In this low-budget thriller, Peter Lorre plays Janos Szabo, an immigrant from Hungary who is a skilled craftsman. After he's caught in a fire, his face is horribly scarred; his terrifying appearance makes it impossible for him to get a job. With nowhere else to turn, Janos begins working for the criminal underworld. Janos begins having second thoughts about his life of crime when he falls in love.
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Instant Favorite.
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
This is a low-budget movie... very short. It could've been trite or stupid or dull; however, the acting of Peter Lorre can turn a bad idea into an effective movie.And, that was the case with this movie. He starts the movie as an optimistic immigrant just arrived in America. An accident changes him into something different. Something hard and formidable. He becomes a criminal mastermind.No crimes are actually shown (probably due to the budget). Most of them are alluded to or shown as being planned. The change in the main character's personality makes this movie. The fact that he is wearing a mask that looks kind of like his pre-burned self, makes the movie a little disturbing.Lorre's character redeems himself in the most vengeful way possible. The ending was so abrupt, the last actor with lines was almost cut off mid-sentence.I recommend this movie...
When I first started really collecting movies, back in the day of Beta and VHS tapes, I managed to tape a short movie that was long forgotten. I think it was actually on Cinemax at the time.The movie is not even 90 minutes long, but this little movie has been one of my favorite movies all these years. The Face Behind the Mask is a minor B-movie crime-drama released by Columbia Pictures in 1941. It starred Peter Lorre and Evelyn Keyes and was directed by Robert Florey and Wallace MacDonald. To date, it has never been released on DVD or video.Based on the radio play by Thomas Edward O'Connell, The Face Behind the Mask was not a film that Lorre held in high esteem. His co-star Don Beddoe, who plays the police officer who befriends Janos in the film, once said, "I don't think Peter was very much impressed with The Face Behind the Mask. His other successes, such as M, made him pretty blasé about this particular venture." The film is the story of a hopeful new immigrant, Janos Szaby (Peter Lorre), who, on his first day in New York City, is trapped in a hotel fire that leaves his face hideously scarred. Refused employment due to his appearance although he possesses tremendous skill as a watchmaker, the only way he can survive is by turning to theft, using his skilled hands to disable alarms. Eventually he becomes the leader of a gang of thieves, and raises enough money to commission and wear a realistic latex mask of his own face.Janos then falls in love with Helen (Evelyn Keyes) a blind woman who sees only the good in him, and attempts to leave his life of crime behind him. Unfortunately, his gang come to believe that he has betrayed them to the police, and attempt to kill him by car bomb, an attempt on his life that he survives but that Helen does not. In retaliation, Janos disguises himself as the pilot of the private plane the gang is flying out of the city with, which he lands in the Arizona Desert and lets out the fuel, suicidally stranding both the gang and himself without food or water, dooming them all to a slow death. At the film's end, Janos's body and that of his enemies are discovered by the police. The climax, set in a desolate stretch of desert with Janos tied to an abandoned plane, is a bleak counterpoint to the immigrant's hopeful beginnings. More than anything, The Face Behind the Mask is a vision of the American dream gone horribly wrong but under the artful direction of Robert Florey along with Franz F. Planer's atmospheric cinematography and Lorre's sensitive performance, it becomes a rich, multi-layered character study, a gem among the Columbia Pictures programmers of the forties.If you are a fan of Peter Lorre or the understated performances of Evelyn Keyes, then I recommend The Face Behind The Mask. This movie deserves to be remembered and preserved on DVD. I was lucky to catch an airing of the forgotten film on TCM, and my copy is one of my prized possessions in my movie collection. This fine character study is not one that should be missed...
In the same year Peter Lorre did The Maltese Falcon over at Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures had him starring in The Face Behind The Mask. In his career Lorre was far better known for the supporting parts he played to big Hollywood marquee names. After his starring roles in German cinema in Fritz Lang's M and as Mr. Moto, Lorre was rarely the lead name in the cast. This interesting B film, The Face Behind The Mask is a glorious exception.It's too bad that Columbia didn't put more production values into this film because Lorre has one interesting part. The film is a combination of Phantom Of The Opera and Little Caesar. Lorre first appears to us as an eager immigrant from Hungary, one of the few times he played his own nationality. He's looking to get his piece of the American dream as so many were back in the day. On a tip from friendly policeman Don Beddoe, Lorre takes lodging in a cheap rooming house and that very first night the place catches on fire and his face is burned horribly.Disfigured as he is Lorre can't find legitimate work, but he's got certain skills that the criminal profession can use and with the aid of a temporary mask he takes charge like Edward G. Robinson did of an existing criminal gang. George E. Stone plays the same kind of role in The Face Behind The Mask as he did in Little Caesar.Lorre also in maybe the only time in his film career gets a leading lady of sorts in the person of Evelyn Keyes. Evelyn plays a blind girl who can't see his disfigurement and she falls for him. It all ends badly, but not through any doing of Lorre's.The Face Behind The Mask is a routine B programmer without a lot of production values invested, but the idea behind the film is an interesting one and Lorre pulls it off beautifully in his acting.And who would ever have Peter Lorre would get the girl in any film, even temporarily.
This film stars Peter Lorre as an exceptionally nice guy who immigrates to America. Unfortunately, shortly after his arrival, he's in a horrible fire and his face is horribly burned. Because he looks so awful, no one wants to hire him and out of sheer desperation, he resorts to a life of crime in order to earn the money needed to buy a mask to hide his ugliness. Where exactly the film goes from there, you'll just need to see for yourself.I scored this movie an 8 because, for the money spent to make it, it's a heck of a good film with a lot of good twists in the plot to keep it interesting. The film could have degenerated into a simple horror or crime film, but it goes far beyond this an offers some genuine surprises. In addition, the excellent acting by Lorre shows that he was capable of more than just supporting roles. This is an excellent film and delivers more than most "A-pictures" of the day.