The Mask of Diijon

NR 5.6
1946 1 hr 13 min Drama , Thriller , Mystery

A stage illusionist plots a revenge after a particularly humiliating comeback attempt.

  • Cast:
    Erich von Stroheim , Jeanne Bates , William Wright , Denise Vernac , Edward Van Sloan , Hope Landin , Mauritz Hugo

Similar titles

Klute
Klute
A high-priced call girl is forced to depend on a reluctant private eye when she is stalked by a psychopath.
Klute 1971
Fail Safe
Fail Safe
Because of a technical defect an American bomber team mistakenly orders the destruction of Moscow. The President of the United States has but little time to prevent an atomic catastrophe from occurring.
Fail Safe 1964
Marnie
Marnie
Marnie is a thief, a liar, and a cheat. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, catches on to her routine kleptomania, she finds herself being blackmailed.
Marnie 1964
Scoop
Scoop
An American journalism student in London scoops a big story, and begins an affair with an aristocrat as the incident unfurls.
Scoop 2006
Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder
An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to have his wealthy wife murdered after discovering she is having an affair, and assumes she will soon leave him for the other man anyway.
Dial M for Murder 1954
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Some of Sin City's most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with a few of its more reviled inhabitants.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For 2014
North by Northwest
North by Northwest
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
North by Northwest 1959
Rebecca
Rebecca
Story of a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. The young wife must come to grips with the terrible secret of her handsome, cold husband, Max De Winter. She must also deal with the jealous, obsessed Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who will not accept her as the mistress of the house.
Rebecca 1940
Finder's Fee
Finder's Fee
After finding a wallet in the street tepper calls the owner in order to return it. After making the call he discovers that the lottery ticket inside is a $6 million winner. To add to things his friends are on their way over for their weekly poker night & the groups tradition is to bet their lottery ticket.
Finder's Fee 2001
Center of the Web
Center of the Web
An actor is wrongly taken as a professional killer by a band planning to murder the Governor. Then he is hired by the Security Dept. to try to unmask and to catch the leaders.
Center of the Web 1992

Reviews

Stometer
1946/03/11

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

... more
Sexyloutak
1946/03/12

Absolutely the worst movie.

... more
Tymon Sutton
1946/03/13

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

... more
Ezmae Chang
1946/03/14

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

... more
Panamint
1946/03/15

Deserves a fairly good rating because it has one of the most skillfully set up and well done endings ever. Once in a while a golden nugget of movie brilliance can be found lodged within a cheap forgotten film. That is the case here.Most of the cast is lively if not memorable and they are better than the film itself. They keep it watchable despite the drabness of the PRC production values and undoubtedly rushed filming schedule. Von Stroheim is his usual menacing self and does a good job in the title role. Von Stroheim is effective but the hypnotism techniques used in this film are rushed and not well thought out. Despite many such weak elements "The Mask of Diijon" holds together and moves along in a fairly well paced linear b-movie style. Its not a terrible example of the dark 1940's b-movie creepy murder genre, and certainly worth a look.

... more
bkoganbing
1946/03/16

It is rather well known that you cannot force anyone to do anything under hypnosis that they will not be willing to do themselves when of their own free will. Unfortunately that bit of reality which audiences in 1946 knew well that keeps The Mask Of Dijon from becoming a top flight melodrama. The cheapness of a PRC production also doesn't help.They combine to defeat the incomparable Erich Von Stroheim who is playing a formerly great magician with an insane jealous streak that makes Othello look well adjusted. His Desdemona is Jeanne Bates a nightclub singer who runs into her old accompaniest William Wright who persuades her to come back and take Von Stroheim's rusty magic act as a package deal.What both don't know is that Von Stroheim has been studying the art of Mesmer and he's going to use that to settle old scores, real and imagined. I can't say much more, but I will agree with another reviewer who did love the ending that Von Stroheim met.Would that the rest of the film was that good.

... more
Howard_B_Eale
1946/03/17

No one will ever accuse THE MASK OF DIIJON of being a landmark thriller/drama/noir/whatever. But this film deserves the honor of having the all-time greatest final 30 seconds in the history of cinema. To reveal its wonderful climactic secret would be to rob the viewer of easily the best moment in the whole film, so I will resist, but it's all more worth watching than one might think.Erich Von Stroheim chews up every scene he is in, which is the bulk of the picture, and this is a good thing. Anyone who adored him as Max Von Mayerling in SUNSET BLVD. knows full well that there isn't really any such thing as a bad Stroheim performance. He even smiles and laughs - admittedly rather briefly - in THE MASK OF DIIJON.And the film is, for all its faults in narrative, an inevitably fascinating ultra-cheapie. The very fact that Stroheim committed to the project at all raises eyebrows; he treats the whole picture as a gag and is arguably the only sparkling performer in the whole project, and must have known this. The very opening sequence shows his character reduced to peddling cheap carnival tricks (and in doing so, tricks the audience by creating a fake beginning to the film), so there had to be an air of self-consciousness here, considering that the main conceit of the film (the power of hypnosis) is entirely preposterous. And there are a handful of nice touches throughout, particularly an outlandish sequence where Stroheim hypnotizes a would-be robber and stops the crime cold.It's all a sublimely ridiculous tale, never believable for a moment, and pure entertainment. And it has the greatest ending ever. Trust me.

... more
JohnHowardReid
1946/03/18

Disappointing. The screenplay always seems on the verge of presenting some interesting plot twists and spell-binding effects, but they never happen. The attractively noirish black-as-a-nightmare lighting photography also constantly signals that some intensely gripping story development is about to occur, but once again all we get are the usual predictable situations which lead to a dull if action-full climax.Steadfastly routine and even turgid direction from Lew Landers doesn't help matters. On occasion, Mr Landers can direct a movie with both punch and style; but in this instance, he exhibits neither quality. And as might be expected, aside from the charismatic von Stroheim, the players are not much to write home about either. Both hero and heroine wear out their welcome, and even von Stroheim's performance suffers from the film editor's tendency to hold shots far too long. Trimming the close-ups would have improved the movie a lot. As is, it's far too slow.Production values are also somewhat limited. True, the camera-work rates as a definite notch above the usual flat Producers Releasing level, and the sets are fulsomely dressed. But we tire of them. The one small set in front of Sheffield's shop is used over and over, and the fact that it becomes so familiar negates whatever small impact the brief spurt of climactic action might otherwise have enjoyed.

... more

Watch Free Now