The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film) and the real Louis XIV are also killed when the driverless coach plunges off a cliff. The mortally wounded d'Artagnan survives long enough to exclaim "God Save the King!" at Philippe's wedding, and then falls dead. Philippe finally assumes the throne. The film was the third movie producer Edward Small made under his new agreement for United Artists. James Whale was signed as director in September 1938. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., whose father had starred as D'Artagnan in the 1929 epic version "The Iron Mask", was originally announced as male star and met with director James Whale. However producer Edward Small
Man in the Iron Mask in a newspaper at the time and that he was released after just a few months. His death is also recorded as happening in 1709, six years after that of the man in the mask. In 1801, revolutionary legislator Pierre Roux-Fazillac stated that the tale of the masked prisoner was an amalgamation of the fates of two separate prisoners, Ercole Antonio Mattioli (see below) and an imprisoned valet named "Eustache D'auger". Andrew Lang, in his "The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories" (1903), presented a theory that "Eustache Dauger" was a prison pseudonym of a man called "Martin", valet of the