The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) on Netflix
Approved19441h 35mCrimeDramaMystery
In Istanbul, mystery writer Cornelius Leyden is shown the body of Dimitrios Makropoulos, a criminal washed up on a beach. Leyden begins tracing the man's career across Europe.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.2/104,597 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Istanbul in 1938, the Dutch mystery writer Cornelius Leyden meets Colonel Haki, who tells him about Dimitrios Makropoulos, a Salonika-born criminal whose body has washed up on a local beach. Haki takes Leyden to view the corpse, and the writer, repelled and fascinated at once, decides to trace the dead man's career. His research carries him through Sofia, Geneva and Paris, where he interviews people who knew Dimitrios: a former mistress, Irana Preveza, and an aristocratic man who once hired him to steal military secrets. On the way to Sofia, Leyden shares a train cabin with Mr. Peters, an obese Englishman who says Dimitrios betrayed him in a smuggling deal and who presses Leyden to keep digging.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Eric Ambler drew the criminal Dimitrios Makropoulos on the early career of Sir Basil Zaharoff, the munitions kingpin known as "merchant of death", whose life and villainy also shaped the title character of Orsen Welles's thriller Mr. Arkadin.
- The assassination attempt on Dimitrios was based on a 1923 plot against Bulgaria's agrarian reform prime minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski, who survived the February 2 shooting but was murdered by right-wing secret police on June 14 after a coup.
- Warner Bros. first cast Nancy Coleman and Helmut Dantine to star; Coleman disliked her role and Faye Emerson replaced her, and Dantine, sent to another film, was replaced by Zachary Scott in his film debut.
