The Face Behind the Mask

The face behind the mask, it's mutated, hideous, a horrible nightmare. Out of which I can never awake.

The Face Behind The Mask is directed by Robert Florey and collectively written by Paul Jarrico, Arthur Levinson and Allen Vincent. It stars Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes, Don Beddoe and George E. Stone. Music is by Sidney Cutner and cinematography by Franz Planer.

Hungarian immigrant Janos Szaby (Lorre) arrives in New York City full of hope for the future. Unfortunately he is trapped in a hotel fire which leaves his face severely disfigured. Even though he is a skilled craftsman he is refused employment by many on account of his looks. At his lowest ebb he turns to crime to fund the making of a face mask to hide his disfigurement, while ...

It is a testament to Peter Lorre's versatile facial language that he could contort his face into a rictus of dementia and corruption in M, and 10 years later but with essentially the same features, smile a sweet smile of innocence and candor as the Hungarian immigrant Janos Szabo in The Face Behind the Mask.

Janos, watchmaker and self-proclaimed mechanical genius arrives in New York in search of the vaunted American dream. The big city, contrary to what one would expect, treats the newcomer well; Janos soon finds a job in a hotel that also becomes his home.

Unfortunately, one night the hotel burns down and Janoss face is horribly disfigured. The same city that gave him a moderately warm reception now rejects him because of his appeara...

Peter Lorre is "Janos", an enthusiastic, honest, watch-maker who has arrived in New York from Europe hoping to make his way and bring his beloved "Marie" to join him. He alights on the kindly policeman "O'Hara" (Don Beddoe) who recommends lodgings for him and off he goes. Tragedy strikes though as one of his fellow residents is doing a bit of illicit cooking and "Janos" awakens, disfigured and unable to find a job. It's now that he encounters "Dinky" (George E. Stone) and soon formulates a plan to raise the money needed to have surgery on his face - and a life of petty crime beckons. It's all proving surprisingly easy for him and his accomplices until he, quite literally, bumps into "Helen" (Evelyn Keyes), a blind lady to whom he takes a sh...