# Can you identify this movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 25, 1999, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-movie/9977 "1999-10-25T13:32:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-movie/9977/1 "1999-10-25T13:32:00Z")
This is a pretty bad clue, but ALL I saw was the last minute or so of the movie. There was a group of kids ( ages 8-14, maybe), and there was some “strange guy” in town, and all the kids were terrified of him. Apparently, he had some kind of deformity, or he had been seriously injured, because (it seems) that he was a bag or something on his head, so that people wouldn’t be terrified. Anyway, at the end, this group of kids is near him, and he calls out to one of them to come over. The kid is hesitant at first, but eventually does, and finds out that the guy is not an evil demon after all. Then the movie ends. It’s black-and-white, and probably dates from the early '60’s. It had a “To Kill a Mockingbird” fell to it. Any thoughts?? I saw it only one time, and that was over 20 years ago, but that’s the best I can do. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-movie/9977/2 "1999-10-25T20:20:00Z")
## Well, don’t make it **too** easy, Mjollnir! “And comb London’s teeming millions for him? Had we but world enough and time.” Dorothy L. Sayers _Murder Must Advertise_ ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-movie/9977/3 "1999-10-25T20:33:00Z")
Ummm, Hollywood Revue of 1929? Mars Needs Women? Buck Benny Rides Again? Jeez, ya got ME stumped. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-movie/9977/4 "1999-10-25T23:28:00Z")
Any chance the guy was Peter Lorre? He was in a 1941 movie called “The Face Behind the Mask” – an innocent immigrant is burned and disfigured and turns to crime. ## I tried a search of IMDB with a plot keyword of “disfigurement” and it turned up a page or two of possibles. “And comb London’s teeming millions for him? Had we but world enough and time.” Dorothy L. Sayers _Murder Must Advertise_ ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-movie/9977/5 "1999-10-25T23:48:00Z")
Don’t think it was Mr. Lowenstein. Also, I got the idea that the character was basically benevolent, just misunderstood, similarly to Boo Radley and Albert Cavanaugh (“When Every Day was the Fourth of July”). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 1999, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-movie/9977/6 "1999-10-27T13:19:00Z")
Success!! The movie is “Face of Fire” with James Whitmore. Thanks for the responses.