On this day in movie and book history - The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) and A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)

The Mask of Dimitrios

directed by Jean Negulesco,

written by Frank Gruber,

based on the novel A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler,

was released in the United States on July 1, 1944.

Music by Adolph Deutsch.

Cast:

Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen, Steven Geray, Florence Bates, Eduardo Ciannelli, Kurt Katch, Marjorie Hoshelle, Georges Metaxa, John Abbott, Monte Blue, David Hoffman.

Recommended reading:

A Coffin for Dimitrios

by Eric Ambler.
Filmed as The Mask of Dimitrios (1944), directed by Jean Negulesco.

Published by Vintage Crime / Black Lizard.
Published 1939.

ISBN-10: 0375726713
ISBN-13: 9780375726712
 
Description:

"Our greatest thriller writer." – Graham Greene.

"Anyone who hasn't read Ambler is in for a real treat." – The Washington Post Book World.

A chance encounter with a Turkish colonel with a penchant for British crime novels leads mystery writer Charles Latimer into a world of sinister political and criminal maneuvers throughout the Balkans in the years between the world wars. Hoping that the career of the notorious Dimitrios, whose body has been identified in an Istanbul morgue, will inspire a plot for his next novel, Latimer soon finds himself caught up in a shadowy web of assassination, espionage, drugs, and treachery.

Born on this day – Sydney Greenstreet:

Sydney Greenstreet

Actor

December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954

Credits:

Malaya (1949); It's a Great Feeling (1949); Flamingo Road (1949); The Velvet Touch (1948); The Woman in White (1948); Ruthless (1948); The Hucksters (1947); That Way with Women (1947); The Verdict (1946); Devotion (1946); Three Strangers (1946); Christmas in Connecticut (1945); Pillow to Post (1945); Conflict (1945); Hollywood Canteen (1944); The Conspirators (1944); The Mask of Dimitrios (1944); Between Two Worlds (1944); Passage to Marseille (1944); Background to Danger (1943); Casablanca (1942); Across the Pacific (1942); They Died with Their Boots On (1941); The Maltese Falcon (1941).