The Iron Mask (1929) Starring Douglas Fairbanks

The Iron Mask, rich in breathtaking swordfights, carefree merriment, and suspense, is one of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.'s masterpieces. The story of the four musketeers, gentle Athos, jolly Porthos, brave Aramis, and fearless, outgoing D'Artagnan, goes on in this tale of twin heirs and the unscrupulous Count de Rochefort who switches them to obtain his own ends.

The movie begins as the Queen gives birth to a crown Prince of France. Everybody rejoices over the heir, and nobody suspects that there are actually two! Cardinal Richelieu (played by the aging Nigel de Brulier) tells no one of the birth of the second child and sends the twin away to the Spanish border, but Count de Rochefort (Ulrich Haupt) entangles himself in this plan and eventually switches the twins so that he may make himself the most powerful man in France.Fairbanks, who aged remarkably well over the course of his life and is as dashing and handsome as ever in this film, plays an energetic and athletic D'Artagnan who serves his King to the point of death. Marguerite de la Motte returns as Constance, D'Artagnan's lover who is tragically murdered by the criminal Milady de Winter. The movie is excellent and portrays Fairbanks's skill at fencing most accurately. One of his best!