Tuesday's Overlooked Films: The Face Behind the Mask (Recommended)

Every once in a blue moon, I happen across a forgotten gem of a film noir. It happens so rarely that it is all the sweeter when it does occur. Such is the case with The Face Behind the Mask which I'd never heard of until I watched it. I'll give it to you straight: it's easily the best film noir I've watched so far this year. Maybe it even falls in the Top Twenty of All Time, if I had to compile such a ranking.

In a rare film noir (or at least in the ones that I've ever viewed), Peter Lorre plays the lead. The plot is straightforward enough. Janos Szaby (Peter Lorre) arrives in New York City as an eager, optimistic Hungarian immigrant with watchmaking skills. His face is then disfigured in a hotel fire, and he turns bitter.

Lorre does an amazing job of changing his character's profile. He turns ruthless and takes to a life of crime, robbing banks and making jewelry heists. He pays a plastic surgeon to create him a strange rubber mask to hide his burn-scarred face. Lorre must have had a good make-up man because he looks odd wearing his mask.

Later, he bumps into Helen Williams (Evelyn Keyes) who is a blind bead-stringer. Since she can't see his face, they fall in love. Happy once again, Janos decides to quit his old gang, but they have other ideas despite his plans to marry Helen. I immensely enjoyed watching the versatile and talented Lorre until the film's memorable ending that is a slice of pure noir. I wish Lorre made other first-rate movies like The Face Behind the Mask. But then my watching this one wouldn't have been as nearly as much fun. My only regret is I can't see it for the first time again. Recommended.