In Jean Negulesco’s 1944 film <i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i> a writer of detective stories, played by Peter Lorre, is in Istanbul when the body of Dimitrios Makropoulous, a notorious criminal, is fished out of the Bosporus. The writer finds himself drawn into unravelling the threads of Dimitrios’s criminal career. This quest takes him to various cities of Eastern Europe and ultimately to Paris, and involves him with a variety of more or less shady characters. The movie, based on a novel by Eric Ambler, is reminiscent in many ways of both <i>Citizen Kane</i> and <i>The Third Man</i>, and can be compared quite favourably to those masterpieces. The story unfolds in a series of flashbacks as people who knew Dimitrios tell various part of his story. The detective writer finds himself becoming an active participant in events rather than merely the outside observer he’d hoped to remain.
There’s some superb acting, particularly from Peter Lorre as the writer – Lorre gets the chance to play a character who is both sympathetic and resourceful and who is perhaps the closest thing this film has to a hero. He gets some fine support from Sydney Greenstreet. There’s some great cinematography which gets very noirish in places. There’s suspense, and tragedy, and humour. The plot is complex and intelligent. The whole thing is done very stylishly and has a nicely exotic feel to it. <i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i> is quite simply a superb movie. I saw it on TCM, but this is one that really deserves a DVD release.
The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
MikeBSG wrote:This film has a number of fine performances. I like Victor Francen as a retired spy who narrates the flashback in which Dimitrios ruins a government clerk who eventually committed suicide. Francen is so blase about the whole business that one almost forgets that he is talking about someone's life.
In Lorre's meeting with Francen, the master spy, says to the crime novelist - ( This may NOT to an exact quote )" In an assassination, or an assassination attempt, the most important thing to know is not who pulled the trigger, but who paid for the bullett ".
