Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

mark.waltz Taking the three part "I Love a Mystery" to a new level of confusion, this second entry deals with shrunken heads, missing heads, poisoned darts and an extremely convoluted plot that had me squinting, huh? Jim Bannon's Jack Packard is back, and having just solved the mystery of an Asian cult demanding the head of a man doomed to die within a year, he's now dealing with South American head shrinkers, and all I can say is that even psychiatric help couldn't help my head figure this one out. On a return viewing, it confounded me more, and if the first film in the series had a pretentious ring to it, this one is one for whom the audaciousness bell had tolled. Artistically gorgeous to look at, it is twice as wordy as the first entry in the series (which did improve with the third and final installment), and is a far cry from Columbia's other mystery series of the 1940's of which there were many. At least even with characters coming in and out so fast, I could follow the "Lone Wolf", "Boston Blackie" and "Crime Doctor" series rather easily, but this one just left me shaking my head so much I thought it would fall off. Anita Louise is the leading heroine in this one, and there are all sorts of shady characters coming in and out, and an obvious villain that stood out like a sore neck.

csteidler Jack Packard and Doc Long are back—the detectives of I Love a Mystery. Jim Bannon is Packard: serious, cool, businesslike, and tough to fool. Barton Yarborough is Doc—he of the southern drawl, gentle sarcasm, and vaguely comical attitude and behavior. Together they tackle another case, this time attempting to sort out a set of entanglements involving family and colleagues of a missing adventurer.The opening minutes set up the mystery quite well—the characters are introduced and laid out carefully, but it's genuinely tough to tell who is who, who's on which side. Gradually, deliberately, the mystery opens and unravels and eventually builds to a rather exciting climax. The story itself features a shrunken head, the mysterious disappearance of an explorer who may or may not be dead in a jungle somewhere, a collection of his mutually suspicious family members, and a taxidermist who keeps a large black mountain lion in a cage outside his shop.The acting is passable if not great…Bannon and Yarborough are fine if slightly bland, Anita Louise and Michael Duane are tightly wound and thus somewhat unpredictable as the young couple, Mona Barrie is suitably concerned yet perhaps a tad shady as wife and stepmother.The dialog occasionally aims at humor (standing next to a museum case of shrunken heads, Packard suggests that he and Doc put their own heads together, at which Doc winces, "I wish you wouldn't say that"—ha ha) but mostly it's a straight mystery that plays up the spookiness of such elements as said shrunken heads, some poison dart guns, the growling cat, and the general air of suspicion that the family members create around themselves and each other.A tidy little mystery that's tightly plotted and efficiently produced.

ksf-2 A woman thinks her daughter is out to kill her, and hires a detective agency to help her. "Devil's Mask" had a perfectly respectable cast, and a good solid script. With shrunken heads from south America, a panther, and even the use of hypnosis were all probably pretty new and exotic in 1946. (Although, when they try to put someone under hypnosis, they shine a bright light in the actor's eyes, and loudly tap a pencil over and over, so not sure how deeply the actor could have gone under....) The acting by some of the actors is a tad flat, and assistant detective Doc Long (Bart Yarborough) spouts more southern descriptive phrases than necessary, probably the reasons for the low rating on IMDb and membership in the "B Movie" club. The lead detective playing Jack Packard , Jim Bannon, had played detectives and cowboys, and was married to Bea Benaderet (Pearl Bodine, in the Beverly Hillbillies). Another interesting connection, Frank Wilcox, who plays Professor Logan, would also go on to be the oil company president on "Beverly Hillbillies". Also.... Mona Barrie and Bea Benaderet were both in "The First Time". Anita Louise, who plays the daughter Janet in Devil's Mask, was really only six years younger than the Mother Mitchell (Mona Barrie). good Whodunnit. no big glaring plot holes. no big car chase scenes.

Neil Doyle The "I Love A Mystery" films from Columbia were all based on a radio program of that name and each of them was made into very entertaining mysteries, the sort that Columbia was able to churn out on a tight budget with directors like Henry Levin.This is the most gripping mystery in the batch, full of ingredients that will have you guessing from beginning to end just how all the loose ends will be tied up.It starts off with the shrunken heads discovered when a plane crashes en route from California to Columbia, and then the plot includes a missing explorer who has possibly been murdered, an anxious wife afraid that someone is trying to kill her (MONA BARRIE), a young woman and her fiancé (ANITA LOUISE and MICHAEL DUANE)who resent being followed by detectives, and the detectives hired to cover the case (JIM BANNON and BARTON YARBOROUGH). Also in the mix: a restless black panther and the weird owner of a taxidermist shop (PAUL E. BURNS).Nicely photographed in crisp B&W with appropriate set decorations, it has the look of a better than average programmer from Coumbia (not Republic, as another comment suggests).Guaranteed to surprise and entertain, it's well worth watching.