Rating: 
Summary: BRAINSTORMING
Review: Director Arthur Crabtree's FIEND WITHOUT A FACE is a real cult movie that has just entered the Criterion collection. As to THE CARNIVAL OF SOULS, a few weeks ago, Criterion does justice once again to a cinema that, for most of us, was the only interesting cinema in our teen days. How many of us have been introduced to movies thanks to such films as Terence Fisher's HORROR OF DRACULA, Fred Mc Leod Wilcox's FORBIDDEN PLANET or precisely FIEND WITHOUT A FACE ? Of course, a few years later, we discovered that cinema was also a thinking person's occupation and enjoyed Fellini, Godard and John Ford. But I still keep in my heart a guilty predilection for this B cinema often produced with peanuts but always hiding unvaluable pearls for the movie lover. The actors playing in FIEND WITHOUT A FACE are excellent considering the text they have to tell and the tremendous resemblance between the leading character Marshall Thompson and Glenn Ford adds to our pleasure. Furthermore , cinematography, editing and special effects are really above-average for this kind of production. The copy is gorgeous and the commentary of the producer of THE FIEND WITHOUT A FACE a source of countless accurate informations for someone interested in movie production. An essay about science-fiction in movies, dozens of posters and five trailers of very rare B-movies (at least, for an european viewer) complete this Criterion DVD presentation. A DVD zone nostalgic ones.
Rating: 
Summary: Shaky B-film from the 50s...
Review: Fiend Without a Face was made in the 50s when the threat of nuclear war was high and the fear of radio activity peaked. This 50s B-movie played on these fears as pseudo-science and CNS-vampires could strike fear in an audience. Presently, Fiend Without a Face can be seen as a feeble attempt to give the audience a shaky yawn. It is merely a historical monument of cinema history that offers an cinematic experience of B-film quality.
Rating:
Summary: Shaky B-film from the 50s...
Review: Fiend Without a Face was made in the 50s when the threat of nuclear war was high and the fear of radio activity peaked. This 50s B-movie played on these fears as pseudo-science and CNS-vampires could strike fear in an audience. Presently, Fiend Without a Face can be seen as a feeble attempt to give the audience a shaky yawn. It is merely a historical monument of cinema history that offers an cinematic experience of B-film quality.
Rating: 
Summary: FIEND OR FOE
Review: Following on the heels of THE BLOB, CRITERION steps up once again and delivers. And again, like THE BLOB before it, FIEND WITHOUT A FACE, a surprising, inventive and effective film, is given the kind of treatment and attention that most movies on DVD could only hope to receive. A new widescreen transfer, and for the most part a clear and sharp image (there are artifacts throughout this film - a few at the start that betray the age of the film - but never enough, often enough, to leave you feeling cheated in any way), solid sound and a host of extra's that have become a staple with most CRITERION releases. Only draw back - no poster like THE BLOB had (shame). For me the highlight of this whole package has to be the interview/commentary with executive producer Richard Gordon, hosted by and featuring Tom Weaver - whose work on THE WOLF MAN and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON are some of the best commentary tracks avaliable. Weaver is insightful, quick witted, sharp - he knows his background and the people who worked there - and coupled with both the film and Gordon - it's without equal. Worth the price alone - but as luck would have it you get everything else thrown in. FIEND is a excellent film. Solid, always moving forward, never a dull moment - and like THE BLOB, presents you with a compelling monster that works well both off screen as on. More than a worthy addition to your DVD library - but a must have.
Rating:
Summary: MY FAVORITE FIEND!!!!!!
