The Mask of Dimitrios **** (1944, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Victor Francen, Steven Geray, George Tobias) – Classic Movie Review 3,876

Warner Bros’ hugely atmospheric and entertaining 1944 classic film noir mystery crime thriller film The Mask of Dimitrios again teams the era’s most iconic star character actors Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. 

Director Jean Negulesco’s highly atmospheric and entertaining 1944 classic mystery crime thriller film The Mask of Dimitrios again teams Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. It is extremely likeable and exciting vintage stuff, a credit to the film noir genre.

Lorre plays the good guy, just for once, as weasly mystery writer from Holland Cornelius Leyden, while Greenstreet is as sweaty and slimy as ever as enigmatic criminal Mr Peters. Leyden is intrigued when the murdered body of a notorious vicious criminal washes up in the Bosphorus on the shores by Istanbul.

The body is that of the villainous Dimitrios Makropolous and Leyden decides to follow Dimitrios’s career across Europe to discover more about him. He is joined by Peters, a mystery man with an agenda of his own. And so the odd couple follow the trail of the title character Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott in his movie début) across international frontiers.

Frank Gruber’s complex, intelligent screenplay with its involved flashback structure, based on English author Eric Ambler’s 1939 novel The Mask of Dimitrios (published in the US as A Coffin for Dimitrios), is sleek and satisfying. But the movie stands or falls on its performances, and it is the three male stars’ absorbing playing together that is worth their considerable combined weight in gold and makes the film really count.

It is a shame that Faye Emerson is less interesting as the femme fatale, Irana Preveza, but then the film isn’t really about her. To be honest, these are not the kind of men who seem to be that interested in a femme fatale.

Also notable in the cast are Victor Francen, Steven Geray, George Tobias, Florence Bates, Eduardo Ciannelli, Kurt Katch, Monte Blue, Marjorie Hoshelle, Georges Metaxa, Georges Renavent, John Abbott, and David Hoffman.

Warner Bros bought the film rights Eric Ambler’s 1939 and novel and assigned the job of writing the screenplay to pulp fiction writer Frank Gruber, with Henry Blanke as producer.

Eric Ambler’s 1962 novel The Light of Day was filmed in 1964 as Topkapi. Other classic movies based on his work include Journey into Fear (1943) starring Joseph Cotten. His successful screenwriter career includes an original screenplay for The October Man (1947) and the script for A Night to Remember about the Titanic.

The Mask of Dimitrios runs 95 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Frank Gruber, is shot by Arthur Edeson, is produced by Henry Blanke, and scored by by Adolph Deutsch.

Release date June 23, 1944,

Zachary Scott, who had just impressed on the Broadway stage in Edward Chodorov’s comedy play Those Endearing Young Charms, got his first chance in the movies when originally cast star Helmut Dantine was given another film to do. This was lucky for Scott, as RKO replaced him in their 1945 film version Those Endearing Young Charms.

Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre appeared together in nine movies, starting with The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942) .

The cast are Sydney Greenstreet as Mr Peters, Zachary Scott as Dimitrios Makropoulos, Faye Emerson as Irana Preveza, Peter Lorre as Cornelius Leyden, Victor Francen as Wladislaw Grodek, Steven Geray as Karol Bulic, Florence Bates as Madame Elise Chavez, Eduardo Ciannelli as Marukakis, Kurt Katch as Colonel Haki, Marjorie Hoshelle as Anna Bulic, Georges Metaxa as Hans Werner, John Abbott as Mr Pappas, Monte Blue as Abdul Dhris, David Hoffman as Konrad, Carmen D’Antonio as Nightclub Dancer, Felix Basch as Vazoff, Fred Essler as Bostoff, John Mylong as Druhar, Georges Renavent, George Tobias, and Stuart Holmes as Casino Patron.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3.876
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