(1946)
3
Bruce Eder
Not that this is saying much, but Behind the Mask is one of the handsomest-looking movies ever to come out of Monogram Pictures, with a large supporting and background cast (of familiar screen faces) and surprisingly opulent sets. That isn't as important as the breezy pacing essential to a B-thriller of this type, but when you combine that pacing, a delightfully twist-laden plot (that freely careens between suspense and comic relief), and a look this good and a cast this solid, you've got B-movie gold. The mix of comedy and mystery in Behind the Mask owes a lot to the Falcon movies starring George Sanders and Tom Conway, and while nothing here is as well done as those movies -- and one comic relief scene involving a piece of furniture moving around a room, is downright stupid -- it's all easy to take and enjoy on a totally non-serious, escapist level. Director Phil Karlson, who would later be known for his violent crime thrillers, shows a much more deft touch here -- Behind the Mask is of a piece with his work in Bowery Bombshell, featuring the Bowery Boys, rather than The Phenix City Story or Walking Tall. Set against a background of nightclubs, bookie joints, and elegant parties, often with a swing band score playing in the background -- except when the familiar organ theme accompanying the Shadow's disappearing act comes into play -- Behind the Mask is thick with '40s atmosphere; the ambience is a fine distillation of radio crime melodrama, translated to the screen with a careful (and generally effective) balance of mystery twists and laughs, easy on the mind and the eye and just funny and complicated enough to be diverting 60 years later.
Behind the Mask on AllMovie
Behind the Mask (1946)
