Philippe (Beau Bridges) has been raised pretty happily in Gascony by the famed Musketeers D'Artagnan (Cornel Wilde), Athos (José Ferrer), Porthos (Alan Hale, Jr.), and Aramis (Lloyd Bridges) without ever knowing his true identity as twin to the spoiled, cold-hearted King Louis (also Beau Bridges) until he is kidnapped and put in the Bastille in an iron mask. Philippe is meant to be the target of a faked assassination while the king is safely away with his mistress (Ursula Andress). Well, the assassination part was supposed to be real, just set up by the king's advisor, Fouquet (Ian McShane). But Philippe survives, thanks to the training from his four dads, and ends up meeting Marie Theresa (Sylvia Kristal), the Spanish Infanta who is supposed to marry the king.
Yes, this is The Man in the Iron Mask under a different title. The camera tricks used to show the "twins" are the only truly interesting things. Beau Bridges does a great job in the dual role, and McShane and Rex Harrison are excellent supporting players. According to IMDb, I watched the American release of this movie, which excised all the nudity and cut sixteen minutes of run time. So if you were hoping to see all of Andress, you are shit out of luck. But it happily does cut an extended version of the attempted rape scene, so mixed blessings.
The 1998 version remains my favorite interpretation of the story, but this wasn't bad. Just hard to find.
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