Behind the Mask

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.

Jack Holt escapes from prison and follow the advice of his friend Boris Karloff to go see a certain man if he wants to remain free and make lots of money. Holt does so and soon finds himself working for a mysterious Mr X, who is running a large criminal operation. Holt however is no cook, he is instead a federal agent seeking to break a drug ring.

Made prior to the release of Frankenstein this is a film with Boris Karloff in one of his henchmen supporting roles. He's good but a bit over active. The real star here is Jack Holt who was a big star in the silent days and who's career slowly faded once sound came in. I've always liked Holt and felt he was under appreciated by most people who know who he was (The problem is that most people have no idea at all who he was). Holt here is a rugged leading man and a nice man of action. He is in short the perfect hero.

The film itself is quite good. Going from big house, to country house to doctors office, this is a thriller that keeps you guessing and keeps you interested. Its nice to see a movie that isn't so formulaic that you can connect the dots and know who is doing what before you're told. The action when it comes is well done and there is generally a good amount of suspense, especially in the final moments as it is uncertain if or how out hero will escape the villains clutches.

Worth searching out and perfect for a nice double or triple feature on a dark and stormy night.

Ah, there's nothing like a good old-fashioned creepy & atmospheric horror tale from the early nineteen-thirties starring the almighty Boris Karloff! Be forewarned, however, that this "Behind the Mask" is not really a horror movie and that Karloff in fact only plays a supportive character – albeit quite a menacing one. Does that mean that the film isn't worth checking out? Nope, not at all, because "Behind the Mask" definitely does contain quite a few sinister twists and details in its overall very ambitious and compelling crime/mystery screenplay. A whole bunch of elite federal agents are trying to unravel a large-scaled drug smuggling network led by the nefarious Mr. X. Special agent Jack Hart takes the identity of small thug Quinn and goes undercover in a state prison where he meets Jim Henderson (Karloff); one of Mr. X's principal henchmen. The organization of Mr. X is most certainly evil, as the criminal mastermind also runs an unorthodox clinic where the patients are murdered and their coffins stuffed with narcotics. The script from the hand of Jo Swerling – also the writer of Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" – superficially seems extremely ambitious, but rather many elements are nevertheless tacky (like the forced love-story between the secret agent and one of the minions' daughter) and/or predictable (for example the identity of Mr. X is not really that secretive). Top-billed stars Boris Karloff and Jack Holt are decent enough, but the show is stolen by Edward Van Sloan in a fiendish double role, and by Bertha Mann! She depicts a creepy maid who's strategically put in the house of Dr. X's unreliable collaborators. She closely observes everyone in the house and reports to her employer via a radio installation in her room.

A macabre mystery with many elements of the supernatural/shudder scientific genres.

Boris Karloff plays a lead henchman in the service of a mysterious Mr. X. His performance does not suggest a red herring role, but he is sinister enough as a grim-faced gangster to keep one's interest throughout the picture. Early on, it seems possible that the sinister Dr. Steiner played by Edward van Sloan may seem to be a more likely candidate for Mr. X., but his performance raises enough doubts to keep the viewer in a constant state of suspense.

A very fine "B" feature for the night owl crowd.

7/10.

Dan Basinger

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.