The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)

Second viewing; first viewing with original English audio. Colorized copy (not recommended). Previously viewed on May 1, 1996.

A writer of detective novels hears from a police officer about the death of an international crook named Dimitrios, and starts investigating his life for a book. Another man is also looking for Dimitrios and approaches the writer with a proposition.

An interesting film with very enduring themes. Christopher Mulrooney has departed from this world but his well written film notes are still there for everyone to read, and he has written a good one about this movie. He mentions, as related films, The Third Man and Mr. Arkadin. There is also The Usual Suspects, more recently, which he perhaps did not know about, or did not care for. He has noticed that betrayal is an important theme. I, on the other hand, have a slightly different take on this film. In my view, it is about place and mobility. The superficial aspects of the plot involve traveling, but this is not the central point, or perhaps is just a reflection of the central point, which for me is one's place in the world. As it turns out, most people are quite content with their place, and lead stable lives. A few individuals, however, seem to have been born out of place, and will do anything to achieve the place where they feel they would belong. In the case of this movie, only two characters seem to fit that description: Dimitrios, of course, and Anna Bulic, the beautiful wife of a petty official. The inevitable conclusion one arrives at is that, while there will always be those ambitious individuals, the world would turn into a destructive chaos if the majority of men were like them. In fact, human nature seems to favor conformism, as a rule, and that is not so bad. Jorge Luis Borges, the writer, had a special fondness for this movie, and it is possible to draw a parallel with some of his writings, for instance, Theme of the Traitor and the Hero, and Three Versions of Judas, not to mention his early collection of stories Universal History of Infamy. 

Rating: 66 (up from 59)