In this golden age of home viewing, the Criterion Collection still provides some of the best editions of the best movies ever released, usually with a rich selection of extras and often including audio commentaries (a feature they pioneered, and perhaps the greatest gift ever to film students and cinephiles alike). This column features one Criterion release per week, based on where my interests lead me.
There’s something oddly soothing about 1950s black-and-white horror movies—you can count on a cast of familiar character types and a plot that will set the world to rights by the time the final credits roll, plus the special effects are usually tame by modern standards. Arthur Crabtree’s Fiend Without a Face meets the first two conditions but the third is open to debate : the special effects are a little more disturbing than was usual for the time, explaining why this film it was originally rated “X” or “no children under 16” in the UK. It’s a British production (released by the amusingly titled “Eros Films” which makes me wonder what the rest of their movies were like), most of the important characters are members of the American military, and the action takes place on and around a military base in northern Manitoba.
Fiend Without a Face has a surprise in the opening minutes, as Al Chester (Terry Kilburn) suggests to his boss Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson) that more sleep and less Benzedrine might lead to an improved quality of life. Not something I’d expect from an American film of this period but maybe the Brits were more realistic about such matters, or maybe it was a sly dig in a dispute now lost to the sands of time. It’s an odd inclusion in any case, since it sets you up to think that uppers will play an important role in a film that’s ultimately about mental capabilities and getting involved in something that escapes your control.
To be fair, Cummings has a lot on his plate: it’s enough of a job being in charge of the U.S. Air Force Interceptor Command Experimental Station No. 6, but recently there’s been a series of murders and mutilations near the Station and it’s his problem to figure out what’s goingon. These mystery deaths begin before the title credits and will continue until almost the end credits, and there’s also some puzzling details that tie them together: all the victims have two puncture wounds at the base of the neck and are lacking their brain and spinal cord.
Locals are inclined to blame radiation and/or GIs gone rogue but Cummings focuses his investigative efforts on the townfolk themselves. In the process he becomes suspicious of retired British professor R. E. Walgate (Kynaston Reeves), who in fact turns out to be the film’s mad scientist. The other requisite horror character—the girl—shows up in the character of Barbara Griselle (Kim Parker in her best-known role). Of course she has a shower-based cheesecake scene because you don’t think we’re gay do you?
It seems Professor Walgate has been practicing thought projection in preparation for a book he’s writing, and radiation from the Station has enhanced his powers to an unexpected level. The consequences of his experiments won’t become visible (pun intended) until about to 80% mark, but we’ve seen their handiwork from the first. And to tell the truth, the creatures in this feature were a lot scarier when they were invisible and we had to infer their presence through plain old human acting.
Fiend Without a Face is an enjoyable B-picture and interesting as a window into what was on people’s minds in 1958. It has some nice stop motion action courtesy of K.L. Ruppel (some effects will remind you of James Whale’s The Invisible Man) but also a lot of clumsy use of stock footage and recycled sets, an inexcusably silly soundtrack, and overall not much attempt to exceed genre expectations. There must be some reason this film was an early acquisition of the Criterion Collection, but I’m not sure what that would be. | Sarah Boslaugh
Spine #: 92
Technical details: 92 min.; B&W; screen ratio 1.66:1; English.
Edition reviewed: DVD
Extras: audio commentary by executive producer Richard Gordon and genre film writer Tom Weaver; collection of stills and ephemera with commentary by Gordon and Weaver; an illustrated essay by Bruce Eder about Fiend Without a Face and British sci-fi and horror filmmaking; a collection of vintage lobby cards; a collection of vintage ads; trailers for 5 horror movies from Gordon Films.
Fun Fact: You know the “American” soldiers are being played by British actors when one of them salutes British rather than American style (at about 18 minutes).
Parting Thought: I’m not sure which is worse in this film, British actors trying to pass for Americans or British actors trying to pass for Canadians. Or are both outdone by the “town” exteriors looking like the doll house version of a movie set?
