Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

THE IRON MASK

United Artists, 1929. Directed by Allan Dwan.  Camera:  Warren Lynch, Henry Sharp.  With Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Belle Bennett, Marguerite De La Motte, Dorothy Revier, William Bakewell, Tiny Sandford, Vera Lewis, Rolfe Sedan, Gordon Thorpe, Nigel De Brulier, Ullrich Haupt, Lon Poff, Charles Stevens, Henry Otto, Leon Bary, Gino Corrado.

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Anne of Austria, the wife of Louis XIII, gives birth to twins.  Cardinal Richelieu, learning of the double birth, smuggles the unwanted twin into Spain.

Constance, a seamstress present at the birth, is kidnaped by Rochefort, and D'Artagnan, her lover, hastens to the rescue. Constance is killed, however, and D'Artagnan is ordered to guard the little prince.

Rochefort kidnaps the second twin and rears him as the pretender to the throne.  Years pass.  Rochefort smuggles the pretender into the royal palace and imprisons Louis XIV in a distant fortress.  D'Artagnan rescues the king at the cost of not only his own life but the lives of his faithful comrades, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Louis XIV is reinstated and orders the pretender to spend the remainder of his life in an iron mask.

Note
The film is based on the novels Les trois mousquetaires (Paris, 1844) and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (Paris, 1848-50) by Alexandre Dumas, père.

American Film Institute Catalog