The Mask of Diijon (1946)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Lew Landers

Writers:

Arthur St. Claire (story) and
Griffin Jay (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 March 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A stage illusionist's comeback attempt results in his humiliation. He plots to revenge himself by hypnotizing people into committing murders for him.

Plot Keywords:

Magician | Career | Hypnosis | Murder | Illusionist

Cast

Erich von Stroheim	...	Diijon
Jeanne Bates	...	Victoria
William Wright	...	Tony Holiday
Denise Vernac	...	Denise
Edward Van Sloan	...	Sheffield
Hope Landin	...	Mrs. McGaffey
Mauritz Hugo	...	Danton
Shimen Ruskin	...	Guzzo
Antonio Filauri	...	Alex

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #11331, General Audience)

Company:

Producers Releasing Corporation

Quotes:

[Diijon has hypnotized Victoria and told her to shoot Tony, her piano player]
Victoria: You'd better play "Hearts and Roses" because I'm going to kill you.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Mascara de Diijon (1993)

Soundtrack:

Dillusion

all time best ending of any film - ever

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.