The Iron Mask
About The Iron Mask
Louis XIII celebrates a son. The queen has delivered twins, and Cardinal Richelieu (Nigel De Brulier) has the second boy taken away. Constance Bonacieux (Marguerite De La Motte) is killed early so the secret will hold. Years later d'Artagnan (Douglas Fairbanks) is up against Rochefort (Ullrich Haupt) and the twin who has been kept masked. William Bakewell plays both the king and his brother. D'Artagnan dies. The last title sends the musketeers, young again, toward "greater adventure beyond."
Cast & crew
More about The Iron Mask
Allan Dwan directed. Fairbanks and Jack Cunningham wrote it from the last part of Dumas's The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847–1850). Henry Sharp photographed it. Hugo Riesenfeld wrote the synchronized score. United Artists released the part-talkie on 21 February 1929. Fairbanks speaks in two short passages. The rest is intertitles, music, effects, and a theme song. It is the only Fairbanks picture in which his character dies.
Themes
Background
Released in February 1929, when United Artists was still shipping silent stories with discs of music and a few spoken lines.
Making
Fairbanks produced it through the Elton Corporation and played d'Artagnan knowing the silent costume film was ending. The death is written into the last scene.
Reviews
Jeffrey Vance wrote that, as a farewell to the silent screen, the film is Fairbanks's most dimensional performance, and that the hero's death is new for him.
Look
Henry Sharp photographed the costume picture, including the two passages in which Fairbanks speaks.
Music
Hugo Riesenfeld supplied a synchronized score, sound effects, and a theme song. Fairbanks's own voice is heard in two short scenes.
Preservation
The picture and a complete set of Vitaphone discs survive. In 1999 the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art worked with Kino Video on a DVD of the 1929 version. A full restoration that puts the original score back on the picture has not been issued.
Notes
- Belle Bennett plays the Queen Mother. Dorothy Revier plays Milady de Winter. Leon Bary, Tiny Sandford, and Gino Corrado play Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.
- Lon Poff plays Father Joseph. Charles Stevens plays Planchet.
- A full set of Vitaphone discs survives. The 1999 Kino DVD synced only the two Fairbanks speech sections and commissioned a new score from Carl Davis.
- Fairbanks's biographer Jeffrey Vance treats the film as his goodbye to silent swashbuckling, with fewer stunts than the earlier costume pictures.
Scenes
- Constance is killed so the twin will stay a secret.
- Fairbanks speaks, briefly, on the soundtrack.
- The dead musketeers appear young again under the last title.
Influenced by
- The Vicomte de Bragelonne (Alexandre Dumas)
Also available
- Internet Archive (iron_mask)
- Kino Video DVD (1999, Carl Davis score)
Quotes
greater adventure beyond
