The Face behind the Mask

Playing the child murderer in Fritz Lang’s M bought Peter Lorre his ticket to Hollywood, where he soon tired of playing exotics and weirdos. He was already Hollywood’s go-to creep when he made The Face behind the Mask in 1941. It follows a naive watchmaker who arrives in New York off the boat from old Europe, gets horrifically burned in a hotel fire, then, unable to get work on account of his looks, embarks on a life of crime to pay for reconstructive surgery. Both a wild gothic-crime story and an an invitation to overact, Lorre gives it both barrels. The story gets wilder once Janos discovers that surgery will be impossible. Instead, … Read more