The mystery of the Iron Mask - the mysterious prisoner of the Bastille, who, on pain of death, was forbidden to show anyone his face and give his true name - has haunted historians, novelists and just history lovers for more than three centuries. Serious research and frivolous novels, plays and films were devoted to him. By the will of the great Dumas, he was freed from imprisonment by musketeers led by the inimitable d'Artagnan; his image is captured in our memory thanks to the magnificent films in which Douglas Fairbanks, Jean Mare and (in the latest film version of The Man in the Iron Mask) Leonardo DiCaprio shone at different times...