User Reviews

This character was not a nice guy. A sociopath with a capital S. I can't imagine spies being this bad. This guy is just one of those in life you throw on the scrap heap and forget about him.

Peter Lorre plays a detective story writer visiting a party when he happens on a local cop who mentions he's a fan of his work. He also mentions the recent death of a super spy...Dimitrios. He proceeds to tell him what he knows about Dimitrios. Lorre gets very intrigued about this character and decides it will make a great new story. Along the way he runs into Dimitrios' acquaintances and enemies. Syndey Greenstreet being one of them. With this we follow through to every European locale to learn more about this elusive Greek Euro spy.

I really enjoyed this little crime gem. It has all the earmarks as other films of its time. It has a similar feel to Maltese Falcon and a few other films. The crux of this character is you only learn about him through others recollections. Nobody really knows him except a select few. He's almost a myth. He has the mystique and mystery of Keyser Soze and the absolute sociopathic tendencies of Harry Lyme. This was a full 6 years before the Third Man to. Dimitrios is a seriously loathsome character.

I think any who enjoyed The Maltese Falcon will indeed dig this one. Peter Lorre was pigeon-holed into these types of characters but there was a reason for it...he was perfect at em. It's easy to see why so many people liked this little guy. He's intriguing and you feel for him because of his stature...but don't be fooled. He's no pushover.

A fine little crime film worth seeing more than once.

A thriller evocative of 40's Film-Noir based on an Eric Ambler novel. The lifeless body of a notorious master criminal Dimitrios Makropoulos(Zachary Scott)washes up on the beach and a Dutch mystery writer Cornelius Leyden(Peter Lorre)becomes obsessed with the character. An undercover police Colonel Haki(Kurt Katch)fuels Leyden's fascination enough that he begins researching the life of Makropoulos, who's dossier includes robbery, blackmail, smuggling, false pretense, murder and even political assassination. By hook, crook, bullet or blade, the deed was done.

Supporting cast includes: Sydney Greenstreet, Victor Francen, Florence Bates, Monte Blue and a very small role for Faye Emerson. Kudos to Adolph Deutsch for the haunting soundtrack. Lorre and Greenstreet, as usual are superb. Scott makes his debut and is very convincing. Of note is Emerson, who just married the son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Because of the shadow of Graham Greene, Eric Ambler was prevented from being fully recognized by the public for the great novelist he was. Greene's themes on sins and redemption, and his heavy Catholicism, made him the favorite of serious critics. Only lovers of spy novels fully appreciated Ambler's ironic tales. Of his first five novels the best one was A COFFIN FOR DEMETRIOS (1940). It is the basis for THE MASK OF DEMETRIOS (1944).

Ambler was quick to notice the realities of the European world in fiction. In one of his novels he includes an introduction about the history of the spy novel, and mentions only three or four predecessors (one of whom is Joseph Conrad - for THE SECRET AGENT). The 1920s and 1930s saw a Europe in turmoil with five major powers either drifting (England and France) or in the grips of dictatorships (Germany, Italy, Russia). The Balkans (and Eastern Europe) were in the hands of minor dictators, who were jockying for positions among themselves. It was a fit area for fictional development.

In THE MASK OF DEMETRIOS Ambler dealt with the career of a truly evil character (based somewhat on the career of munitions kingpin Sir Basil Zaharoff). Demetrios Makroupoulos is dead when the movie begins, when his body washes up on the coast near Istanbul. A novelist named Leyden is at a party where he meets Col. Haki, head of the Turkish police. Haki tells him about the recently deceased Demetrios. Leyden decides to do a biography, and goes across Europe discovering how Demetrios began by killing a money-lender in Smyrna, and leaving a trail to his inebriated confederate/patsy (who gets hanged); got involved as a political assassin for hire in Bulgaria (using a woman named Sonia, and discarding her); getting involved in international spy-rings in Belgrade (and double-crossing his partners); and getting into the international drug trade in Marseilles. He is assisted in this by a Mr. Peters, who turns out to be a Mr. Peterson who was one of the drug ring betrayed by Demetrios. Peterson has tracked down Demetrios to Paris - the dead man in Istanbul was just another victim of his, used as a decoy. Peterson and Van Leyden confront Demetrios and are paid a sum of money to keep quiet. But he has found their hide-out, and surprises them there, shooting Peterson. But Peterson manages to turn the tables on Demetrios, and kills him (finally and fully).

