''The Iron Mask'' is a 1929 American part-talkie

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by

Allan Dwan Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter. Early life Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan was ...

. In addition to some sequences with dialogue, the film featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects and a theme song. The film is an adaptation of the last section of the 1847-1850 novel '' The Vicomte de Bragelonne'' by

Alexandre Dumas, père Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...

, which is itself based on the French legend of the Man in the Iron Mask.

Plot

The film stars Fairbanks as d'Artagnan, Marguerite De La Motte as his beloved Constance (who is killed early in the film to protect the secret that the King has a twin brother), Nigel De Brulier as the scheming Cardinal Richelieu, and Ullrich Haupt as the evil Count De Rochefort. William Bakewell appeared as the royal twins.

Cast

* Douglas Fairbanks – D'Artagnan * Belle Bennett – The Queen Mother * Marguerite De La Motte – Constance Bonacieux * Dorothy Revier – Milady de Winter * Vera Lewis – Madame Peronne * Rolfe Sedan – Louis XIII * William Bakewell –

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

/Twin Brother *Gordon Thorpe – Young Prince/Twin Brother * Nigel De Brulier – Cardinal Richelieu * Ullrich Haupt – Count De Rochefort * Lon Poff – Father Joseph: the Queen's Confessor * Charles Stevens – Planchet: D'Artagnan's Servant * Henry Otto – the King's Valet * Leon Bary – Athos * Tiny Sandford – Porthos (*Stanley J. Sandford) * Gino Corrado – Aramis

Music

The film featured a theme song entitled “One For All — All For One (Song Of The Musketeers)” which was composed by Jo Trent (words) and Hugo Riesenfeld and Louis Alter (music). The song is sung on the soundtrack and is played instrumentally several times throughout the film.

Production background

The 1929 part-talkie, entitled ''The Iron Mask'', was the first talking picture starring Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks lavished resources on his first sound film with the knowledge he was bidding farewell to his beloved genre. This marks the only time where Fairbanks's character dies at the end of the film, with the closing scene depicting the once-again youthful Musketeers all reunited in death, moving on (as the final title says) to find "greater adventure beyond". The original 1929 release has only two short sequences of dialogue which consisted of speeches delivered by Fairbanks. The rest of the film features a musical score with a few sound effects and a theme song that is sung and played several times. In 1952, the film was reissued, with the

intertitle In films and videos, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (hence, ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred ...

s removed and a narration voiced by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. added. The original film included a scene in which d'Artagnan tells the young King of an embarrassing adventure involving him and the three musketeers. The story is told in flashback but the 1952 version has it in chronological order with the scene with the King cut out. In 1999, with the cooperation of the

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and the

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, Kino Video released a DVD of the 1929 version. A complete set of

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National Pictures, First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc sys ...

disks exists for this picture. However, only a small portion of the original sound from these was synchronized with film footage, namely the two short sequences in which Douglas Fairbanks speaks. The rest of the soundtrack, which contained a Synchronized Score along with sound effects and a theme song was not used as this would make the DVD

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. (The copyright has expired on the original 1929 sound version.) For this DVD reissue, therefore, a new score was commissioned from composer Carl Davis. The Kino disc also includes excerpts from the 1952 version, some outtakes from the original filming, and some textual background material from the program for the 1999 premiere showing of the reconstruction. A complete restoration of the original sound version has yet to be released.

Reception and legacy

Fairbanks Biographer Jeffrey Vance has opined, "As a valedictory to the silent screen, ''The Iron Mask'' is unsurpassed. In one of his few departures from playing a young man—and with fewer characteristic stunts—Fairbanks conjures up his most multi-dimensional and moving screen portrayal in a film that is perhaps the supreme achievement of its genre."Vance, Jeffrey (2008). Douglas Fairbanks. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pg. 251. .

References

External links

* – 1929 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Iron Mask (1929 film), The 1929 films 1929 drama films 1920s adventure drama films 1920s American films 1920s English-language films 1920s historical adventure films American black-and-white films American historical adventure films American silent feature films American swashbuckler films Cultural depictions of Cardinal Richelieu Cultural depictions of Louis XIII Cultural depictions of Louis XIV Fiction about twins Films based on The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later Films directed by Allan Dwan Films scored by Hugo Riesenfeld Man in the Iron Mask Part-talkie films Silent American adventure drama films Silent historical adventure films Surviving American silent films Transitional sound films English-language historical adventure films English-language adventure drama films United Artists films