Der Mann mit der eisernen Maske (1939)
6KDer Mann mit der eisernen Maske: Directed by James Whale. With Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William, Joseph Schildkraut. 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.
“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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBlink 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 3/4u0026#39;s of the way in. He has a few lines but we are so used to seeing him as u0026quot;Fritzu0026quot; in Whaleu0026#39;s Frankenstein movies that heu0026#39;s not easy to recognize (heu0026#39;s a little heavier looking in this film for one thing).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHayward 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlmost all the leads were independent artists, not contracted to any particular studio, so it was rather weird seeing Warnersu0026#39; top character man Alan Hale in this (not that they give him a whole lot to do!) Iu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAfter seeing this, I began to wonder if Stan Lee or Jack Kirby did not draw inspiration for their u0026quot;Dr. Doomu0026quot; comic book character from the iron mask shown in this film.”