Review: Forget the title, "Fiend Without a Face" is the one with the brain monsters. That is all you have to tell people for them to go, "Oh, yes! That movie! I remember that movie!" This 1958 British horror film might not be beloved, but is certainly memorable because of the stop-motion animation that is used to have the monster, which look like big brains with horns and a spinal chord tail that they use to move around and strangle their victims (these must have been partially responsible for inspiring the face-huggers from the "Alien" series). This is also one of the goriest films of that decade, which was probably a way of covering up for the fact that you had actors screaming and writhing in pain with a big fake brain monster taped to their heads sucking out their brains. Our tale is set at an American military base in Canada (interesting to see a British film play about American-Canadian tensions like this). The locals start dropping dead, screaming in horror, and the thinking is that it has to have something to do with the base, maybe that "atomic radar" thing they are working on, but probably just some sort of psychotic American G.I. (and this years before Vietnam, please note). But Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson), second in command at the base, has his suspicions about Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves), a retired expert in psychic phenomenon. But a visit to the Professor's house reveals one of those great experiments gone horribly wrong that we so often find at the heart of films like this one. The title "Fiend Without a Face" comes because for most of the movie the monsters are invisible (Steven Spielberg used this same approach with more success in "Jaws" and in both cases the rationale was more special effects problems that artistic sensibilities). I am not arguing this is a great horror film, but for a B-movie it does try to deliver for the final act. Yes, the killer mutant brains being invisible is problematic (a polite way of saying stupid, boys and girls), but there is something inherently appealing about the little killers once they pop up and starting hopping around in their cute little feeding frenzy. You can also have fun trying to figure out what there are more of in this film: horror movie clichés or killer brains (okay, clichés is the correct answer, but have fun counting both anyhow).
Rating:
Summary: A mutant brain eating monster brain mondo cliche movie
Review: Forget the title, "Fiend Without a Face" is the one with the brain monsters. That is all you have to tell people for them to go, "Oh, yes! That movie! I remember that movie!" This 1958 British horror film might not be beloved, but is certainly memorable because of the stop-motion animation that is used to have the monster, which look like big brains with horns and a spinal chord tail that they use to move around and strangle their victims (these must have been partially responsible for inspiring the face-huggers from the "Alien" series). This is also one of the goriest films of that decade, which was probably a way of covering up for the fact that you had actors screaming and writhing in pain with a big fake brain monster taped to their heads sucking out their brains. Our tale is set at an American military base in Canada (interesting to see a British film play about American-Canadian tensions like this). The locals start dropping dead, screaming in horror, and the thinking is that it has to have something to do with the base, maybe that "atomic radar" thing they are working on, but probably just some sort of psychotic American G.I. (and this years before Vietnam, please note). But Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson), second in command at the base, has his suspicions about Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves), a retired expert in psychic phenomenon. But a visit to the Professor's house reveals one of those great experiments gone horribly wrong that we so often find at the heart of films like this one. The title "Fiend Without a Face" comes because for most of the movie the monsters are invisible (Steven Spielberg used this same approach with more success in "Jaws" and in both cases the rationale was more special effects problems that artistic sensibilities). I am not arguing this is a great horror film, but for a B-movie it does try to deliver for the final act. Yes, the killer mutant brains being invisible is problematic (a polite way of saying stupid, boys and girls), but there is something inherently appealing about the little killers once they pop up and starting hopping around in their cute little feeding frenzy. You can also have fun trying to figure out what there are more of in this film: horror movie clichés or killer brains (okay, clichés is the correct answer, but have fun counting both anyhow).
Rating:
Summary: "Inchworm, Inchworm, Measuring the Spinal Cord..."
Review: Fun little 1958 shocker, whose greatest virtue is memorable special effects and a mercifully short running time. A U.S. air base in Canada is suffering power shortages and radar malfunctions, and commander Marshall Thompson wants to know why. The local populace are getting testy, since some of their number are suddenly losing their lives in an especially gruesome and inexplicable manner - their brains appear to have been sucked right out of their bodies. A bit of skulking detective work reveals the cause to be a local scientist, whose experiments in thought-projection have unexpectedly created an invisible monster - one that propagates itself by devouring human brains and spinal columns. The special effects for the monsters are great fun, once they're made visible - they're brains with antennae, attached to spinal columns whose nerve endings serve as legs, moving them along in a humping motion like inchworms. The little beasties wrap themselves around their victims' throats, puncture the base of their skulls, and...well, it's pretty nasty. The finale is terrific, with a besieged houseful of people fighting the horrible things off, and there's a creepy scene with a surviving victim whose I.Q. has drastically dropped and whose face has partly caved-in. It's a fairly dull plod getting to the great climactic battle, but worth the wait.
