The Man in the Iron Mask

They don't give a shit.

I immediately pressed play after that on The Man in the Iron Mask, 1998.

Oh,

my God.

The Princess Street Cottage no longer stands, but the legal and medical records from 1878 remain as a testament to one of the most baffling periods in Canadian history and one of the spookiest poltergeist episodes ever recorded.

Now, the mystery of the man in the iron mask is one of the most enduring enigmas in French history.

While popularized by Alexandre Dumas as a tale of a twin brother to King Louis XIV, the factual reality is grounded in a series of highly unusual administrative and military records from the 17th century.

Let's take a look at a factual reconstruction based on the correspondence of the French war minister, prison logs, and various historical candidates identified by researchers.

Now, there's the historical record.

Between 1669 and 1703, the man in the iron mask was a real prisoner held during the reign of Louis XIV.

His existence is verified by the meticulous records of Dauverne de Saint-Mars, a career jailer who oversaw the prisoner at four different locations over 34 years.

Now, the timeline of the imprisonment has to be taken into account.

And I'm like, he's fantastic in that, as small a part as it is.

Man in the Iron Mask.

Yeah, the Three Musketeers where he was Richelieu.

Muppets, Treasure Island.

So that's a little fun factoid.

In 1979, a film called The Fifth Musketeer, which was actually an adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask, also from Dumas.

was released with the title of The Fifth Musketeer to capitalize on the success of these films even though they didn't share any of the cast or filmmakers.

In 1989, Lester, Fraser, and cast members Yorick, Reed, and Finlay all returned for an actual sequel called The Return of the Musketeers which was based on another Dumas novel entitled 20 Years After.

I don't think I loved it for the longest time, too.

I went into this thinking, I don't know why, but I thought The Count of Monte Cristo was the same story as The Man in the Iron Mask.

Oh.

I was waiting for that to happen.

And when that wasn't because about another like how many episodes did it take you to figure that wasn't maybe three or four, you know, not like a lot.

Oh, my gosh.

I literally went to look it up because I was like, I can't remember what the man in the iron mask is.

But but reading the summary, I'm like, OK, I can understand, though.