The Iron Mask (1929)

King Louis XIII of France is thrilled to have born to him a son - an heir to the throne. But when the queen delivers a twin, Cardinal Richelieu sees the second son as a potential for ... See full summary »

Director:

Allan Dwan

Writers:

Lotta Woods (scenario editor), Douglas Fairbanks (story),

Stars:

Belle Bennett, Marguerite De La Motte, Dorothy Revier

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Belle Bennett	...	The Queen Mother
Marguerite De La Motte	...	Constance
Dorothy Revier	...	Milady de Winter
Vera Lewis	...	Madame Peronne
Rolfe Sedan	...	Louis XIII
William Bakewell	...	Louis XIV / Twin Brother
Gordon Thorpe	...	Young Prince / Twin Brother
Nigel De Brulier	...	Cardinal Richelieu
Ullrich Haupt	...	De Rochefort
Lon Poff	...	Father Joseph
Charles Stevens	...	Planchet - D'Artagnan's Servant
Henry Otto	...	The King's Valet
Léon Bary	...	Athos (as Leon Barry)
Tiny Sandford	...	Porthos (as Stanley Standford)
Gino Corrado	...	Aramis

Storyline

King Louis XIII of France is thrilled to have born to him a son - an heir to the throne. But when the queen delivers a twin, Cardinal Richelieu sees the second son as a potential for revolution, and has him sent off to Spain to be raised in secret to ensure a peaceful future for France. Alas, keeping the secret means sending Constance, lover of D'Artagnan, off to a convent. D'Artagnan hears of this and rallies the Musketeers in a bid to rescue her. Unfortunately, Richelieu out-smarts the Musketeers and banishes them forever. Richelieu enlists D'Artagnan to look after and protect the young prince. Meanwhile, de Rochefort learns of the twins and Richelieu's plans, and kidnaps the twin, raising him in secret. Many years later, with Richelieu dead and the young prince crowned King Louis XIV, Rochefort launches his plan. The king is kidnapped, replaced with his twin, put in an iron mask so as not to be recognized, and led off to a remote castle to be held prisoner. Louis XIV is able to ...

---

Plot Keywords:

musketeer | iron mask | mask | heir | convent | 

---

Taglines:

The Further Adventures of "The Three Musketeers"!

---

Genres:

Adventure | Drama | History | Romance

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 February 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die eiserne Maske

Filming Locations:

Big Sur, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Elton Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 103 min (restored) 72 min (edited) (re-release)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) (talking sequences, musical score and sound effects) Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the prologue, the four musketeers stand in a framing device, as a medieval stage booth, and D'Artagnan steps forward and speaks to the audience, then steps back and resumes his position with the other three, who remained motionless; after the mid-point intermission, the same situation is repeated, with D'Artagnan speaking again to the audience, finishing with the words, "once more, once more...", after which the film resumes with the title card "20 years later". These were the two Douglas Fairbanks' first scenes with spoken dialogue, in his last silent film.

---

Quotes

Porthos: Come on! There is greater adventure beyond.

---

Connections

Referenced in Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime: The Unbreakable Alibi (1983)

---

Soundtracks

"One for All, All for One"
(1929) (uncredited)
Lyrics by Jo Trent
Music by Hugo Riesenfeld and Louis Alter

User Reviews

The last silent swashbuckler

This movie has the unique status of having been a sequel in novel form even before the movies started. Dumas père wrote The Man in the Iron Mask to exploit the success of The Three Musketeers, and no doubt Hollywood figured they might as well follow the novelist's example and produce another movie with Douglas Fairbanks as d'Artagnan. Here, as always, Fairbanks is the pre-eminent swashbuckler, leaping onto his horse from windows, climbing trees acrobatically, and swordfighting against great odds, even when the story line calls for him to have aged at least twenty years. The costumes and sets are lavish, and the structure of the silent film—in the version I saw provided with a competent voice-over narrator, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.—is almost coherent, though not entirely. It helps to know the story in advance. I would have preferred to see it in its original form, with intertitles.