Máscara da Traição (1969)

*mild spoilers below*

César works as an accountant at an office in charge of managing the revenue of a big soccer stadium. He is constantly abused by his boss Carlos. César is an accomplished visual artist, but his artistic career was cut short by the need to earn a living. He starts an affair with his boss's wife Cristina, who comes up with the idea for a plan to steal the revenue of a soccer game and frame Carlos for it. César would use his artistic talents, and a cast from Carlos's face to be provided by Cristina, to manufacture a mask which would allow him to impersonate Carlos during the robbery.

This is the only instance I can remember of a Brazilian attempt at a film noir in its classical form. It's not exactly a good film. Its plot is quite predictable and derivative, even in its twists, especially by those who know the rules of this genre. The director has a tendency to overextend some non-narrative scenes, which make it a little tiresome. The acting is provided by some then very well known faces from TV, and is quite OK.  I guess it could be watched out of curiosity, and little else.

Caveat: if you watched it yesterday on Canal Brasil, or recorded that emission, watch out: they inverted the order of two segments at the latter part of the movie. At first, I though it was a flashback, but later judged it improbable; I confirmed my suspicion by watching that part at another copy which had those segments correctly ordered.

Rating: 35