The Iron Mask

SYNOPSIS

In 1929, as the silent cinema succumbed to the rise of sound technology, Douglas Fairbanks bade farewell to his swashbuckling persona with this lavish adventure film, the glorious last hurrah of big-screen chivalry. In a return to Fairbanks's favorite literary character -- Dumas's heroic D'Artagnan, whom he had portrayed in 1921's The Three Musketeers -- The Iron Mask finds D'Artagnan's romance with Constance (Marguerite De La Motte) and his brotherhood with the Musketeers threatened by the sinister Cardinal Richelieu (Nigel De Brulier) and Count De Rochefort (Ulrich Haupt).

Backed by a full orchestral score composed by Carl Davis, this restored edition presents the film in its original 1929 form, complete with spoken introduction. This DVD also includes rare outtakes from The Iron Mask, as well as a lengthy excerpt from the 1952 revised version of the film, which featured narration written by Richard Llewellyn and spoken by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

The film was restored using materials supplied by The Douris Corporation and an original nitrate print deposited with The Museum of Modern Art in 1939. Although no optical sound print survived, the Library of Congress had original Vitaphone discs from the release. From these, the sound was restored using Dolby Digital.

REVIEWS

"A crackerjack entertainment." - The New York Times