The Mask of Dimitrios

1944
Approved
1h 35m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

4.2K

YOUR RATING

Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Faye Emerson, and Zachary Scott in The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)

Mystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued when the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.

Play trailer2:19

1 Video

28 Photos

Film Noir Crime Drama Mystery

Mystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued after the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.Mystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued after the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.Mystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued after the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

4.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins total

Videos1

Trailer 2:19

Official Trailer

Photos28

+ 22

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The poor little bureaucrat Herr Bulic is tricked into gambling by Dimitrios. Herr Bulic buys his beautiful wife an evening dress to wear to the Casino. The dress is a two-piece with a long black skirt and a long sleeve top covered in bugle beads. Except for a black velvet bow at the cleavage, it is identical to the one worn by Yvonne in "Casablanca" where she tells Rick "What a fool I was to fall for a man like you!"

Goofs
When Professor Leyden is in the cafe with the journalist inquiring about Dimitrios to the proprietress, at one point the band plays an instrumental version of the song Perfidia. This scene in the story takes place in 1938 as evidenced by the recent invitation to a party sent by Madame Chavez a few days before. The song, however, was published in 1939 and it became a hit in 1940, Therefore, the band is playing a song that didn't exist yet.

Quotes
Colonel Haki: But to me the most important thing to know about an assassination is not who fired a shot - but who paid for the bullet!

Crazy credits
Foreword: For money, some men will allow the innocent to hang. They will turn traitor....they will lie, cheat, steal...they will kill. They appear brilliant, charming, generous! But they are deadly. Such a man was Dimitrios.

Alternate versions
Also available in a computer colorized version.

Connections
Featured in Frightful Movie: The Mask of Dimitrios (1968)

Soundtracks
Waltz
(uncredited)
from "Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48"
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Played by the chamber orchestra during the party

User reviews74

Featured review

Not The Maltese Falcon, but still a remarkable Film-Noir classic

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