Douglas Fairbanks Sr.’s last great costume drama in the 1920s, “The Iron Mask,” is playing at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo this weekend.
Fairbanks produced and starred in the epic swashbuckler, and he also wrote the screenplay.
Based on two novels by Alexandre Dumas, the spirited adventure tells the story of
the kidnapping and imprisonment of Louis XIV in a dungeon off the coast of France. His face is encased in an iron mask so that nobody will recognize him. Louis’s twin
brother sits on the throne, but D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers rescue Louis
and win the day.
Using his real name, Elton Thomas, Fairbanks wrote the story and the screenplay. He was probably the most famous movie star of the 1920s, producing and starring in colorful swashbucklers such as “The Mark of Zorro,” “The Three Musketeers” and “Robin Hood.”
For Tourists’ Eyes
The sets for “Robin Hood” were built on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood in 1921 and the filming prove to be a great tourist attraction.
Fairbanks considered “Robin Hood” his best film. In an interview in 1994, his son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., said that when he was offered the part in the 1938 version (ultimately played by Errol Flynn), he declined the opportunity to repeat his father’s role.
The director of “The Iron Mask” was Alan Dwan who directed some of Fairbanks’ greatest
Films, including “Robin Hood.”
Dwan’s career spanned more than 50 years with more than
400 films to his credit, including “Suez” (1938) with Tyrone Power and “The Sands of Iwo Jima” with John Wayne.
Badly Timed Sale
Dwan’s memoirs about early Hollywood inspired Peter Bogdanavich’s film “Nickelodeon.” At age 82, Dwan was preparing a film about the Korean War, “Marine”
at Warner Bros. when Jack Warner sold the studio and the film was abandoned.
Several famous art directors worked on “The Iron Mask” including William Cameron Menzies, who is considered to be more responsible for the look of “Gone With The Wind” than anyone else and Ben Carre, who designed the 1926 “Don Juan,” which starred John Barrymore, and “A Night at the Opera,” starring the Marx Brothers,
The assistant director on “The Iron Mask” was Bruce Humberstone who went on to direct such diverse films as “Sun Valley Serenade,” with Sonia Henne, “I Wake Up Screaming,” with Victor Mature, and the delightful Danny Kaye comedy, “Wonder Man.”
A Legendary Name
Douglas Fairbanks started his own production company in 1915. Four years later, he, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists, which gave the stars more control over their projects and earnings.
Later Doug Jr. recalled the first time he met Mary Pickford. “She came to the house, and I thought she was a little girl. She got down on the floor and started playing with my train
Set”
Fairbanks Sr. met Mary Pickford during a World War I Liberty Bond tour, and they fell in love. Because of their popularity, their public forgave their divorces, and their careers weren't affected. They moved into a mansion in Hollywood, which they called Pickfair, where they held huge parties for the entertainment community.
Did Not Work Out
Doug and Mary appeared together in the 1929 talkie “The Taming of The Shrew,” a commercial and artistic flop.
Mary Pickford blamed that production for the breakup
of their marriage. Fairbanks retired from films in the early ‘30s.
He considered coming
out of retirement in 1939 to appear with his son in an Alexander Korda-produced epic, “Alexander the Great.” But the combination of World War II and Fairbanks’ declining health
made that impossible.
Douglas Fairbanks Sr. died on Dec. 12, 1939, of a heart attack. The following year,
his son accepted a posthumous special Academy Award for his father’s “unique and outstanding contribution to the international development of the motion picture.”
“The Iron Mask” can be seen this evening, at 8:15, Saturday at 2:30 and 8:15,
and Sunday at 2:30 at the Old Town Music Hall, 140 Richmond St., El Segundo.
The theatre opens 30 minutes before showtime. 310.322.2592 or http://otmh.org
