This well-written mystery thriller features exotic locations, shady-looking characters and an extraordinary villain whose exploits are gradually revealed through a series of flashbacks. The mood is dark, the pace is brisk and there's also plenty of witty repartee to enjoy. Criminality, espionage and betrayals all figure strongly and the unclear motives of some of the characters add enormously to all the intrigue involved.
During a vacation in Istanbul in 1938, Dutch crime writer Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) is approached local Police Chief, Colonel Haki (Kurt Katch), who says that he's a great fan of the author's books and thinks that he may be interested to hear about a criminal that the Turkish police had pursued unsuccessfully for many years and whose dead body had been found earlier that day, on a nearby beach. Leyden listens with interest as Haki tells him about Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott) who was a murderer, smuggler and blackmailer as well as being involved in espionage, an assassination attempt and numerous betrayals of people who were close to him.
Having heard Haki's story, Leyden becomes convinced that Dimitrios would make a marvellous subject for his next book and decides to carry out his research by visiting a number of European cities and talking to various people who may be able to tell him more about the criminal and his crimes. On a train journey to Sofia, Leyden meets a friendly fellow traveller called Mr Peters (Sydney Greenstreet) and later, visits a nightclub in the city where its owner Irana Preveza (Fay Emerson) tells him how she gave Dimitrios (who was then her lover) a false alibi when the authorities were investigating an attempted political assassination and also how he had repaid her by loyalty by relieving her of a large sum of money before permanently disappearing out of her life. After having booked into a local hotel, Leyden is shocked when he goes to his room and finds that it has been ransacked by Peters who holds a gun on him and demands to know what his interest is in Dimitrios. After some further conversation, Peters becomes less threatening and offers to help Leyden to find the information he needs.
In a later interview in Geneva, former master spy Wladislaw Grodek (Victor Francen) describes the circumstances under which Dimitrios suckered a timid government clerk into running up huge gambling debts so that he could blackmail him into stealing some top secret charts of a number of minefields. Having succeeded in this endeavour, which led to the clerk committing suicide, Dimitrios then double-crossed Grodek and stole the charts so that he could sell them on to the highest bidder. When it emerges that Peters had a closer connection to Dimitrios than Leyden had realised and that he's got a blackmail scheme of his own in mind, Leyden has to find a way to navigate himself out of the dangerous waters that he's entered through no fault of his own.
Everyone who knew Dimitrios considered him to be thoroughly despicable as he left one of his partners-in-crime to be hanged and another to spend time in prison. He used, dumped and stole from one of his lovers, double-crossed numerous people who placed their trust in him and frequently used his ability to appear charming and generous for his own criminal ends. As this character, Zackary Scott, in his first screen role, is faultless as he looks suitably suave and slimy and brings to life all of the notorious criminal's qualities extremely convincingly.
Fay Emerson is especially effective in portraying the profound sense of disillusion that Irana Preveza feels as she tells her story that's so appropriately accompanied by the sound of a band playing "Perfidia" and the combined talents of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet are simply terrific. These two men are real character actors who clearly have a great rapport and also a great capacity to always appear to be entirely natural.
With its low-key lighting, numerous shadowy locations and top-class camera-work, this movie, as well as being thoroughly entertaining, succeeds strongly in visually reinforcing the ominous atmosphere that's a feature of the action from start to finish.
During a vacation in Istanbul in 1938, Dutch crime writer Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) is approached local Police Chief, Colonel Haki (Kurt Katch), who says that he's a great fan of the author's books and thinks that he may be interested to hear about a criminal that the Turkish police had pursued unsuccessfully for many years and whose dead body had been found earlier that day, on a nearby beach. Leyden listens with interest as Haki tells him about Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott) who was a murderer, smuggler and blackmailer as well as being involved in espionage, an assassination attempt and numerous betrayals of people who were close to him.
Having heard Haki's story, Leyden becomes convinced that Dimitrios would make a marvellous subject for his next book and decides to carry out his research by visiting a number of European cities and talking to various people who may be able to tell him more about the criminal and his crimes. On a train journey to Sofia, Leyden meets a friendly fellow traveller called Mr Peters (Sydney Greenstreet) and later, visits a nightclub in the city where its owner Irana Preveza (Fay Emerson) tells him how she gave Dimitrios (who was then her lover) a false alibi when the authorities were investigating an attempted political assassination and also how he had repaid her by loyalty by relieving her of a large sum of money before permanently disappearing out of her life. After having booked into a local hotel, Leyden is shocked when he goes to his room and finds that it has been ransacked by Peters who holds a gun on him and demands to know what his interest is in Dimitrios. After some further conversation, Peters becomes less threatening and offers to help Leyden to find the information he needs.
In a later interview in Geneva, former master spy Wladislaw Grodek (Victor Francen) describes the circumstances under which Dimitrios suckered a timid government clerk into running up huge gambling debts so that he could blackmail him into stealing some top secret charts of a number of minefields. Having succeeded in this endeavour, which led to the clerk committing suicide, Dimitrios then double-crossed Grodek and stole the charts so that he could sell them on to the highest bidder. When it emerges that Peters had a closer connection to Dimitrios than Leyden had realised and that he's got a blackmail scheme of his own in mind, Leyden has to find a way to navigate himself out of the dangerous waters that he's entered through no fault of his own.
Everyone who knew Dimitrios considered him to be thoroughly despicable as he left one of his partners-in-crime to be hanged and another to spend time in prison. He used, dumped and stole from one of his lovers, double-crossed numerous people who placed their trust in him and frequently used his ability to appear charming and generous for his own criminal ends. As this character, Zackary Scott, in his first screen role, is faultless as he looks suitably suave and slimy and brings to life all of the notorious criminal's qualities extremely convincingly.
Fay Emerson is especially effective in portraying the profound sense of disillusion that Irana Preveza feels as she tells her story that's so appropriately accompanied by the sound of a band playing "Perfidia" and the combined talents of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet are simply terrific. These two men are real character actors who clearly have a great rapport and also a great capacity to always appear to be entirely natural.
With its low-key lighting, numerous shadowy locations and top-class camera-work, this movie, as well as being thoroughly entertaining, succeeds strongly in visually reinforcing the ominous atmosphere that's a feature of the action from start to finish.