Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
filippaberry84
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
dougdoepke
Good combination of horror and noir. Now if I could just figure out whose head belongs on which body, I might be able to figure out the plot. But, no matter since the film is carried by some great noirish atmosphere. The gloom hangs heavy over everyone, so you just know anything might happen. The movie's adapted from a radio stage play and it shows in the stretched out storyline that sometimes appears to ramble. Still, brighter bulbs than mine may be able to follow out the mystery part. Anyhow, I really like the obscure Michael Duane as the ambivalent Rex Kennedy; he brings unexpected depth to the part. The cast is basically an ensemble of no-names, who, nevertheless do well enough in their roles. No, the movie never rises above programmer status, but does show how imaginative these bottom-of-the-bill B- movies could be.
sol1218
***SPOILERS*** It's when a plane crashed on it's way to South America that among the wreckage was found a box with a shrunken human head inside! This set off alarm bells back in San Francisco to who that head belonged to in that the Cordoza Museum where the head supposedly came from had, in it's collection of shrunken heads, one head too many or unaccounted for!The wife of the late big game hunter and explores Clinton Mitchell Louies, Mona Barrie, is terrified of her step daughter Janet, Anita Louise, in that she's planning to have her murdered in that her father who was lost in the Brazilian jungle was in fact murdered by Louise and her secret lover Prof. Arthur Logan, Frnak Wilcox. It was Prof. Logan who was with Anita's father on the expedition and who's love letters to Louise she found hidden in the house. What all this has to do with the head found in the plane wreckage is that it's suspected by Janet to be her father's, Clinton Mitchell, head!The head itself is nothing to write home about in that it can belong to anybody without one but the circumstances of it being found in such a mysterious way had Louise get in touch with ace private eyes Jack Packard & Doc Long, Jim Bannon & Barton Yarborough, in order to protect her from her outargued step daughter Janet, who feels that it's her father's head, from having her killed! In Janet suspecting her of murdering her father and have his head shrunken to cover up her crime!There's also in the movie Janet's good friend Rex Kennedy, Michael Duane, who in trying to get to the bottom of Clinton Mitchell's disappearance ends up being the #1 suspect in Louies' butler Johns, John Elliott, murder when he was spotted snooping around outside the Mitchell mansion. The fact the murder weapon in John's death was a South American native blowgun made it very certain that the unidentified shrunken head must have been that of Clinton Mitchell! Since it was there in South America that he spent the last year getting friendly with the local native head shrinker's who's weapon of choice is the deadly poison dart blowgun! In fact Janet herself was involved with a head shrinker here back in San Francisco Dr.Karger, Ludwig Donath, who was recommended to her by Rex Kennedy a former patient of his. Dr.Karger who was not only shrinking Janet's head but planning to shrink her bank account in using the information about her that he got from his head shrinking sessions to blackmail Janet! ***SPOILERS*** The key to this whole missing or shrunken head mystery turns out to be Janet's good friend and confidant Uncle Leon, Paul E.Burns, the friendly neighborhood taxidermist who among all his stuffed animals that he keeps in his house also has a live full grown black panther named Diablo! It's in fact Uncle Leon who's expertise in stuffing animals as well as shrunken heads that in the end exposed the secret to whom the mysterious head belongs to and even more important who shrunk it!
dbborroughs
In the wreckage if a plane crash a box is found with a shrunken head inside. The Head is similar to one that is on display in the city museum. When the police bring it to the museum to see if they can help determine its origin its found to be similar to one already on display. While at the museum the Museum the police detective meets Jack Packard and Doc Long who are at the museum to meet a new client, the wife of them man who brought the original heads for display. It seems the woman thinks her step daughter is having her followed, so that she can be killed since her husband has gone missing in the jungle. From there the story spirals out as Jack and Doc try to unravel what the daughter is up to and what happened to her father (their client's husband).Good but not great mystery has way too many plot threads running through it for a 66 minute film. In addition to the basic mystery we have murder, blackmail, a black panther, more questions about the head, taxidermy, shrinks and one or two other things. To be certain it keeps the plot moving but at the same time it feels thrown together.Based on Carlton E Morse's classic radio show I Love Mystery (later I Love Adventure) the film makes limited use of its transferred characters who seem to simply wander through events in order just to clean up some one else's mess. Forgive me the radio show worked because Jack and Doc were men of action not reaction. That said Jack Packard comes across as an imposing figure here who I think comes across as being able to kick just about anyone's butt if he chose to. (I've rarely ever seen any character radiate such an aura of being in charge and the baddest man in the room while doing absolutely nothing other than standing.) I have no idea why they were brought in to this story since if they were this under utilized in the first and third films in the series its understandable why it ended with three films.Still the film is not bad and is worth a look for those who like mysteries of the 1940's.(As for the title's meaning, I don't have a god answer except it sounds good.)
cinema_universe
"The Devil's Mask" (1946) is one of the "I LOVE A MYSTERY" series of B-movies produced by Columbia Studios, based on the then-popular radio show. Poker faced Jim Bannon heads up a duo of private detectives who appear in each of the mysteries.This one begins after a shrunken head is found in the ruins of a crashed plane that was headed from California to Latin America. A woman, who believes that her step-daughter is planning to kill her, hires the pair of detectives.The mystery deepens when the woman's butler is killed by a poison dart from a blow-gun similar to those used by the jungle tribe of head-hunters responsible for the shrunken head. Add a blackmailing psychiatrist, a crazy taxidermist, a ferocious black panther, a few nebulous characters of dubious repute, and you have an atmospheric little chiller that's most enjoyable.You may be able to figure out who the killer is, but that won't stop you from searching out more of these neat little "I LOVE A MYSTERY" thrillers.
