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A
remake of the twice-filmed - in 1939, starring Louis
Hayward and Joan Bennett, directed by "Frankenstein"
director, James Whale, and remade in 1977 (by MTV),
with Richard Chamberlain, Patrick McGhoohan, Sir Ralph
Richardson and Louis Jordan - Alexandre Dumas classic
about a man, falsely imprisoned and encased in an
iron mask (for no other reason than the fact that
his very existence threatens the young, selfish, dangerous
King Louis XIV’s reign). Both the "boy King" and
his twin brother’s fates are placed in the hands
of the Three Musketeers - Gerard Depardieu, Gabriel
Byrne and Jeremy Irons - and they don’t disappoint.
It
is a stylish and lush film, as directed by Randall
Wallace in the grand tradition of the "palace"
movies of the late-30’s to mid-40’s - nothing
quite compares to the sight of Leo with shoulder length
hair extensions, ruffled shirts, tights and a really
big sword, flashing as he strides down stone hallways
lined with burning torches.
Interestingly,
by the time "The Man in the Iron Mask" was
released, "Titanic" had stood atop each
week’s box-office grosses list for nearly five
straight months, with the #2 and #3 films coming and
going and maybe even sticking around for a while,
but certainly posing no serious threat of giving the
doomed-ship-flick a run for its money.
All
that changed, however, the day "Mask" opened
and, while the industry sat up and took notice - some
of them for the very first time - the film tied "Titanic"
for the #1 position with grosses of $17.5M (each)
its first weekend of release, and continued to build
an audience with each subsequent week, eventually
blowing the ship it took half a year to sink, out
of the water.
In
other words, it took Leo to beat Leo!
Directed by
Randall Wallace
Produced by
René Dupont (co-producer)
Paul Hitchcock (co-producer)
Alan Ladd Jr. (executive)
Russell Smith (IV)
Randall Wallace
Writing credits
Alexandre Dumas père (novels)
Randall Wallace
Cinematography by
Peter Suschitzky
Cast
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