The Man Behind the Mask [Behind the Mask] ** (1936, Hugh Williams, Jane Baxter, Maurice Schwartz, Donald Calthrop, Ronald Ward ) – Classic Movie Review 10,956

The 1936 British black and white quota quickie mystery thriller The Man Behind the Mask is zesty, fast-paced vintage entertainment with pleasingly over-the-top performances and energetic handling, significant as an early work of the great director Michael Powell, though the last of his quota quickies. It is based on the novel The Chase of the Golden Plate by Jacques Futrelle.

Jane Baxter stars as the well-bred county-type girl Lady June Slade, who goes to a masked ball with her secret fiancé Nick Barclay (Hugh Williams) before their planned elopement, but she is taken away and held hostage by a crazed psychotic bad guy attacker, The Master (Maurice Schwartz), who wants her for his evil scientific experiments.

It was one of three Powell films included on the British Film Institute’s 75 Most Wanted list of lost films, and missing from the BFI National Archive. But this long-missing, believed lost movie was finally found again in the 1990s in the private collection of an American fan. It is an American print of the post-World War two British re-release reissue print (edited by about 20 minutes), titled Behind the Mask, but it is a cut version of the original UK film. This runs 58 minutes instead of the original 79 minutes, and is available on video, the internet and TV. Even so, no prints of the complete original version are known to exist.

Also in the cast are Maurice Schwartz, Donald Calthrop, Henry Oscar, Peter Gawthorne, Kitty Kelly, Ronald Ward, George Merritt, Reginald Tate, Ivor Barnard, Hal Gordon, Gerald Fielding, Barbara Everest, Wilfrid Caithness, Moyra Fagan and Syd Crossley.

It is produced by Joe Rock, for Joe Rock Productions, made at Elstree Studios, and released by MGM.

The Man Behind the Mask is directed by Michael Powell, runs 79 minutes or 58 minutes (reissue as Behind the Mask), is made by Joe Rock Productions, is released by MGM (1936) (UK) and New Realm Pictures (US), is written by Ian Hay (dialogue), Syd Courtenay, Jack Byrd  (adaptation) and Stanley Haynes, based on the novel The Chase of the Golden Plate by Jacques Futrelle, is shot in black and white by Ernest Palmer, is produced by Joe Rock and scored by Cyril Ray (musical director), with Art Direction by George Provis.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,956

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