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.
Review of The Mask of Dimitrios
