Robert Bloch reveals all about the Iron Mask
"Iron Mask"
From the May 1944 issue of WEIRD TALES, this is a neat little story by Robert Bloch that features a group of Underground fighters in occupied France, dealing with Nazis and secret papers and a strange mystery man in a black cloak and iron mask.
Today, Robert Bloch (1917-1994) is best remembered for his book PYSCHO, which Alfred Hitchcock made into a film some of you may have seen. But he also wrote many screenplays, novels and stacks of terrific pulp stories. My favorites in his works are the ones where he related horrifying events with a slightly goofy, Damon Runyon-type style. Bloch has not received the scholarship he deserves, If nothing else, he was one of the earliest writers in the H.P. Lovecraft circle, although his own distinctive style came later.
"Iron Mask" has the basic storyline of a trio of resistance fighters in a hide-and-seek game with the Nazis, trying to get custody of a small box containing valuable papers. Our rather bland hero, former AP reporter Eric Drake, and his girlfriend Roselle, find themselves unwillingly allied with a sinister figure who soon takes charge. The Iron Mask dresses all in black, shrugs off bullets as if they don't even sting, and talks in an ominous whisper. We first meet him as he is ripping up boulders and throwing them down at the Nazis (?!) so he clearly has some story to tell.
Every few pages, Bloch has Iron Mask keep revealing a new explanation for who he is, and each origin story is wilder than the one before. First he claims to be a simple French soldier disfigured by a flame thrower, but he soon explains that he is the actual Man in the Iron Mask himself, the infamous 17th Century prisoner who inspired many novels and historical speculation. He's immortal because of a serum given to him by his father, none other than Nostradamus. But even that's not the full story and if you've ever heard the legend of the speaking brazen head that Roger Bacon was supposed to have created, well, the old alchemist was even more of a genius than he got credit for.
The characters in this story don't really have distinct personalities, and the Nazis are simply your basic vile villains. The real delight here is the different legends and historical mysteries which Bloch obviously enjoyed working together to create an impressive character. And the final fate of the Iron Mask, while appropriate and satisfying, also has the unmistakable ring of a good joke's punchline.