The Man in the Iron Mask is set in 17th Century France & starts in Burgundy where musketeer D'Artagnan (Louis Jourdan) captures a man named Philipe (Richard Chamberlain) & sends him to be imprisoned in the Bastille prison in Paris with orders no-one else sees or speaks with him. While at the prison visiting her father a young woman named Louise (Jenny Agutter) is accompanied by a high ranking minister named Fouquet (Patrick McGoohan) who recognises the man Philipe as an exact double for King Louis XIV (Richard Chamberlain), visiting Philipe later Fouquet sees a birth mark exactly the same as one on King Louis & is convinced that Philipe is in fact the identical twin brother of King Louis who was meant to have died at birth but somehow lives unaware of who he is, reporting back to King Louis a plan is hatched to send Philipe to an island fortress prison Pignerol & encase him in an iron mask so no-one ever sees his face but D'Artagnan & minister Duval (Ian Holm) plan to rescue Philipe & use him to overthrow King Louis & save France...
This British & American co-production was directed by the prolific Mike Newell who has gone to direct recent Hollywood fare such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) & Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) & is a fairly lavishly produced & colourful adaptation of Alexandre Dumas père novel The Man in the Iron Mask which was his final book to feature the Three Muskateers. I must admit right now that I have never read the book so cannot compare the two although I am sure they are fairly similar & share the same basic plot, The man in the Iron mask isn't usually the type of film that I watch but it was shown on afternoon telly over here so I decided to give it a go. I must admit that I was expecting a bit more action here, a few more sword fights & chases & was a bit surprised at how talky this is. That's not to say it's a bad film by any means, it held my interest & I liked the story which is told efficiently & effectively enough but I was sat there waiting for The Man in the Iron Mask to spring into life & it never did. The switch at the end as Philipe takes the place of his brother is nothing more than a con trick while Philipe being released from his iron masked imprisonment is also very straight forward apart from a brief horse chase & sword fight. The plot is solid enough, there's the expected treason, lies, political skulduggery, mistrust, the odd plot twist, love triangles & romance as the future of France is on the line & I enjoyed the story but there have been various adaptations of the novel & it's a well known story so maybe there won't be many surprises here. I did like the rather ironic & downbeat ending as King Louis gets his comeuppance in a rather unpleasant way, the only problem is I wasn't totally convinced by the reasons given by King Louis in the first place as to not just kill Philipe outright but if he had there wouldn't have been a story, would there? Also, if Philipe was living in France in Burgundy why had no-one ever recognised him before as looking exactly like King Louis? Not my type of film really but I still enjoyed it for what it was although it probably helps that I have never seen any other adaptation of the novel before, not even the Leonardo DiCaprio one from 1998.
Although apparently made for telly by the British production company ITC this actually looks very nice & I am surprised it never got a theatrical release in either the UK or US. The sets, locations & costumes are all very impressive & colourful & give a real air of authenticity to the film, the iron mask itself is a fearsome looking prop with it being soldered onto Philipe's head a particularly good moment. Like I said earlier there's really not that much action in this which is surprising, I would have though there would have been more sword fights & shoot-outs & stunt work but I was obviously wrong. Just don't expect much action that's all I am saying, this is more of a plot driven adaptation than elaborate stunt work.
I would have thought The Man in the Iron Mask had a reasonable budget as it's actually filmed in France including Fouquet's actual Cháteau Vaux-le-Vicomte, the Palace of Fontainebleau and the Cháteau de La Houssaye & it show's with some great location work. There's a top cast here including Richard Chamberlain in dual roles, Jenny Agutter, Ian Holm, Patrick McGoohan, Ralph Richardson & Louis Jourdan who is the only French actor here despite the entire film taking place in France with French character's.
The Man in the Iron Mask has been adapted to the silver screen no less than a dozen times & this is the only one I have seen thus far so cannot really compare it to any other version but I liked it for what it was, a solid historic political thriller with a hint of adventure. Perfect to waste a couple of hours one lazy afternoon but not really any sort of classic in my eyes.
This British & American co-production was directed by the prolific Mike Newell who has gone to direct recent Hollywood fare such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) & Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) & is a fairly lavishly produced & colourful adaptation of Alexandre Dumas père novel The Man in the Iron Mask which was his final book to feature the Three Muskateers. I must admit right now that I have never read the book so cannot compare the two although I am sure they are fairly similar & share the same basic plot, The man in the Iron mask isn't usually the type of film that I watch but it was shown on afternoon telly over here so I decided to give it a go. I must admit that I was expecting a bit more action here, a few more sword fights & chases & was a bit surprised at how talky this is. That's not to say it's a bad film by any means, it held my interest & I liked the story which is told efficiently & effectively enough but I was sat there waiting for The Man in the Iron Mask to spring into life & it never did. The switch at the end as Philipe takes the place of his brother is nothing more than a con trick while Philipe being released from his iron masked imprisonment is also very straight forward apart from a brief horse chase & sword fight. The plot is solid enough, there's the expected treason, lies, political skulduggery, mistrust, the odd plot twist, love triangles & romance as the future of France is on the line & I enjoyed the story but there have been various adaptations of the novel & it's a well known story so maybe there won't be many surprises here. I did like the rather ironic & downbeat ending as King Louis gets his comeuppance in a rather unpleasant way, the only problem is I wasn't totally convinced by the reasons given by King Louis in the first place as to not just kill Philipe outright but if he had there wouldn't have been a story, would there? Also, if Philipe was living in France in Burgundy why had no-one ever recognised him before as looking exactly like King Louis? Not my type of film really but I still enjoyed it for what it was although it probably helps that I have never seen any other adaptation of the novel before, not even the Leonardo DiCaprio one from 1998.
Although apparently made for telly by the British production company ITC this actually looks very nice & I am surprised it never got a theatrical release in either the UK or US. The sets, locations & costumes are all very impressive & colourful & give a real air of authenticity to the film, the iron mask itself is a fearsome looking prop with it being soldered onto Philipe's head a particularly good moment. Like I said earlier there's really not that much action in this which is surprising, I would have though there would have been more sword fights & shoot-outs & stunt work but I was obviously wrong. Just don't expect much action that's all I am saying, this is more of a plot driven adaptation than elaborate stunt work.
I would have thought The Man in the Iron Mask had a reasonable budget as it's actually filmed in France including Fouquet's actual Cháteau Vaux-le-Vicomte, the Palace of Fontainebleau and the Cháteau de La Houssaye & it show's with some great location work. There's a top cast here including Richard Chamberlain in dual roles, Jenny Agutter, Ian Holm, Patrick McGoohan, Ralph Richardson & Louis Jourdan who is the only French actor here despite the entire film taking place in France with French character's.
The Man in the Iron Mask has been adapted to the silver screen no less than a dozen times & this is the only one I have seen thus far so cannot really compare it to any other version but I liked it for what it was, a solid historic political thriller with a hint of adventure. Perfect to waste a couple of hours one lazy afternoon but not really any sort of classic in my eyes.