An undercover Federal officer serving time in prison fakes his escape in order to infiltrate a heroin smuggling ring.An undercover Federal officer serving time in prison fakes his escape in order to infiltrate a heroin smuggling ring.An undercover Federal officer serving time in prison fakes his escape in order to infiltrate a heroin smuggling ring.
- Agent Burke
- (as Tommy Jackson)
- Eastland Hospital Nurse
- (uncredited)
- Agent Gorman
- (uncredited)
- Cell Block Guard
- (uncredited)
- Hotel Ansonia Maid
- (uncredited)
- Arnold's Secretary
- (uncredited)
- …
- Man in Black
- (uncredited)
- …
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaPart of the SON OF SHOCK package of 20 titles released to television in 1958, which followed the original SHOCK THEATER release of 52 features one year earlier. This was also the first of 11 Columbia titles, the other 61 all being Universals.
- GoofsA dummy, thrown from the airplane by the pilot, instead of the pilot himself, to fool the people in the boat, would not be able to pull the ripcord on the parachute at the right time, to open it up.
- Quotes
Mr. X: [as Hart is restrained on the operating table] I am just going to cut away your shirt. You don't mind? The pain when I am going through the layers of skin will not be unendurable. It is only when I am able to cut on the inside that you will realize you are having... an experience.
[He cackles under his surgical mask]
Mr. X: Wasn't it Nietzsche, who said that unendurable pain merges into ecstasy?
- ConnectionsEdited from The Criminal Code (1930)
The story introduces two men, Quinn (Jack Holt) and Jim Henderson (Boris Karloff), prisoners at Sing Sing Prison, conversing during recreation period where Henderson, expecting to be "sprung out" any day now, tells Quinn where they are to meet upon his release. Later, Quinn breaks out of prison. During a heavy rain storm, he arranges a self-inflicted gunshot wound on his shoulder to gain access into the Arnold household. Posing as an escaped convict hiding from the police, Quinn gains enough sympathy and treatment from Julie (Constance Cummings). It so happens that Quinn, actually Jack Hart of the Secret Service, assigned under Captain E.J. Hawkes (Willard Robertson), is there to learn about her father's (Claude King) activities and his possible connection with a narcotics ring leader, the mysterious Mr. X, whom he and anyone else associated in his operation of illegal activities, has never seen. Taken under Julies confidence, Hart remains, working as her personal chauffeur. Also employed at the Arnold household is Edwards (Bertha Mann), a housekeeper and undercover spy reporting her daily activities by telephone where the recording is saved onto Mr. X's hidden dicta-phone. After Henderson's release, he reports to his physician, August Steiner (Edward Van Sloan), also part of the narcotics ring, where he resumes his activities as the doctor's henchman. After three murders on those coming close to learning the identity of Mr. X, the fourth victim being Inspector Burke (Thomas E. Jackson), it's not up to Hart to fulfill his mission to expose the identity of Mr. X before any more lives are lost, including his own.
Often exploited as a horror film, especially when sold to television in the late 1950s as part of its weekly horror film night festivals, the only elements BEHIND THE MASK has pertaining to thrillers include scenes involving digging up a body from a cemetery to perform an autopsy, and another where the hidden faced Mr. X attempts to do away with one of his victims tied down on an operating table, otherwise BEHIND THE MASK is simply a spy mystery. It's also one of the very few of many Jack Holt programmers during his Columbia period (1929-1940) to be leased to television, yet, with conflicting movies bearing the same title, ranging from a 1946 Monogram/"Shadow" mystery, the 1958 British made melodrama starring Michael Redgrave, or even the extended THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK (1941) with Peter Lorre, many of which have stirred up confusion on the TV Guide listings back in the sixties and seventies when any one of these titles aired in place over the 1932 edition. BEHIND THE MASK of 1932 did become part of New York City's own "Creature Feature Theater" where I finally got to see it occasionally during its semi-annual broadcasts between 1974 and 1980.
Regardless of its flaws, Karloff slightly miscast as an off-camera murderous henchman with little to do by the midway point; Constance Cummings doing her part as the fur coat wearing heroine concerned about the outcome of both her father and new chauffeur; and Edward Van Sloan in a sort of role that definitely would have been Karloff's had BEHIND THE MASK been produced during his "mad scientist" period of the late 1930s, the film, overall, is not bad.
Never distributed to home video, BEHIND THE MASK has come around in recent years on Turner Classic Movies (2009-11), equipped with 1940s Columbia logo insertion lifted from its latter theatrical reissues, still remains a forgotten item from the Columbia library, filmography of Jack Holt and especially Boris Karloff, whom, without Karloff in the cast, BEHIND THE MASK would either be lost to oblivion or available and forgotten in some dark movie vault. (** masks)
- lugonian
- Oct 31, 2015
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Secret Service
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 8 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1