The Fiery Circle (1933) - The Three Musketeers
Channel: OLDTVMASTERS
Date: 25/07/2021

The Three Musketeers (aka Three Musketeers) is a 1933 American pre-Code film serial directed by Armand Schaeffer and Colbert Clark, and produced by Nat Levine for Mascot Pictures. The film serial was very loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel The Three Musketeers, with the musketeers changed into three soldiers in the French Foreign Legion, and d'Artagnan being reconfigured as Lt. Tom Wayne (played by John Wayne), a pilot in the United States military.

Wayne only received fourth billing behind Raymond Hatton, Francis X. Bushman, Jr. and Jack Mulhall who play the three legionnaires. Lon Chaney Jr. had a co-starring role in the serial, mainly appearing in Chapter One. The serial's subject matter, a product of its time, could be considered racist by modern-day standards.

In the harsh deserts of North Africa, the French Foreign Legion provides a military presence. Lt. Tom Wayne (John Wayne)) is framed for the murder of Armand Corday (Lon Chaney, Jr., the brother of his fiancé (Ruth Hall). He vows to capture the real killer, a mysterious Arab terrorist known only as El Shaitan.

Tom encounters three bumptious legionnaires: Clancy (Jack Mulhall), an Irishman always spoiling for a fight, Renard (Raymond Hatton}, a wily Frenchman, and Schmidt (Francis X. Bushman, Jr.) a German who loves sausages). They are the surviving members of a Foreign Legion unit that was wiped out in an attack.

Nicknamed the "Devil of the Desert", El Shaitan remains a shadowy figure, hiding his face and his true identity, as a result of which many people are mistakenly suspected of being the cult leader in the course of the serial, while other characters impersonate him for their own ends. At a meeting place called, "The Devil's Circle", El Shaitan commands a fanatic desert cult, a secret society formed to fight against the French authorities. Their raids

When Clancy, Renard and Schmidt are trapped by a horde of Berber tribesmen, using the machine gun mounted on his aircraft, Lt. Wayne quickly stops the attack. The three legionnaires are in constant danger but Wayne comes to their rescue many times, acting as a modern-day d'Artagnan. Eventually the trio, with the aid of their new friend, triumph over their adversaries.