Behind the Mask (1932)

Director: John Francis Dillon

Writer: Jo Swerling

Starring: Jack Holt, Constance Cummings, Boris Karloff, Claude King, Bertha Mann, Edward Van Sloan, Willard Robertson, Thomas E. Jackson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A SLINKING FIEND - SKULKING TERROR - MAD MURDER!

Plot: A federal agent goes undercover to infiltrate a drug smuggling operation headed by a mysterious Mr. X, a criminal mastermind whose identity is unknown even to his henchmen. Mr. X is also running a bogus hospital where victims are killed on the operating table, and their coffins stuffed with narcotics. The drug-filled coffins are then buried in a cemetery.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Mabye.

I watched this hoping it was a horror movie like IMDb said.  It's got a horror element as far as the morbid tone of killing folks and stuffing their coffins with drugs and burying them in a graveyard.  Now, normally I'd say you know what you're going to get when the villain, who runs a big time drug ring, is called Mr. X but this picture is a little better than that.  For starters, you've got Edward Van Sloan (Van Helsing from DRACULA (1931) as well as being in FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and THE MUMMY (1932)) as the devious Mr. X.  And you've also got Boris Karloff as Mr. X's enforcer.  You actually get to see a little acting range from Karloff for a change.  Like a lot of pictures from this time, there's very little music which doesn't help.  Still, there are some nice moments of people dying and coming close to it.  Mr. X doesn't mess around and neither does Boris Karloff.  And that ending!  Nice!!!  I suspect this was a welcome picture for horror fans of the early 30s.  It can't compete with the likes of DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN and the MUMMY but then it's not trying to and it succeeds on its own merit.