X. Bushman Jr. - Schmidt
John Wayne - Lt. Tom Wayne
Ruth Hall - Elaine Corday
Lon Chaney Jr. - Lt. Armand Corday [Chs. 1, 10]
Noah Beery Jr. - Noah Stubbs [Chs. 1-2, 10]
Yakima Canutt - El Shaitan, when masked/Legion Officer [Ch. 8] (uncredited)

CHAPTERS:
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

MUSKETEERS trivia:

John Wayne appeared in two other MASCOT serials ("Hurricane Express" and "Shadow of the Eagle").

Lon Chaney Jr. received screen credit here as Creighton Chaney.

Top-billed Jack Mulhall was the first to appear in a dual-role in a "talkie," in 1929's DARK STREETS.

Ruth Hall, the only credited woman in MUSKETEERS, was the niece of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, author of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

John Wayne and Yakima Canutt (the masked El Shaitan) made screen history in STAGECOACH (1939)-- Wayne on the coach, Canutt below it, as a trampled-upon Indian. Wayne credited Canutt with teaching him how to behave like a cowboy.

JOHN WAYNE - THE EARLY YEARS contains all three serials Duke was in.

Decent video quality considering age of the TV series. Good to see John Wayne at the beginning of his career. Interesting adaptation of Dumas' novel.

This was fun, fun, fun! A Saturday afternoon serial. 12 episodes! I love John Wayne and I love old westerns. This had the usual cliff hangers and surprises. In fact, I would have never guessed the ending.

Marengo Films is proud to announce the release of this early John Wayne Serial. The print was put through an extensive scene for scene color correction and sound design and we guarantee it is the finest print of this early film on the market.

The Marengo version cuts off the credits at the beginning

of each chapter after Chapter 1 and freeze-frames the chapter

title card.