Review: The Man in the Iron Mask

Louis XIV of France (Richard Chamberlain) is a cruel and scandalous ruler who frequently diddles about with mistresses right in front of his elderly, homely wife. He also treats his mother like crap, and is an all-round jerk. His corrupt finance minister Fouquet (Patrick McGoohan) is perhaps even worse. Watching the kingdom going to Hell, D’Artagnan (Louis Jourdan), one of the King’s famed musketeers, has a plan. Aided by Coulbert (Ralph Richardson) he hatches a plan to switch Louis with the remarkable lookalike Philippe (also Chamberlain) who has been languishing in an isolated prison, with his face encased in an iron mask! Jenny Agutter plays the sweet Louise who loves Philippe, which might prove a bit problematic when he’s supposed to act like he’s Louis, including carrying out his marriage to Marie-Therese. Ian Holm plays Duval, one of Fouquet’s associates. Look for Denis Lawson (Wedge in the “Star Wars” trilogy) as a key part in D’Artagnan’s plot, and Esmond Knight as Agutter’s elderly, imprisoned father.

 

A rock-solid TV movie adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic, this 1977 flick is directed by Mike Newell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”) and scripted by William Bast (“Valley of Gwangi”, “The Star Maker”). The script seems a bit scant on character depth at times, especially with Richardson and Holm’s rather underused characters (the former ducks in and out, the latter gets nothing much to say or do), whilst I also wasn’t fond of the seriously unhappy ending, especially as it pertains to one of the stars of the film. It’s not just that it is downbeat, it also seems incredibly rushed or more like the end of part one of a two part story rather than a real ending. I’ve heard that a lot of the book was left out (I haven’t read it), and that certainly doesn’t surprise me. Having said that, most of the story still works, it looks handsome for what probably wasn’t a massive budget, and the cast are all terrific.

 

Slyly menacing McGoohan (stealing every scene) and well-cast Jourdan are the standouts, but Chamberlain is really good as Louis, less so as Philippe. I know it’s French, but his American accent in the latter role really bothered me when he offered up quite a convincing upper-class Brit accent as Louis. Could he not affect a lower-class Brit accent for Philippe? I know it’s silly to complain about that for a French character but it just distracted me, and the performance just isn’t as impressive as his rather pompous, effete Louis.

 

Overall, the good far outweighs the bad here, it’s such a classic tale and this is the best of the two screen versions I’ve seen (the other being the 1998 Leonardo DiCaprio version which was OK too).

 

Rating: B-

 

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