Rating:
Summary: Fiendish 50's Fun !!
Review: Here's a 50's creature feature that still packs an effective punch. It's one of my favorite creature features of the era and holds up surprisingly well. This independently produced British film , picked up by MGM in 1958, follows a now overly familiar formula but is more consistently paced than most films of its genre and era, and delivers a once extremely (and still pretty) gory ending-an ending which surely was part of the inspiration for scenes in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead a full decade later. This was a film that gave me childhood nightmares after I first watched it one Saturday night on Chiller Theater in the early 60's. I didn't realize then, that this little low-budget film from the 50's was considered one of the best of the 50's british sci-fi's and compares to the best of the Quartermas films and easily out gores them. The Quartermas films (which were re-makes of the British t.v. series) starred Brian Donleavy and gave the fledgling Hammer Films its first taste of success. Hammer would later abandon science fiction for gothic horror and even greater success. Other independent British film-makers meanwhile were producing science fiction and horror films. Several were copy-cats of American films. The American, 'Beast from 20,000 Fathoms' was turned into the British film, 'The Giant Behemoth' a few years later. Giant Ants thrilled Americans in the classic THEM !, so why not use that idea in a low budget British film called 'The Cosmic Monsters' (with F. Troops Forest Tucker). Just as a flood of low budget horror films produced by AIP, Corman, Bert I Gordon (no relation) and others were being made, producer Richard Gordon was able to make a few films with Boris Karloff. First he made The Haunted Strangler and later he would make Corridors of Blood. He would then make a couple films with another American actor named Marshall Thompson. Thompson had appeared in several films including IT! The Terror from Beyond Space a low budget sci-fi creature feature which wound up being a major inspiration for Alien. Producer Gordon would make Fiend Without A Face and later First Man Into Space with Thompson. The script for Fiend .... is by Herbert J. Leder and is based on Amelia Reynolds Long's story The Thought Monster, published in the famed pulp horror magazine WEIRD TALES way back in 1930. Fiend Without A Face was produced by the British Richard Gordon, filmed mostly in England, set in Canada (close to the American Border), starred an American actor (Marshal Thompson), and wound up being distributed by MGM . I won't spoil the film except to tell you the finale is a rather gory, gross-out which still packs a bit of a punch after all these years. The romantic aspects of the film are down-played and there is a wonderful subtext throughout the film for those who need a little more substance to savor. There is a very familiar scene in the film where windows are boarded up against an onslaught of the crawling, leaping, flying creatures. You'll know exactly where George Romero got the idea for several of his most effective shots in Night of the Living Dead. The finale' remains an impressive blend of effective camera work and revolting sound effects. Obviously the stop motion animation effects are quite primitive next to what is possible with CGI (Computers) today, but I still enjoy the other-worldly feel these type of Willis O'Brien/ Ray Harryhausen school of effects bring to the film. The special effects were the combined work of three people. Peter Neilson directed some second unit special effects set-ups in Canada , while Baron Von Nordhoff and K.L. Ruppell executed the stop motion animation work. For it's day it was state of the art and I'm sure grossed out the audiences of its day every bit as much (perhaps even more) then something like Hannibal grosses out audiences today. Critics in the late 50's in fact complained that the film was too gruesome and unpleasant! The film is much better than your average 50's creature feature for several reasons. First, none of the acting is wooden or overly phony. Second, the brief romantic sub-plot does not side-track the film at all. It's handled in a far less corny and cliche'd manner than usual. The script is also better than you'd expect and has a minimum of corn-ball lines. Even the explanations of how these creatures came into existence is handled quite well. Oh there are dated elements to the film to be sure. The low budget of the film is also obvious in several ways. The military base security isn't very impressive for instance. The final solution is also amusingly naive but forgiveable when you take into the account the film was made in 1958-a time when the space age had barely begun and the real dangers of atomic radiation were still being discovered. The film is a very economical 74 minutes long. It adheres to a well known formula but it remains a very effective film bereft of most of the flaws that plague low budget creature features of the 1950's. It's dated, but the script, acting, direction and effects are effective enough to entertain modern audiences. The director was Arthur Crabtree who began his career as a cinematographer and made films such as The Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944) and Horrors of the Black Museum (1959). Fiend with a Face isn't a film you watch and enjoy because of its high camp value but because it's still a suspenseful well done film. It might seem rather remarkable that a low budget creature feature would get the full Criterion red carpet treatment--but it shouldn't. This is one of the finest examples of an effective and for its day quite controversial film that was imported from England. Suspend your disbelief, don't expect 1990's effects and have a wonderful time. You might even find the film is effective enough to give you a few chills. Really !! Christopher Jarmick,is the author of The Glass Coccon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Fiendish 50's Fun !!