The film makes the most of a grand cast of character actors led by Greenstreet as Peters/Peterson, Lorre as Van Leyden, and Scott as Demetrios. Stephen Geray, as a stooge of a clerk who is blackmailed into betraying Yugoslavian secrets,is the most sympathetic character. Victor Francken has an amusing bit as a retired spymaster in Geneva, who was involved in the Belgrade affair (Eduardo Cianelli was also involved), and who explains he spends his retirement working on a biography of St. Francis of Assisi, which he fully hopes he doesn't complete. The story manages to mingle true history with fiction: the assassination attempt involving Demetrios was an attempt on the life of Stambouliski, the agrarian radical Premier of Bulgaria who finally was assassinated in 1923. Unlike other Warner films using flashbacks ( PASSAGE TO MARSEILLES comes to mind as a horrible example), they were used properly here. Jean Negulesco, a fine director, did well with Greenstreet and Lorre here, and would have a good second chance at it in THREE STRANGERS in a year.

But while the film is an excellent example of a spy noir, it does not do the novel full justice for the extent of it's irony. As I mentioned above, Demetrios is supposed to be based on Zaharoff, who raised himself from the slums of the Balkans to immense wealth and influence (supposedly as a bad influence - he would encourage war because of his munitions interests), and finally to a title. In the novel, nobody Demetrios Makroupoulos rises step by step to the post of a director of a French cartel bank in Paris, which has financed many of the evil crimes that he has been involved in. Now Monsiur M. is a supposedly respectable upper-class figure. His interest in silencing Peters and Van Leyden is really to avoid any type of revelation that will cost him his hard won respectability.

In the movie, Peters (with Van Leyden's help) turns the table on Demetrios, and we finally see the craven creep that is behind this evil man - just before he dies. Peters is arrested, but he is satisfied that he did rid the world of Demetrios. But in the novel Peters/Peterson dies too, but in killing Demetrios he has destroyed his face, making identification impossible. The papers refer to the dead man as unknown (and we realize the cartel bank will not make an effort to identify it's missing director - they will probably make up a story that the latter has retired). The final irony of the story is that the real Demetrios Makroupoulos, having killed and hurt his way to fortune will end up buried in an anonymous grave.

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.

Wasn't this a pleasant surprise! I adore "The Maltese Falcon" so "The Mask of Dimitrios" was essential viewing since I love both Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet. Dimitrios (as portrayed by the wooden, but dashing, Zachary Scott) is a murderer, thief, scoundrel, spy, turncoat, double-crosser, predator, and manipulator who preys on the weaknesses of others to further benefit his own means. Lorre portrays a detective novelist who has a particular interest in the life of Dimitrios, his stabbed, very dead, body found washed ashore (or we assume is his body, since the coat the corpse wears has a French identification card with Dimitrios' name), after seeing the corpse for himself thanks to a fan of his books, an inspector who takes him to the morgue. Greenstreet takes a peculiar interest in Lorre's activities, the two eventually "joining forces" to participate in the potential novelization of Dimitrios' career/life of crime. But Greenstreet's motives are complex which could drag Lorre into a dangerous situation. I just enjoyed the compelling complications and twists that arise as the story unfolds in regards to all the lives destroyed by Dimitrios, a really evil and crafty criminal who goes from a ragged, impoverished petty thief/murderer to a sophisticated, well-groomed, debonair master of disguise. We see how slick and charming Dimitrios is as he convinces victims to aid him in what seem like innocent partnerships, only to stab them in the back, take their pride, and leave their lives shattered into pieces (one poor schlep is taken for all that he's worth, is duped by a successful con into gambling away money he thought was legitimately his through a business venture, forced into betraying his country, eventually committing suicide—this is the kind of life that is reduced to shambles thanks to the malevolence of Dimitrios) in flashbacks told through various victims Lorre interviews. But Greenstreet drags Lorre into a far more perilous plot including blackmail and the revelation that his eyes were perhaps deceived (again, was or was not Dimitrios the man on that morgue slab?).

