1941: Face Behind The Mask, The (64)

What else happened this year? Oh, just a little thing called the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Basically anything from the early 1940s is war.

What is the plot - in one sentence? An earnest recently emigrant to New York suffers a bunch of setbacks and finds himself the leader of a master gang of criminals.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He tries to give up the life of crime, they turn on him, and he sets about righting some wrongs and killing the gang members. He does, dying in the process.

What is the meaning of the title? He's severely burned early on, and turns to crime to fund the purchase of a mask and eventual plastic surgery. Incidentally, the mask is the creepiest thing you've ever seen, making Peter Lorre even creepier than you'd ever imagine. The title also has a metaphorical meaning too, as he's caught between his crime life and his honest life.

This is him with the mask on, the tux gives a bit of class, the mask brings nightmares.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? This movies 'one woman' (and how often is there only a single female of substance in a movie?) is blind (another recurring theme) and she's treated well, shown to be clever, pretty and funny, and is killed in a car bombing (along with her dog!) - in a move that I didn't see coming.

We're told that his character is both a technical genius, and that he's been in (what we can presume) the German army for a few years. As it's 1941, it might be that fact, and not just his scarred face, that means he keeps getting rejected for jobs before he turns to crime, which we're told about his prowess but not really shown.

Any thoughts? The man behind the mask is Peter Lorre, who plays: an earnest immigrant, a man turned to crime in desperation, a confident and tough criminal gang leader, a love interest and a plotting vengeance taker within this, oh, 80 minute movie. It's pretty effective.

He's burned in a fire in the hotel (on his first day in America!) and is bandaged for a time. When he's unbandaged by doctors, his reaction shot where he screams and writhes around in fury and fear, and nurses faint and shriek, was obviously a big influence on that shot in the first Batman movie where the Joker is first... unveiled.

At the end, the three surviving gang members are abandoned in the desert, and decide to go three different ways to find help, but all die, seems like something I've seen, but I'm going to say that it first happened here. It seems this was a pretty influential movie, both in terms of scenes and in terms of the vibe.

He's tricked the gang into getting there, and arranged to have a reward sent to his friends poverty-stricken mother. It's quite surprising that all of the gang are dismissed as dead, before our main man in the mask is declared it too. This declaration is made by the same policeman that Peter Lorre met on the first day in America, who recommended him the hotel in which he was burned, then later searches in vain for him and his criminal gang, and is there at the end to identify the dead. Without knowing it, those two had a real relationship throughout the movie. All resolved, the movie ends. just dead.

Would you recommend this? Now I think of it, it's a pretty bleak thing. All of his friends dead, along with himself and his gang members who betrayed him, and he was just looking for a new life and honest employment. Anyway, this is a weird, influential, brief, cleverly done movie. I'll recommend it.

Final thoughts? The love interest of the movie is pretty and blind, and this has happened very freuqnely in this series. I'll have to do a ranking of them when I'm done. Anyway, because she's blind, she can see the inner beauty of our burned hero, until she's killed. When they first meet, she mentions that she can't afford a guide-dog, which I would have thought was pretty cheap even at the time. If not, it would certainly be worth paying a big to avoid bumping into people constantly.  

Is there a euphemism and analogy there within the larger story? The death of the self when you immigrate? In the name of arty pretentiousness, let's say yes.

AT the beginning there's a poor little guy who's a criminal who remains loyal to Peter Lorre's character through the movie. It's his mother who gets the reward at the end - he's a nice guy, a small confidence man, when teamed with a guy with severe burns, reminded me a lot of the mouse who cheers up Dumbo in that movie. Anyway, his name is Dinkie, and the way it's pronounced in the movie by Peter Lorre makes me think they made him say it all the time because it sounded cool. That's that!

Here we go, 64 down, Christ knows how many to go! The rest can be found here, thanks for dropping by¬!