L'homme au masque de fer

All positive comments are agreed to. This is truly one of the finest ones. The only minor dig that I could come up with is that they could have had more dueling sequences. Louis Hayward was capable of more robust fencing than what was portrayed here and I don't think they utilized his skills to any great degree. Outside of that this is a truly enjoyable film, black and white or not and while I don't advocate doing every B/W film over by colorizing it, I think I would like to see what this one Australia, What Guy Pearce Remake??????? Guy Pearce did Count of Monte Cristo, not M.I.T.I.M. as far as I have been able to determine.

All in all, a solid film with some excellent cinematography, uniformly excellent cast and good direction (except the romantic scenes--James Whale always was a bit stiff in that department). I thought the musical score was just adequate, even though it was nominated for an Oscar that year.

Blink and you miss Albert Dekker (credited) at the opening and Peter Cushing (credited and his first screen appearance) as one of the soldiers in the scene where the soldiers first encounter the musketeers (Cushing has no lines). Dwight Frye (not credited) can be spotted as a valet about 3/4's of the way in. He has a few lines but we are so used to seeing him as "Fritz" in Whale's Frankenstein movies that he's not easy to recognize (he's a little heavier looking in this film for one thing).

Hayward was a good choice for the dual roles. A good actor, there was always something rather unpleasant at times about his looks while at other times he looked quite handsome--I think he was used to great advantage here for that reason.

Almost all the leads were independent artists, not contracted to any particular studio, so it was rather weird seeing Warners' top character man Alan Hale in this (not that they give him a whole lot to do!) I'm guessing that some footage from the 1920s version of this film with Douglas Fairbanks was incorporated into at least one scene--the king showing the newborn prince from his balcony early in the film.

After seeing this, I began to wonder if Stan Lee or Jack Kirby did not draw inspiration for their "Dr. Doom" comic book character from the iron mask shown in this film.

James Whale, when he wasn't doing horror films which set trends, or the occasional musical, went literary with this entertaining adaptation of the famous French novel.

Old hands are involved - Warren William, Alan Hale - as part of the quartet of ageing musketeers, and do the production credit. South-African born matinée idol Louis Hayward plays both the twins admirably and pretty Joan Bennett does her usual turn which she could do in her sleep (as the princess betrothed to the bad twin and in love with the good twin).

The film veers from some very funny moments to some sweet romantic scenes between the good twin and the foreign princess, and the different characters of the twins are well portrayed. There are also a number of excellent performances in the supporting cast. With all this (and Whale's surreal imagination) you can forgive the odd lapse away from Dumas' original vision. Good stuff indeed.

"The Man in the Iron Mask" is adapted from the volume by Alexander Dumas. The premise of the film is that King Louis XIV of France had an identical twin brother, who eventually becomes "the man in the iron mask". Also involved in the story are D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers carried over from Dumas' novel "The Three Musketeers".

Louis Hayward is equally excellent as the ineffectual King Louis XIV and his twin, the kindhearted Philippe. Joan Bennett is charming as Maria Theresa, slated to be Queen of France. Joseph Schildkraut is notable as the Machiavellian adviser Fouquet and Walter Kingsford also gives a commendable performance as rival adviser Colbert. Warren William gives the best performance of the Musketeers as the noble D'Artagnan, but the other Musketeers are well-portrayed.

This film features superb sets, scenes, costumes and a score to match. Some of the special effects work is noticeably dated, but is overall fine. The story is interesting and well-paced and doesn't suffer the slow patches that some other adventure films of the era do. It should be noted that this film features some action scenes, but viewers looking for a number of swordfights would probably do better with another film. The action scenes that were included were certainly well-made. Overall, "The Man in the Iron Mask" proves to be an interesting hypothetical story set in the time of Louis XIV.

Intermittently exciting "Musketeers" tale, highlighted by the "Jekyll-Hyde" performance of Louis Hayward as the King of France and his undiscovered (then, discovered) twin brother. Mr. Hayward does a great job; especially when the "Good" twin confronts the "Evil" twin with his "Iron Mask".

"The Man in the Iron Mask" might have been better as a swashbuckling horror story; and, director James Whale could have delivered the goods. The Iron Mask of the title is designed for Edgar Allen Poe-type horror… it is locked around a Hayward's neck, so that he will slowly be strangled by his own beard. A gruesome death! I expected a little more excitement, and suspense, in this film.

The other characters are enjoyable; Joseph Schildkraut was my favorite supporting character. Joan Bennett is the beautiful love interest, but she doesn't have much of an opportunity to show any acting skills. By the way, her scene in the coach shows her looking very much like Scarlet O'Hara from "Gone with the Wind." After seeing her in this, you can picture her testing for Scarlett.

******* The Man in the Iron Mask (6/26/39) James Whale ~ Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Joseph Schildkraut, Warren William