I think just viewing the film for Greenstreet and Lorre's many scenes together is reason enough to see "The Mask of Dimitrios". I think they have a magic in both presentation and dialogue; they simply just work well off each other and their scenes have a sense of realism in how they communicate one to another. While movies about a character told in flashback don't necessarily always excite me, I think it works in this case because Zachary Scott is a rather boring actor (to me anyway) and seeing him in small doses helps the film. I prefer the structure of this film as other far more interesting actors (like Victor Francen, a charismatic rich heel who has a huge mansion and charming air about him, as Wladislaw Grudek) tell of how Dimitrios betrayed them. Following the downfall of Steven Geray's Karel Bulic, a timid, meek, naïve fellow who is perfect fodder for Dimitrios' kind of villain, was painful to watch for me. Quite simply, Dimitrios is a disease that infects anyone who comes into his orbit. I will say that you must prepare for a dialogue-heavy movie, because "The Mask of Dimitrios" is built around plot developments and characterization—I think, though, if you are not intimidated by this you are in for a rewarding experience. This is a MUST-SEE for Lorre fans as he is the star, not Scott, and approaches his character as one of an innocent, logical, practical man just trying to place a history behind a subject he's morbidly fascinated in. He's innocent because Lorre doesn't like this man in the least and when he actually abruptly halts his own murder, crying "You cannot continue to go around murdering people!" it proves that this guy's unmoral, reprehensible behavior must come to an end (which is where Greenstreet earns top honors as a hero, a criminal for sure, but someone who has been waiting a long time to confront the man who has caused him such heartbreak).

After several supporting pairings in such Warner Brothers classics as "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca", character actors Peter Lorre and Sydney Grenstreet were given their own series, basically a sinister variation of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's "Road" movies, taking them to exotic locations with calculating and sometimes confusing plots. Here, they are total strangers who encounter each other on a train and end up in a story of espionage, betrayal and greed where the Dimitrios of the plot is an apparent corpse at the very beginning of the film whom Lorre wishes to write a mystery story about. Through convoluted flashbacks, Dimitrios's amoral character is explored and Lorre learns through Greenstreet (sometimes at gunpoint!) of why so many people were interested in him.

At first, Greenstreet and Lorre seem to be on the outside of the plot looking in as various shady characters pop in and out of the film, involved with the mysterious dead man. Most interestingly involved in his life were Faye Emerson as the world-weary café hostess and gullible government worker Victor Francen who became a victim of blackmail thanks to Dimitrios's manipulation. When Dimitrios does appear (played by Zachary Scott), the film strikes a brief spark of interest, his agenda hidden through his down and out appearance which only comes to surface when he re-emerges to pay a debt to Emerson with great financial interest.

Like another 1944 Warner Brothers adventure, "A Passage to Marsaille", the structure moves in and out of the present at the beginning of the film to the past with confusing detail. Lorre and Greenstreet seem to have no point to keep reconnecting the way they do, and why Lorre would put up with the somewhat obnoxious Greenstreet beyond their initial meeting makes no sense. While Lorre is presented as an intelligent simpleton, the overly cheery Greenstreet talks so much (spouting philosophies which you know he abhors), that you long for him to either be quickly killed off or for Lorre to break down and demand that he shut up.

When the convoluted details of the first 3/4 of the film come together for a final confrontation between evil and evil, you might, just as I did, think "I sat through all of that for this?" Yet, this is a film which in some circles is considered a small masterpiece, but having tried three times to understand why, I have to come to the conclusion that for myself, the third viewing was not the charm.