The 1929 part-talkie version, titled 

The Iron Mask, was the first talking picture starring Douglas

Fairbanks, though until recently it was usually shown in a silent version. The film stars Fairbanks as
d'Artagnan, Marguerite De La Motte as his beloved Constance (who is killed early in the film to
protect the secret that the King has a twin brother), Nigel De Brulier as the scheming Cardinal
Richelieu, and Ullrich Haupt as the evil Count De Rochefort. William Bakewell appeared as the royal
twins.
Fairbanks lavished resources on his final silent film, with the knowledge he was bidding farewell to
his beloved genre. This marks the only time where Fairbanks's character dies at the end of the film,
with the closing scene depicting the once-again youthful Musketeers all reunited in death, moving on
(as the final title says) to find "greater adventure beyond".
The original 1929 release, though mostly a silent film, actually had a soundtrack: two short speeches
delivered by Fairbanks, and a musical score with a few sound effects. In 1952, it was reissued, with
the intertitles removed and a narration voiced by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. added. The original film
included a scene in which d'Artagnan tells the young King of an embarrassing adventure involving
him and the three musketeers. The story is told in flashback but the 1952 version has it in
chronological order with the scene with the King cut out.
In 1999, with the cooperation of the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art, Kino
Video released a DVD of the 1929 version. A complete set of Vitaphone disks exists for this picture.
However, only a small portion of the original sound from these was synchronized with film footage,
namely the two short sequences in which Douglas Fairbanks speaks. The rest of the soundtrack,
which contained a Synchronized Score along with sound effects was not used as this would make
the DVD public domain. (The copyright has expired on the original 1929 sound version.) For this
DVD reissue, therefore, a new score was commissioned from composer Carl Davis. The Kino disc
also includes excerpts from the 1952 version, some outtakes from the original filming, and some
textual background material from the program for the 1999 premiere showing of the reconstruction.
A complete restoration of the original sound version has yet to be released.