The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)

Based on the Eric Ambler adventure novel of the same name. Dutch mystery writer Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) is visiting Istanbul on vacation, while at a party he meets police Colonel Haki (Kurt Katch). Haki is a fan of Leyden's work and thinks he might interest him in the recent discovery of the body of a man he's being trying to bust for sixteen years (the story is set in 1937). The man's name is Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott) and Leyden becomes so fascinated with him that he sets off across Europe in an effort to back track the criminals career and maybe find out why he washed up dead in Istanbul. But Leyden isn't the only person interested in what happened to Dimitrios, a certain 'Mr. Peters' (Sydney Greenstreet) also has an interest and tails Leyden, they later come to an agreement to work together and determine if it really was Dimitrios whose body was found in Turkey. Various characters who have had business with Dimitrios in the past are interviewed by Leyden and there stories are told in flashback. A final reckoning occurs in Pairs.

The Leyden character is an interesting one, hard to upset, you pull a gun and threaten him, and he'll laugh and make a deal with you. Much of the film is built around exploitation of the fabled Greenstreet/Lorre chemistry. Some sequences work better then others but on the whole a nice little period thriller. Good