This movie is as good as the Third Man and the cast is a classic keeper. Dimitrios is not as endearing as Harry but he is every bit as ruthless and amoral. The movie is fairly faithful to Eric Ambler's book (A Coffin for Dimitrios). Sydney Greenstreet is in perfect character, Mr. Peters, as Sydney Greenstreet or should I say the character he portrays in the Maltese Falcon, Casablanca or Across the Pacific. Peter Lorre plays it straight as a writer, Charles Latimer, who discovers for the first time that there are men like Dimitrios Makropoulos, a man who can draw others to him but who has no love for anyone except himself a man who is truly amoral. This changes Latimer such that you know he will no longer be as trusting again. He is like all persons who naively trust in a world of rules and then confronts the fact that there are people who succeed by taking advantage of the rest of us because they know we live within the rules. Finally Zachary Scott was an excellent choice as Dimitrios. He is charming, handsome with the countenance of a reptile. I WANT THIS MOVIE TO BE DIGITIZED AND PUT ON DVD. IT IS GREAT!
Review of The Mask of Dimitrios
