Behind the Mask

Brian Desmond Hurst is best remembered for his SCROOGE starring Alistair Sim. Here, he tackles the usual story of a young surgeon, played by Tony Britton, starting out under the aegis of Michael Redgrave -- Britton's character is engaged to Redgrave's daughter, played by Vanessa Redgrave in her screen acting debut.

Careful attention has been paid to technical issues of the era, and the capable cast handles their roles well enough. However, the standard plots of such movies are in full evidence, making this movie lack more than the standard levels of emotional involvement -- it's obvious that certain roles are going to behave in certain ways at certain times. In addition, DP Robert Krasker's color cinematography has a late-40s green cast to it and it looks like the color separations have shrunk at microscopically different rates making it slightly out of focus. I suspect the green cast may have something to do with the drug-addict-doctor subplot, adding an absinthe tint to the affair.

Still, Hurst's usual highly competent work keeps things moving along nicely. This one is definitely worth your time.