"The Man In the Iron Mask" (1939), directed by James Whale, and starring Joan Bennett, aired on TCM this evening. I missed the beginning but luckily recorded it with my DVR and wish I had been able to post in advance that it was going to be on.
I had never seen this and it was really quite well done. Joan Bennett was onscreen through most of it, playing Maria Theresa, the Spanish princess sent to France to marry Louis XIV, played wonderfully by an actor I had never heard of, Louis Hayward (who actually had a dual role, and made both distinct). My take on Ms. Bennett was that she looked lovely and couldn't be faulted for her acting except that her performance seemed to lack some depth of characterization. Yet I'd prefer that to some stagey sort of acting that you often find from this era (and much later ...).
Sadly this isn't available on DVD except in what appears to be an overpriced pirated version taken from VHS. As someone with an interest in Dumas as well as an interest in DS alum Bennett, I hope it will come out on DVD some day. Perhaps it will also re-air on TCM before long.
