The director treats this one as a photographed stage play, employing little camera movement, using few, if any, reverse angles, and no doubt encouraging his players to over-act. The script is rather wordy, but the players manage to pull it off with only a dull moment here and there. Despite the advertising build-up, the story holds little suspense as it's obvious how the movie will end, given that this was a pre-code production. Gregg Toland's noirish camera-work sets the right mood of tragic elegance, and the movie is nothing if not expansively produced. The special effects are so well contrived, few people will be aware of their technical brilliance. Of the players, Juliette Compton of "Woman to Woman" (1929) not only gives a fine performance here, but is glamorously wardrobed and photographed as well. Elissa Landi runs her close.
Review of The Masquerader
The Masquerader
(1933)
Technically brilliant if somewhat wordy melodrama
6 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers