The Man in the Iron Mask

1939
Approved
1h 53m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Joan Bennett and Louis Hayward in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)

Despotic King Louis XIV discovers he has a twin brother who has grown up under the tutelage of his foster father, the patriotic musketeer D'Artagnan.Despotic King Louis XIV discovers he has a twin brother who has grown up under the tutelage of his foster father, the patriotic musketeer D'Artagnan.Despotic King Louis XIV discovers he has a twin brother who has grown up under the tutelage of his foster father, the patriotic musketeer D'Artagnan.

Director
- James Whale
Writers
- Alexandre Dumas
- George Bruce
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- James Whale
Writers
- Alexandre Dumas
- George Bruce
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total

Trivia
Peter Cushing did double duty on this film. In additional to his own role, he would feed Louis Hayward the lines for the split screen shots. Director James Whale initially cast him only to play opposite Hayward in the sequences where both twins appear together, but was impressed enough with the newcomer that he offered Cushing a small part on horseback. This was Peter Cushing's film debut, and he had the unique opportunity to view the rushes and improve his own performance, especially since none of it would be used in the finished feature. As 'Second Officer,' he can be seen 17 minutes in, with two lines of dialogue: "How could I mistake it. I've been here before".

Goofs
In one chase scene, a character fires a pistol three times in quick succession. 17th century firearms had to be reloaded after each shot.

Quotes
Philippe: [as Louis] I became King on my fifth birthday. By my sixth I learned not to offer encouragement. Sooner or later everyone comes to me.

Crazy credits
The credits are printed into a old book. An unseen male hand pages through it.

Connections
Featured in Peter Cushing: A One-Way Ticket to Hollywood (1989)

User reviews37

Review

Featured review

Well made independent

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.