The Mask of Dimitros (1944)

What many say is Eric Ambler's best book is adapted faithfully here to the big screen with Peter Lorre in the lead role as the detective writer Leyden who becomes obsessed with chronicling the life of a murder victim washed up on a beach in Istanbul - Dimitrios Makropoulos, whom Leyden discovers, as he journeys across Europe and Asia talking with the dead man's victims, was a swindler, a spy, assassin, forger, drug dealer,  blackmailer, grifter, thief, and, in the book, even a human trafficker!

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

The Chase (1946)

Surely the Cornell Woolrich book doesn't unfold in the way this adaptation does, starting enterprisingly with a chump (perhaps in the book a traumatised drug-addled chump?) landing a job as a driver for a ruthless crime boss - a surprisingly ruthless crime boss, for 1947 - but, after a brief noone-believes-him moment a la The Lady Vanishes and a false murder charge a la a lot of other Hitchcock movies, about-facing in very confusing fashion - think a The Woman In The Window's it-was-all-a-dream type of about-face - rendering irrelevant all that has happened in the first half, a bit like saying to an audience halfway through a movie, "OK, forget all that...here's a quick rundown of what actually happened..."

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Their daughter is kidnapped when a clay pigeon shooter and her husband in Switzerland learn from a dying man the details of an international intrigue, in this 1934 Alfred Hitchcock thriller with memorable scenes involving a sun-worshipping cult and a heart-pounding dentist appointment.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Secret Agent (1936)

Somerset Maugham's short story character, Ashenden, is brought to life in Alfred Hitchcock's spectacular-for-the-time 1936 spy thriller featuring John Gielgud as the war hero in Switzerland charged with the task of finding and killing an enemy agent, a mission he, his spy 'wife', and his deranged, racially stereotyped accomplice known as The General accomplish by way of a stupendous bungle that helpfully narrows down the list of suspects from two to one.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

M (1931)

Berlin's criminal network, its union of beggars, and the police mobilise to catch a child serial killer in Fritz Lang's masterpiece, M, a richly detailed and beautifully photographed 1931 classic with a plot that rivals the grimness of similarly themed contemporary thrillers like Prisoners and Zodiac.

★★★★★