The Mask of Dimitrios

Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) is a mystery writer on vacation in Turkey. He happens to meet a Turkish colonel who is a big fan of his work on the night that a body with an identity card saying Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott.) The colonel has crossed paths, obliquely, with Dimitrios in the past, and as he tells Leyden about him, the writer becomes intrigued by this character. Leyden begins tracing Dimitrios' history, taking him across Europe to speak with others who had the misfortune to meet Dimitrios.

In the middle of this, he's approached by Mr. Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), who is also a past associate of Dimitrios, and very interested in whether the man is actually dead, though he's circumspect about why. He assures Leyden there's 500,000 francs in it for him if he comes to Paris.

The structure of the repeated flashbacks to Dimtrios' past remind me a bit of Citizen Kane. Except, where those flashbacks seemed to reveal different facets of the man, all these flashbacks reveal the same thing. Dimitrios is a conman, a user. He makes promises, plays on people's kindness, then takes off, leaving their lives in ruins. This plays out again, and again, and again. By the time - SPOILER! - that Dimitrios turns up alive and well, the audience entirely understands the reactions of both Leyden and Peters to him.

The moment where Peters first gets to confront him is some beautiful work by Greenstreet. Up to this point, he's been this jovial guy, always going on about the amount of kindness in the world, or the lack thereof. He and Lorre have this wonderful back-and-forth, where Lorre is alternately amused and baffled by Peters. The moment Dimitrios enters the room, Peters' entire demeanor changes. Nothing in his voice, but the way he sits, leaned forward slightly. The shadows under his eyes get heavier, and there's this tension that runs through him, like a dog that feels threatened.

When things go haywire, Lynden erupts. This whole thing has been like a game to him, but confronted with Dimitrios' continued indifference to the suffering he causes, he just can't deal with it. He writes about evil characters, but confronted with one in real life, he can only feel disgust and rage.

Anyway, it's a fun little movie.