Le masque de Dimitrios

It's wartime and Warners is short of those hot, young leading men, so they bring on one of the all-time great screen odd couples - Sydney and Peter - to work their magic. And as always, they deliver, in "The Mask of Dimitrios" starring Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Faye Emerson. Though never leaving the back lot of Warners, the film takes writer Cornelius Leyden (Lorre) through Istanbul, Athens, Sofia, Geneva, Belgrade and Paris, following the life and career of an intriguing figure - Dimitrios - whose dead body Leyden has just seen in the morgue. The more he learns about this man, the more fascinated he becomes, and he smells a great story. Dimitrios is a con man, a thief, a blackmailer, and a spy for hire, and his victims tell their stories in a series of flashbacks. One of these is a nightclub owner (Emerson), who owns a nightclub in Sofia; another is a police detective; another a spy. Finally, Cornelius meets Mr. Peters (Greenstreet) who has some startling information...and a plan.

"The Mask of Dimitrios" captures a European flavor with its international cast and creative sets, and director Jean Negulesco keeps the action moving. In the title role, Zachary Scott is appropriately both attractive and slithery as a man constantly eluding those out to get him. Lorre is just great, becoming more and more worried and confused as he is drawn deeper into Dimitrios' adventures. Sydney Greenstreet gives a performance as big as he is as Mr. Peters - the scene where he passionately embraces French francs is one of his best ever! The last half hour or so belong to these two screen gems, Lorre and Greenstreet, and it's very exciting.

Two odd-sized, talented character men who helped keep Warner Brothers grinding out films during the war, Lorre and Greenstreet made ten films together. Unfortunately, we don't have anything like these two making movies today. Don't miss them in "The Mask of Dimitrios."

Wonderful suspense film, with Lorre and Greenstreet, the Mutt and Jeff, of international intrigue, at the very top of their game, a great screen debut by Zachery Scott in the title role, and Victor Francen's very best performance in a minor but vital part. Atmosphere galore. -This- is the kind of film Warner Brothers did better than anyone else.

I saw this at the 2006 Palm Springs Film Noir Festival and it was a film I had never seen before so it was great to see on the big screen. This is the story of the search for the story behind a master criminal whose murdered body bearing his credentials has washed ashore in Istanbul. Dimitrios Makropouls is a criminal who made the leap from being a common street beggar petty thief to murder, robbery and on to racketeering, con man, blackmailer and to the international stage as political assassin and spy. A writer becomes interested in his story and sets out to investigate his background for a book. The story moves from Turkey across the Balkans and Yugoslavia and Bulgaria to Switzerland and France. Zachary Scott is in his film debut as Dimitrios. Peter Lorre is the writer. Sydney Greenstreet is a man of intrigue who doesn't believe that Dimitrios is really dead. Faye Emerson is Dimitrios' ex-girlfriend. Also in the cast are Victor Francen and Steven Geray. This was adapted to screen by Frank Gruber from the popular 1939 crime/thriller novel A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler. The story is set in pre WWII Europe in the year the book was published. This film marked the feature film directorial debut for Jean Negulesco who would go on to direct such films as Humoresque, johnny Belinda, Three Came home, How To Marry a Millionaire, Three Coins in the Fountain and the excellent segment The Last Leaf from O'Henrys Full House. The cinematographer is Arthur Edeson whose long career began in the early silents and was the director of photography on such films as All Quiet On the Western Front, Frankenstein, The Invisable Man, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. I liked the use of the Alberto Dominguez song Perfidia in the film by a Balkan band which was really scored by the Warner Brothers Orchestra as led by Jerome Moross. The now standard classic had been a hit for Glen Miller in 1941 and had showed up in four films already including Gene Autry's Stardust on Stage, Desi Arnez' Father Takes a Wife, Public Deb #1 and The Gay Sisters. This is a dialogue driven film and Lorre is a little stagy at times in his delivery but he has some great comic lines too and is great along with Sydney Greenstreet and they would be paired together in several films. Scott is a little wooden in his delivery. Emerson is outstanding as the young femme fatal/aged nightclub hostess. Great art direction from Ted Smith. I would give this an 8.5 out of 10.

A mystery writer (Peter Lorre) visiting Istanbul is told stories of a notorious criminal named Dimitrios (Zachary Scott) whose body was just found washed ashore on the beach. Intrigued by what he hears, he decides to investigate Dimitrios' life. Along the way he's joined by a mysterious man named Mr. Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), who had his own dealings with Dimitrios.

Intriguing noir thriller, directed by Jean Negulesco with a fine script adapted from an Eric Ambler novel. Most classic movie fans know any picture with Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet is bound to be good and this is one of their best. It's nice to see Lorre playing the 'hero' of the piece for once. Both men are in top form and their scenes together are excellent. Zachary Scott makes his film debut here and, for my money, it's one of his best roles. Faye Emerson and many other quality actors make up the supporting cast. It's a talky movie but that isn't necessarily a bad thing with a good cast and smart script like this. Definitely worth your time.

The Mask of Dimitrios is an adaptation of Eric Ambler's novel A Coffin for Dimitrios directed by Rumanian-American director Jean Negulescu. A corpse of a man is found washed up on a sea shore somewhere in Bulgaria, which apparently is of Dimitrios Makropoulos, a sought after by the police of various European countries notorious criminal. A fiction writer Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) gets interested in Dimitrios' story and decides to conduct an investigation about his life and death with the intent of writing a book about it. In order to do that he begins a journey through Europe, following the trail of Dimitrios activities, which begins in Istambul and ends in Paris.

On the way he is joined by a mysterious stranger Mr. Peters (Sydney Greenstreet) who, as it turns out to be, has the same mission of finding out about Dimitrios' life, but whose motivations are quite different.

A good but little seen Film-Noir classic. 8/10