Die 3 Musketiere - Einer für alle-alle für einen

Alas, this is more interesting than enjoyable.

The script is rather muddled, and, despite a high-quality cast, the acting is ... well, to be polite, lacking.

Some of those good ol' country boys just do not make very convincing Arabs. (But they sure are good cowboys.)

John Wayne is today usually billed as the star, but he was listed fourth in the credits and was still relatively new in Hollywood at the time of the release. Even then he was showing the charm that would make him a star.

A tighter script and better directing should have made this a classic serial, but they are missing.

Still, this is one to see if only for the historical value.

Let me warn you: The DVD sold by the apparently dishonest and dishonorable Digiview company is more advertising for the company's other wares than a good presentation of this serial. There are only four of the 12 chapters, and I think the company is guilty of theft and fraud.

The picture seems to be ninth or tenth generation, and the sound is equally bad.

I urge everyone not to buy any product from Digiview.

(((This is an added note: After reading my comments here, a person wrote me that Digiview usually provides a buyer with value for the money. I was told "The Three Musketeers" is not typical fare from the company. I will leave my comment, above, but am happy to make this notation that Digiview, http://www.digiviewus.com, apparently is a company to buy from.)))

This is a long overdue update: Digiview does indeed include the complete serial. All the chapters are there. They are there in TWO DISCS, but the jerky retailer from whom I bought my copy had only the first disc. Quite by accident, from another jerky retailer, I found the second disc, so I now have the complete serial.

I hope readers and Digiview will accept my apology and my correction.

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.

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.

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.

Movie serials aren't sophisticated entertainment and they are jam-packed with contradictory scenes (such as SEEING a hero get blown up in one episode, only to see in the second episode that he SOMEHOW escaped) and inconsistencies. They were hastily made and quality was NOT a huge concern. That being said, I do enjoy many serials and could recommend a few...just not "The Three Musketeers"!

Despite the name, the serial is about the French Foreign Legion back around 1933. It begins with three soldiers and friends about to be killed by renegades...only to be saved by Tom Wayne (John Wayne) and his airplane. However, soon you realize that almost everyone in the story is extremely stupid...too stupid. When a turncoat is killed by the evil El Shaitan, very badly fabricated evidence is planted implicating Tom for the killing. And, despite his service record AND how bad and unconvincing the evidence is AND that Tom was close friends with the dead guy, suddenly an arrest warrant is issued for him AND the dead man's sister (who is also Tom's girlfriend) suddenly believes Tom is evil and sets out to kill him. Oddly, when she finally catches up to him, he convinces her in about 2 seconds he didn't kill her brother...and she believes it! Huh?! Did the woman have an unsuccessful brain transplant and this might explain her changing her opinions so quickly? And what about the officers in the Legion? Could they be half as stupid as the film portrays them to be?

The bottom line is that apart from a few nice action scenes, to believe the story you must assume everyone is an imbecile...otherwise the story makes no sense. Very bad writing, limp acting and indifferent direction make this a hard serial to finish...and even for the genre it's incredibly weak and unenjoyable.

By the way, many years later this 12-part serial was edited into an incomprehensible mess called "Desert Command". It never makes any sense as most of the film is missing...but it's really no worse than seeing this serial...especially since the heavily trimmed film is so much shorter in duration.