The Iron Mask poster.

For the fourth consecutive year, the West Texas A&M University Symphony Orchestra will present a live-cinema performance.

This year they will be presenting the 1929 classic, The Iron Mask, featuring Douglas Fairbanks. The WT Symphony Orchestra will be under the direction of Dr. Mark Bartley, assistant professor of music. They will provide live musical accompaniment while the black-and-white film plays on wide screen.

“We’ve had great success with horror in Phantom of the Opera and comedy with City Lights and The Kid featuring silent film stars, Lon Chaney and Charlie Chaplin,” Bartley said. “This year Douglas Fairbanks and The Iron Mask seemed to be a great fit for a performance around Halloween.”

The movie is a sequel to the 1921 film The Three Musketeers. Fairbanks plays D’ Artagnan, a swashbuckler. His friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis make up the Musketeers.

King Louis XIII of France is estatic to have a son, and therefore, a heir to the throne. However, the queen bears a twin. Cardinal Richelieu, in an effort to ward off a potential revolution, sends the twin to Spain to be raised in secret.

In order to keep this secret, Constance, D’ Artagnan’s lover, must be sent off to a convent when she learns of the twin. When D’ Artagnan discovers this, he starts planning on how to rescue her.  He contacts the Musketeers,  Richelieu finds them out and banishes them forever. He recruits D’ Artagnan to watch over the young prince.

All the while, de Rochefort finds out about the twins and kidnaps the hidden one and takes him to raise in secret. Several years later, after the young prince is crowned King Louis XIV and Richelieu is dead, Rochefort puts his plan into action.

He kidnaps the king and replaces him with his twin. The twin is put in an iron mask so that he is not recognized. He is then led to a castle to be held prisoner. However, the real king is able to alert D’ Artagnan who reunites the Musketeers to stop Rochefort’s plot to take over, but it is no easy task.

“The audience will enjoy the musical score by Carl Davis. It’s remarkably effective with D’ Artagnan and the Three Musketeers, represented by each of the four French horns,” Bartley said.

The orchestra performed the program Oct. 26 at the Ector Theatre in Odessa. They will again perform it on Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall on campus.

Advance tickets are available by calling 806-651-2854. The ticket prices are $5 for general admission and $3 for students.