Behind the Mask

BEHIND THE MASK (Columbia, 1932), directed by John Francis Dillon, with its Halloween sounding title and Boris Karloff in the cast, one should be expecting a horror movie. Released a little after his overnight success as The Monster in FRANKENSTEIN (Universal, 1931), naturally the Karloff name was its selling point, even if Karloff assumes third billing under its leading players, Jack Holt and Constance Cummings. Having some Columbia releases to his name where Karloff was not yet an established screen personality, he did make an impression in a prior prison melodrama of THE CRIMINAL CODE (1930), which lead to other films for that studio before acquiring immortality at Universal where 1932 released such memorable Karloff performances in his newfound genre of mystery and horror as THE OLD DARK HOUSE and THE MUMMY. While BEHIND THE MASK belongs mostly to Jack Holt, it's often categorized as a Karloff motion picture.

The story introduces two men, Quinn (Jack Holt) and Jim Henderson (Boris Karloff), prisoners at Sing Sing Prison, conversing during recreation period where Henderson, expecting to be "sprung out" any day now, tells Quinn where they are to meet upon his release. Later, Quinn breaks out of prison. During a heavy rain storm, he arranges a self-inflicted gunshot wound on his shoulder to gain access into the Arnold household. Posing as an escaped convict hiding from the police, Quinn gains enough sympathy and treatment from Julie (Constance Cummings). It so happens that Quinn, actually Jack Hart of the Secret Service, assigned under Captain E.J. Hawkes (Willard Robertson), is there to learn about her father's (Claude King) activities and his possible connection with a narcotics ring leader, the mysterious Mr. X, whom he and anyone else associated in his operation of illegal activities, has never seen. Taken under Julies confidence, Hart remains, working as her personal chauffeur. Also employed at the Arnold household is Edwards (Bertha Mann), a housekeeper and undercover spy reporting her daily activities by telephone where the recording is saved onto Mr. X's hidden dicta-phone. After Henderson's release, he reports to his physician, August Steiner (Edward Van Sloan), also part of the narcotics ring, where he resumes his activities as the doctor's henchman. After three murders on those coming close to learning the identity of Mr. X, the fourth victim being Inspector Burke (Thomas E. Jackson), it's not up to Hart to fulfill his mission to expose the identity of Mr. X before any more lives are lost, including his own.

Often exploited as a horror film, especially when sold to television in the late 1950s as part of its weekly horror film night festivals, the only elements BEHIND THE MASK has pertaining to thrillers include scenes involving digging up a body from a cemetery to perform an autopsy, and another where the hidden faced Mr. X attempts to do away with one of his victims tied down on an operating table, otherwise BEHIND THE MASK is simply a spy mystery. It's also one of the very few of many Jack Holt programmers during his Columbia period (1929-1940) to be leased to television, yet, with conflicting movies bearing the same title, ranging from a 1946 Monogram/"Shadow" mystery, the 1958 British made melodrama starring Michael Redgrave, or even the extended THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK (1941) with Peter Lorre, many of which have stirred up confusion on the TV Guide listings back in the sixties and seventies when any one of these titles aired in place over the 1932 edition. BEHIND THE MASK of 1932 did become part of New York City's own "Creature Feature Theater" where I finally got to see it occasionally during its semi-annual broadcasts between 1974 and 1980.

Regardless of its flaws, Karloff slightly miscast as an off-camera murderous henchman with little to do by the midway point; Constance Cummings doing her part as the fur coat wearing heroine concerned about the outcome of both her father and new chauffeur; and Edward Van Sloan in a sort of role that definitely would have been Karloff's had BEHIND THE MASK been produced during his "mad scientist" period of the late 1930s, the film, overall, is not bad.

Never distributed to home video, BEHIND THE MASK has come around in recent years on Turner Classic Movies (2009-11), equipped with 1940s Columbia logo insertion lifted from its latter theatrical reissues, still remains a forgotten item from the Columbia library, filmography of Jack Holt and especially Boris Karloff, whom, without Karloff in the cast, BEHIND THE MASK would either be lost to oblivion or available and forgotten in some dark movie vault. (** masks)

This film was made during the same period as "The Criminal Code" by the same studio. It also used some of the same sets and film footage. During this period,"Frankenstein" was released and Columbia decided to play up Karloff's name and the picture's horror aspects in the advertising. But technically, it is not a horror film. It is exploited as another horror picture, this doesn't horrify sufficiently to class with preceding baby-scarers. The scare stuff seems tossed in regardless of where it fits, but it gets results because KARLOFF's threatening pan makes him a natural for his part.

I forgot the director John Francis Dillon, he is lost now in moviegoers memory I guess, and I think it is a shame after watching this movie. This is not astounding but very worth the watch, with a good story, solid, unusual for the period. Pre Code film, it is authorized to predict many more things than one decade later. Yes, this is definitely an interesting little film from the thirties, early thirties, where it remains many more movies to find out. I am still amazed by this topic. Boris Karloff also shines in this non horror feature, and his role is rather important in this crime topic. He steals the place to Jack Holt.

What must have started life as a pretty ordinary crime picture is dressed up for the box office with some of the popular flourishes of the day such as electronic gadgets and a mysterious criminal mastermind.

Karloff gives excellent value as villain's chief henchman and thankfully gets plenty of screen time.

Although director and cast were all well experienced in pictures, the performances tend to be on the dull side, particularly Jack Holt in the lead. The pace of individual scenes is a little slow too, almost as if everyone concerned were making a conscious effort to hold back from the excesses of the silent days.

No classic, but you could do worse.

A neat little programmer from early 1932 Behind the Mask straddles the line between crime film and horror movie. The latter is played up by the insertion of Boris Karloff and Edward Van Sloan fresh off the triumphant Frankenstein released months earlier. The plot about drug smuggling is pure precode and the candy of choice - morphine - is mentioned by name. Directed by John Francis Dillon this is a fast moving, fun affair that likely kept audiences on the edge of their seats back in the day.

Undercover secret service man Jack Hart (Jack Holt) befriends suspected drug smuggler Henderson (Boris Karloff) in prison. Once learning the identity of Arnold (Claude King ), Henderson's contact man, Hart engineers a jailbreak and turns up on the man's doorstep. He finds Arnold a virtual prisoner in his own house perpetually spied on by the sinister Edwards (Bertha Mann) who answers to the unknown "Mr. X", the enigmatic head of a dope smuggling ring. Hart befriends Arnold's daughter Julie (Constance Cummings) who is oblivious to her father's involvement. He also inveigles himself into the operation via Henderson who answers to the sinister Dr. August Steiner (Edward Van Sloan). Steiner learns of Hart's true identity and sends him into a death trap from which the intrepid secret service man escapes. From here each side plays a dangerous cat and mouse game with each other over the source and location of the drugs.

The story and dialogue is credited to Jo Swerling from her story In the Secret Service. This screenplay does a nice job balancing time between the dull heroes and the much more flamboyant villains chiefly Dr. Steiner who is eventually unmasked as Mr. X (this should come as a surprise to no one). The smuggling network receives an ominous buildup as everyone reports to an answering service reviewed by the head of the ring whose true identity is a closely guarded secret. Steiner is an alias for Dr. Munsell who sits on a council consulted by the secret service; as a result all efforts to infiltrate the gang is DOA from the start. He also has a network of spies everywhere to whom the secret service naively conveys pertinent information on more than one occasion. The narrative focuses its energy on the story and consequently the characterizations are often laughable. Dr. Steiner is presented as some sort of criminal mastermind but he sure tolerates a lot of blundering from Henderson and disloyalty from Arnold. Meanwhile Julie is only mildly perplexed when a bedraggled Hart breaks into her boudoir in the middle of the night following multiple gunshots. Within 30 seconds she's cozying up to him and treating his wounded arm like they've known each other for years. The narrative doesn't even attempt to portray how Hart escaped from prison which is a question I'd like answered. The horror aspects are downplayed but there are tremendous indications that Dr. Steiner's overall enterprise is horrendously nefarious as he kills people on the operating table (probably without anesthesia) in his personal hospital. Plus what is with all the Kenneth Strickfadden machines in his office?

Director John Francis Dillon crafts a swiftly moving crime yarn with the standard intrepid cops oblivious to danger and stiff upper lip Jack Hart to tough to be true. However Dillon scores the majority of his points when he leans into the horror aspects of the story. The scene where Henderson first meets up with Steiner, leering over his full battery of Frankenstein machines flashing in his darkened office, is rich with sinister suggestion. The climax, where Hart is strapped to an operating table fully conscious and about to be vivisected by Steiner, is truly horrifying. Steiner is swathed from head to toe in a surgeon's outfit with only his coke bottle glasses peaking out as he torments Hart with the gruesome details of what he's going to do to him. This is about as chilling as it gets for pre code cinema.

Behind the Mask represents an actor's field day for Edward Van Sloan. He enacts the benign Dr. Munsell with a common American accent and professional bearing that contrasts sharply with the melodramatic and loquacious Dr August Steiner. In this guise Van Sloan basically turns his Professor Van Helsing on his head; rolling r's with renewed gusto and employing sinister voice inflections to convey the pure evil of the man. He dominates Karloff in their scenes and relishes being many steps ahead of the cops until the final moments. The sequence where he describes the vivisection process to Jack Holt will make soft stomachs squeamish and is on par with the most ghastly moments from the golden age of horror. Truly puzzling how, with a handful of exceptions, this man was reduced to bit roles the majority of his Hollywood career.

Perhaps the next biggest surprise is the performance of Boris Karloff, sans makeup, who is remarkably normal as the hapless Jim Henderson. He is a proficient bungler; almost single-handedly destroying the smuggling ring with his poor decisions, big mouth, and poor judge of character. One wonders how such an amiable, dim witted galoot rose to such a level of prominence in such an otherwise well run organization. Karloff is completely believable in this guise giving a very natural performance free of the ham he generally sliced during this period of his career. It is a shame that he disappears from the film 20 minutes before the end (he's nabbed by police off camera).

The rest of the cast is solid. Jack Holt is appropriately intrepid as the hero; a typical no nonsense, tough as nails cop who still has time for romance in between performing his duties. Constance Cummings is easy on the eyes but contributes nothing unique while Bertha Mann is loathsome as the creepy Edwards who is perpetually spying for Steiner when not facilitating his murder spree. Claude King spends his time in a believable state of anxiety as he's caught between a rock and a hard place as Arnold. Lawmen Willard Robertson and Thomas Jackson are appropriately square and surprisingly naive as they allow Steiner to operate right under their noses.

Behind the Mask is a fun crime drama that moves fast and will likely appeal to fans of the golden age of horror with the inclusion of Boris Karloff and especially Edward Van Sloan as the antagonists. Shot before Frankenstein but released after the contemporary advertisements played up the scare factor and could hoodwink viewers into thinking this is something else. It is a good showcase for Karloff in a straight role who proves he could easily handle conventional material and not have to resort to extreme melodramatics to gain acclaim.