The Man in the Iron Mask (1985 film) Colin Friels as King Louis XIV, Gwen Plumb as Péronne and John Meillon in the role of Porthos. It was produced by Tim Brooke-Hunt and originally premiered on television. "The Man in the Iron Mask" is nowadays considered to be in the public domain. The three Musketeers have discovered, through D'Artagnan, the existence of a twin brother of Phillipe, the King of France. The hidden brother is always imprisoned, and nobody knows his face, which is always covered with a mask of iron closed with padlock. Tired of the cruelty and tyranny with which Philippe punishes the French people, the
The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film) insisted on Louis Hayward, who had just made "The Duke of West Point" for him. Louis Hayward played D'Artagnan in a gender-switched 1952 remake entitled "Lady in the Iron Mask" with Patricia Medina in the titular role and Alan Hale, Jr. as Porthos, the part his father Alan Hale, Sr. had portrayed in the 1939 version. In what may have been another instance of stunt casting, Hale Jr. played Porthos in the 1979 film "The Fifth Musketeer" (which is also based on "The Man in the Iron Mask"). Frank S. Nugent called the film "a moderately entertaining costume piece" with