Based on an Eric Ambler novel, adapted by Frank Gruber for Warner Bros. A complex and murky tale, shot in pools of light by Arthur Edeson, has fiction writer Peter Lorre sucked into the true story of the criminal Dimitrios (Zachary Scott at about his best; his debut). He learns all about him in flashback, from Turkish police detective Kurt Katch, Eduardo Cianelli, Sydney Greenstreet - who has some agenda of his own - former lover Faye Emerson and Swiss resident Victor Francen, who reminisces about the downfall of unfortunate government employee Steven Geray (good). Actually it's not that complex, it just spans a number of stories in different European locales, painting an increasingly dark portrait of the man, and Lorre's growing interest. It's rather good.
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| Did help with my geography too... |
Underscored by suitably dark music from Adolph Deutsch, orchestrated by Jerome Moross, with some lovely art direction / set decoration by Ted Smith and Walter Tilford.
I won't be watching my grubby from VHS TNT print again, that's for sure. (It was the only way to see it back in 2010, the last time we watched it.)
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