Late this summer, Cohen Media Group offered vintage cinema fans a real treat when it released its Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: Robin Hood and The Black Pirate. The company, which specializes in foreign films, arthouse flicks and vintage cinema, followed up its release late last month with a second double feature that presets two more of Fairbanks’ classics, The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask. The latest of the collections, it is another interesting offering from Cohen Media Group that the most devoted audiences will appreciate. That is due in part to the collection’s featured movies, which will be addressed shortly. While the movies are of interest, the lack of any bonus content in this set detracts from its engagement and entertainment to a point. It is not enough to doom the recording though. Keeping that in mind there is one more positive to address here. That positive is the movies’ production values. They will be addressed later, too. Each item noted is key in its own way to the whole of the collection’s presentation. All things considered they make Cohen Media Group’s Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask a mostly successful new offering for vintage cinema fans.
Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask is an interesting follow-up to Cohen Media Group’s recently released Douglas Fairbanks collection featuring Robin Hood and The Black Pirate. The newer collection’s interest comes in part through its featured movies. The Three Musketeers and Iron Mask are directly connected, with the latter being the sequel to the prior. The Iron Mask, as is revealed ahead of its showing, was Fairbanks’ final silent movie. The two movies’ releases were separated by roughly eight years apart through his own production company, This take on author Alexandre Dumas’ timeless tale of twins and treachery clocks in at just under two hours and is a change of pace and style from so many adaptations of the classic tale of The Man in the Iron Mask. That is because of the back story that it establishes. In he case of this story, the setup comes as it is revealed early on by the Cardinal, that the king had a twin brother. The script actually makes the Cardinal’s attempt to cover up this reality almost honorable (at least in his own mind). One cannot help but wonder if this is what led the “evil twin” to become “evil” in the bigger picture. As a result of his attempt to cover up this reality, D’Artagnan’s love interest, Constance, is sent off to a convent without much explanation to viewers as how she knew the secret. She ends up being killed by another woman there, leading D’Artagnan to confront the Cardinal and threaten to kill him. All of this buildup is intriguing in that little of the movie’s script goes by its source material. Keeping that in mind, it would account for some of the story’s more head scratching moments in its first half. Thankfully, even with those moments in mind, the re-imagining of the classic tale still manages somehow to work overall, ending with the Musketeers being reunited in a little bit of a bittersweet fashion. That reveal will be left for audiences to discover for themselves. All of this aside, the story still ultimately proves engaging for the most part.
On the opposite end of things is The Three Musketeers, which is far longer at 2 hours, 16 minutes. As with The Iron Mask (and apparently so many Fairbanks starring vehicles) it spends an inordinate amount of time setting up the story that follows. This and the very fact that so much of the story centers on D’Artagnan honestly detracts from its presentation, making the noted run time feel more like a nearly three-hour movie. Had the story focused more on the adventures of the Musketeers instead of so much on D’Artagnan maybe it would have felt like it moved more fluidly and remained more engaging, but sadly that was not the case. Keeping that in mind, at least one of the movies in this collection proves worth watching. In turn the movies make for at least some engagement and entertainment.
Another concern that comes with the second of CMG’s Douglas Fairbanks collections is the lack of any bonus content. At least with the first of the collections, audiences were presented a feature length audio commentary that helped audiences better understand how the movie came to be and in fact came close to not even happening. In this case audiences do not get even an audio commentary for one of the two movies, let alone any deleted scenes or even some discussion on Fairbanks’ legacy. Considering that The Iron Mask was the last of Fairbanks’ silent films, there could have been at least some discussion therein. To that end the lack of any bonus content at all this time out clearly does detract from the collection’s presentation. Luckily, what it takes away from the collection is not enough to doom the set.
Knowing the lack of any bonus content in this set is not enough to doom its presentation, there is one more positive to note. That positive comes in the matter of the movies’ production values. Considering that one of the movies is now more than a century old and the other is close to that mark, both have been very expertly restored for their presentations here. The grainy look of each movie is still there but it has obviously been touched up. The result is a sense of nostalgia that will be just as welcome as that created simply from the movies themselves. Those charged with restoring the movies’ footage are to be commended for their work, keeping that in mind. When the result of their work is paired with the very presentation of the two movies here, the end result therein is a mostly successful new offering from CMG that most vintage cinema fans will appreciate even with its one negative.
Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask is an interesting companion piece to Cohen Media Group’s recently released Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: Robin Hood and The Black Pirate. The more recent collection is of interest in part because of its movies. The two movies are companions to one another in their own right. One is a bit longer than it should have been and its pacing is what proved so problematic. The other is much shorter and more engaging and entertaining. This despite the fact that it hardly stays true to its source material. The lack of any bonus content perhaps discussing why the change in story happened and why the first of the movies focused so heavily on D’Artagnan would have helped better appreciate both movies. It is too bad none of that exists here. Luckily the lack thereof is not enough to totally doom the presentation. Knowing that, the production values of both movies help establish at least a little more engagement and entertainment. To that end, the elements examined here collectively make the Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask a presentation that most vintage cinema fans will find worth watching at least once.
Cohen Media Group’s Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask is available now on Blu-ray. More information on this and other titles from Cohen Media Group is available at:
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