Desert Command ** (1946, John Wayne, Ruth Hall, Jack Mulhall, Raymond Hatton, Francis X Bushman Jr, Noah Beery Jr, Lon Chaney Jr) – Classic Movie Review 11,994

The 1946 mystery action spy thriller Desert Command is directed by Armand Schaeffer and Colbert Clark, and stars Raymond Hatton as Renard, Francis X Bushman Jr as Schmidt, Jack Mulhall as Clancy, John Wayne as Tom Wayne, Ruth Hall as Elaine Corday, Noah Beery Jr as Stubbs and Lon Chaney Jr as Lt. Armand Corday. It takes a standard Western storyline and moves it to the harsh deserts of North Africa.

It was originally made as the 210-minute Mascot Pictures film serial The Three Musketeers in 1933 and later re-edited, chopped up and abridged to make a single 70-minute feature-length movie when it was re-released in 1946 by Favorite Films Corporation. The 12 serial chapter screen titles were eliminated to help create a continuous flow.

Wayne had fourth billing behind Raymond Hatton, Francis X Bushman Jr and Jack Mulhall, who play the three legionnaires, though by 1946 Wayne was a big star and was promoted to top billing. Lon Chaney Jr has a co-starring role, mainly appearing at the start.

It is very loosely based on Alexandre Dumas’s 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.

Foreign Legionnaires Clancy (Jack Mulhall), Renard (Raymond Hatton) and Schmidt Francis X Bushman Jr) who call themselves the Three Musketeers fight renegade Arab forces under the mysterious masked El Shaitan (Yakima Canutt), the ‘Devil of the Desert’, who is smuggling guns into Algeria to start a revolution. United States military pilot Tom Wayne rescues them and helps them.

The poster for the 1933 American pre-Code film serial The Three Musketeers.

The cast are Jack Mulhall as Clancy, Raymond Hatton as Renard, Francis X Bushman Jr [Ralph Bushman] as Schmidt, John Wayne as Tom Wayne, Ruth Hall as Elaine Corday, Noah Beery, Jr. as Stubbs, Al Ferguson as chief henchman Ali, Hooper Atchley as El Kadur, George Magrill as El Maghreb, Edward Peil, Sr. as Ratkin, Gordon de Main as Colonel Duval, William Desmond as Captain Boncour, Robert Warwick as Colonel Brent, Creighton Chaney [Lon Chaney Jr] as Armand Corday and Robert Frazer as Major Booth.

Wayne stared in two other Mascot serials: The Shadow of the Eagle (1932) and The Hurricane Express (1932).

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,994

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