The Mask of Dimetrios

 

(1948)
Directed by Jean Negulesco
Written by Frank Gruber from a novel by Eric Ambler
Starring Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Kurt Katch, Steven Geray
IMDB Entry

Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are the 1940s great teaming. From The Maltese Falcon onward, they could be depended upon to play ne'er-do-wells and criminals.  The Mask of Demetrios is another excellent pairing.

Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) is a mystery writer visiting Istanbul when a local police officer, Colonel Haki (Kurt Katch) tells him about a body recently retrieved from the sea. The body is identified as Dimitrios Makropoulos and Haki talks about the man's criminal exploits and invites Leyden to see the corpse. Intrigued, Leyden goes to track down Demetrios's history, talking to Irana Preveze (Faye Emerson), who recounts her affair with him, where he manipulated her for his own ends as an assassin.

Leyden travels to Sofia to find out more, and finds himself sharing a compartment with Mr. Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), a genial traveling companion. But later, Leyden discovers Peters ransacking his hotel room. Leyden wants something from Dimitrios and, at first thinks Leyden knows him. Eventually, the two join forces, Leyden for the story, Peters for money Dimitrios owes him.

They learn about another of Demetrios's schemes to steal secret plans, which leads to the suicide of the man who Demetrios ropes into the scheme. Eventually, they discover Demetrios faked his death* and that he's just as dangerous as ever.

This is Greenstreet at his best -- jovial, cheerful, and with a touch of the sinister. Lorre is also great as the meek but curious author. Steven Geray is memorable as the man caught in Demetrios's machinations. Zachary Scott, in his first film role, is great playing the charming snake.

The movie reminded me a bit of The Usual Suspects. Demetrios is no Keyser Soze, but is a tamer version of the same type of amoral character.

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*Viewers might expect this. 

Crook's Tour

 

(1940)
Directed by John Baxter
Written by Barbara K. Emery, Max Kester, John Watt
Starring Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Greta Gynt
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I wouldn't exactly call Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as comedy team. More like comic relief. They appeared in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes as a couple of silly British tourists obsessed with cricket scores over anything else. They were so effective there that the appeared in several films playing the same characters. Crook's Tour is one of these.

Charters (Basil Radford) and Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) are traveling in the the middle east. Eventually, the end up in Baghdad and are mistaken for spies. La Palermo (Greta Gynt), a cafe singer, hands them a record with secret information. When the real spies show up, they go after the two. After some miraculous good luck, they discover the secret and that La Palermo is a double agent for the British. 

The movie never rises above silliness. The spy plot is contrived and the way they get mistaken for the real agents makes little sense for a secret organization. Still, Charters and Caldicott are often funny and, if the jokes are telegraphed, well, it's all par for the course.  

Some of the funnier moments are when they encounter an Arab sheik and discover not only does he speak English, but went to the same UK school as the two.  But, though the sequence is amusing, it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot; everything in it is of no consequence.  Another good scene (with plot implications), is their reaction when a fellow Briton (supposedly) does not follow cricket, as though they can't conceive of the idea.

This was originally a series of radio plays.

They Drive by Night

 

(1938)
Directed by Arthur B. Woods
Written by Paul Gangelin, Derek Twist, screenplay by James Curtis from his novel.
Starring Emlyn Williams, Anna Konstam, Ernest Thesiger
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No, this isn't the buddy film starring Humphrey Bogart and George Raft, but rather a British film from a couple of years earlier.

They Drive by Night was what one of what was termed a "quota quickies." In order to support the UK film industry, the government passed laws to require a certain amount of films to be made in the UK, with a mostly UK cast and a UK screenwriter. The result were often cheaply made films. many of which never made it across the pond.

In this, Shorty Mathews (Emlyn Williams) has just been released from prison. When he goes to see and old girlfriend of his, he finds her murdered in her rooming house.  Fearing he will be arrested, he leaves London on a bus and gets involve working as a lorry driver.  But after meeting another old girlfriend, Molly O'Neill (Anna Konstam), he decides to return to London to find the killer.  Meanwhile, Walter Hoover (Ernest Thesiger) believes in his innocence. 

The acting is serviceable, and Williams is good as a man falsely accused. There are the hints of Hitchcock, most notably in The Thirty-Nine Steps, but clearly this is not in the same class. It's also not up to the Bogart and Raft American film.

The most familiar name in the cast is Ernest Theisinger, who played Dr. Pretorius in The Bride of Frankenstein. He actually seems to be younger that he appeared there. Fans of Doctor Who might spot William Hartnell as a bus conductor who takes pity on Shorty.

While the film is far from a classic, it's still a nice bit of entertainment.

Murder!

 

(1930)
Directed by Alfred Hithcock
Written by Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville, Edward Chapman, from a book by Clemence Dare and Helen Simpson
Starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring
IMDB Entry

I'm a big fan of Hitchcock and seen most of his films. Some of his earlier ones are interesting not just for their story, but as a way to see how he developed as a director. Murder! was his third sound film and shows how he was feeling his way as a director.

Diana Baring (Norah Baring) is a member of a theater company, and is found sitting by the body of another actress, Edna Druce, killed by a fireplace poker* lying at the floor. dazed and not knowing what had happened. She is tried for the murder. When the jury deliberates, Sir John Menier (Herberg Marshall) is reluctant to declare  her guilty, but is finally persuaded to condemn her.  Menier, the manager of a theatrical troupe, regrets his change of mind and, while Diana is waiting for the noose, decides to meet her, and feels it unlikely she killed Edna. He starts to investigate, to find evidence of the real murderer.

The story is more a traditional whodunnit than an exercise in suspense. Menier searches out the clues, with some dead ends, until he finds the culprit, but, unusually for this type of film, the killer does not immediately confess when confronted with the evidence.

There also is little suspense, though Hitchcock shows how to do it as he juxtaposes Diana in her cell with the noose that awaits her.**

The acting is serviceable, though very much of its time. 

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*Fireplace pokers are the third leading cause of death in old movies, after guns and strangulation.

**And a noose figures in the final resolution.

Murder by Decree

 

(1979)
Directed by Bob Clark
Screenplay by John Hopkins
Starring Christopher Plummer, James Mason, David Hemmings, Frank Finlay, Anthony Quayle, Donald Sutherland, Genevieve Bujold, John Gielgud
IMDB Entry

Bob Clark directed one genuine movie classic:  A Christmas Story. But before that, he was trying to find his place in Hollywood and he went to a perennial movie character: Sherlock Holmes. The result was Murder by Decree.

We meet Holmes (Christopher Plummer) and Watson (James Mason), who are called in by the police (a tad reluctantly) to solve the Whitechapel murders (i.e., the  Jack the Ripper case). Several prostitutes have been killed and Holmes senses something in it that more than just a madman. The fact that the police have destroyed evidence makes it seem fishy. The key to the case is Annie Crook (Genevieve Bujold) who is very difficult to track down, though Holmes finds her in a mental institution.

The murders turn out to be a plot that has reaches into the highest part of British government.

This has been common grounds for mysteries linking Holmes to the Ripper and some have speculated that one of the princes might actually have been the killer. 

I did find the ending just too much exposition, and, really, there is no reason to murder the victims.* But the cast is stacked with some of the top British actors of the time and it's fun to watch them work. Genevieve Bujold is especially good as Annie, who was caught up in the machinations and driven to madness.

Milestone: This is my 900th post.

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*(highlight to reveal) One of the victims has had a baby from a royal prince, but it wouldn't be the first time someone on the throne had illegitimate children, and it would at most be an embarrassment, not a threat.