Behind the Mask
               
Director: John Francis Dillon
Year: 1932
Rating: 5.0
A lumpish B crime film that barely makes it to the finish line at 68 minutes. It starts well and ends well but the middle is a wasteland. A couple of things though that make it worth taking a gander at. In the same year he appeared in Frankenstein and became a household name, Karloff has a secondary role but he is the best thing about the film. Constance Cummings - who I saw recently in the Harold Lloyd film Movie Crazy - is stunningly attractive in some close-ups and she saves the day with a shot to the heart. Otherwise though it is fairly standard cops against bad guys with the male protagonist being so dull that watching him act was like taking Nyquil. He is Jack Holt who played lots of rugged box shaped tough guys in the silent era but his ability to deliver a line of dialogue had the finesse of an oncoming truck. His son though was Tim Holt who had a good career in Westerns.

 

Holt and Karloff are both in prison and share the same cell. Holt is planning a prison break and wants Karloff to come along. Karloff says no thanks - you will be in the prison morgue by morning. Holt though is actually in the Secret Service and wants to buddy up to Karloff because Karloff is part of a drug gang with a mysterious leader - called Mr. X by the Secret Service. Even his own men have no idea who he is. Karloff gives Holt a name and address to go to should he escape. He does - obviously - and shoots himself in the arm to appear legit before getting to the house. In the house is a nervous man and his lovely daughter and Holt and the girl fall in love within the time it takes to make toast. A little while later Karloff is released from jail and re-joins the gang. Karloff is great in his small bits creating a complicated person - loyal but devastated when he hears that Holt is a cop and that he has to kill him. When we finally do meet Mr. X it is not at all surprising who he is but his speech to Holt who is tied down on the operating table is classic - "I could not kill you out on the street but on an operating table, who would question it and with no anesthetic". Clearly well before doctors were sued for malpractice.