Man in the Iron Mask the queen to be left alone with her midwife to give birth to the second child. To make the context clearer, it should be remembered that there was a controversy at that time over which one of twins was the elder: the one born first or the one who, being born second, would have, as was then thought, been conceived first. In such a situation, the reigning twin would face a serious threat to his throne. Also supporting the theory of King Louis XIV's twin, a thorough examination of the French Kings' genealogy shows many twin births, in the Capetian
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