Death Mask (1984)
Haunted by the drowning death of his own daughter, a police investigator embarks on an obsessive 10-year hunt for the identity of a dead boy, to the detriment of his family life.
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Sadly Over-hyped
Load of rubbish!!
Fresh and Exciting
Beautiful, moving film.
Farley Granger stars in this 1984 film, as a Medical Examiner who becomes obsessed with finding out the identity of a young boy who was found dead, without identification. Because his own child had died at a young age, the Granger character becomes completely fixated on discovering the boy's identity, at great personal cost.This film is in fact based on a true incident that occurred in Philadelphia in 1957. I have included an exceprt of a 1/1/07 article on the case from the NY Times in the IMDb Message board for this film. The parallels with the real case and this film are quite striking.I strongly recommend this film, and then reading up on the true case that inspired it.
Granger lends some gravitas to this story of a medical examiner who becomes obsessed with discovering the identity of an unknown boy whose body is discovered in a cardboard box. It's a shame that the filmmakers felt the need to embellish the incredible facts of the case with trite sentimentality and routine detective story clichés. Despite Granger's assured performance and some creepy moments, the narrative drive just isn't there. The only thing that kept me hooked was the need to discover for myself the identity of the boy. I was unaware of the real case so it was even more frustrating to reach the denouement and go away empty-handed.