The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film) Louis XIV and attempts to explain the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask, using a plot more closely related to the flamboyant 1929 version starring Douglas Fairbanks, "The Iron Mask", and the 1939 version directed by James Whale, than to the original Dumas book. Like the 1998 version, the two aforementioned adaptations were also released through United Artists. In 1662, the Kingdom of France faces bankruptcy from King Louis XIV's wars against the Dutch Republic, which has left the country's agriculture impeded by a heavy tax burden and forced the citizens to live on rotten food. Though the
The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film) "an overfondness for pageantry and stiff heroics." He criticized the casting of Marion Martin as "outright absurd" and called her performance "artless" and "rather hopeless". "Variety" called the film "a highly entertaining adventure" with "excellent" direction. "Harrison's Reports" declared it "good mass entertainment" with a "charming" romance. "Film Daily" called it "a vivid picturization of Alexandre Dumas' novel" with Hayward's "best screen work to date." John Mosher of "The New Yorker" wrote, "The piece belongs to the old school of things and the Douglas Fairbanks of 1929, but Douglas Fairbanks is not here, and the swordplay, the hard riding, the