Review: Here's a 50's creature feature that still packs an effective punch. It's one of my favorite creature features of the era and holds up surprisingly well. This independently produced British film , picked up by MGM in 1958, follows a now overly familiar formula but is more consistently paced than most films of its genre and era, and delivers a once extremely (and still pretty) gory ending-an ending which surely was part of the inspiration for scenes in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead a full decade later. This was a film that gave me childhood nightmares after I first watched it one Saturday night on Chiller Theater in the early 60's. I didn't realize then, that this little low-budget film from the 50's was considered one of the best of the 50's british sci-fi's and compares to the best of the Quartermas films and easily out gores them. The Quartermas films (which were re-makes of the British t.v. series) starred Brian Donleavy and gave the fledgling Hammer Films its first taste of success. Hammer would later abandon science fiction for gothic horror and even greater success. Other independent British film-makers meanwhile were producing science fiction and horror films. Several were copy-cats of American films. The American, 'Beast from 20,000 Fathoms' was turned into the British film, 'The Giant Behemoth' a few years later. Giant Ants thrilled Americans in the classic THEM !, so why not use that idea in a low budget British film called 'The Cosmic Monsters' (with F. Troops Forest Tucker). Just as a flood of low budget horror films produced by AIP, Corman, Bert I Gordon (no relation) and others were being made, producer Richard Gordon was able to make a few films with Boris Karloff. First he made The Haunted Strangler and later he would make Corridors of Blood. He would then make a couple films with another American actor named Marshall Thompson. Thompson had appeared in several films including IT! The Terror from Beyond Space a low budget sci-fi creature feature which wound up being a major inspiration for Alien. Producer Gordon would make Fiend Without A Face and later First Man Into Space with Thompson. The script for Fiend .... is by Herbert J. Leder and is based on Amelia Reynolds Long's story The Thought Monster, published in the famed pulp horror magazine WEIRD TALES way back in 1930. Fiend Without A Face was produced by the British Richard Gordon, filmed mostly in England, set in Canada (close to the American Border), starred an American actor (Marshal Thompson), and wound up being distributed by MGM . I won't spoil the film except to tell you the finale is a rather gory, gross-out which still packs a bit of a punch after all these years. The romantic aspects of the film are down-played and there is a wonderful subtext throughout the film for those who need a little more substance to savor. There is a very familiar scene in the film where windows are boarded up against an onslaught of the crawling, leaping, flying creatures. You'll know exactly where George Romero got the idea for several of his most effective shots in Night of the Living Dead. The finale' remains an impressive blend of effective camera work and revolting sound effects. Obviously the stop motion animation effects are quite primitive next to what is possible with CGI (Computers) today, but I still enjoy the other-worldly feel these type of Willis O'Brien/ Ray Harryhausen school of effects bring to the film. The special effects were the combined work of three people. Peter Neilson directed some second unit special effects set-ups in Canada , while Baron Von Nordhoff and K.L. Ruppell executed the stop motion animation work. For it's day it was state of the art and I'm sure grossed out the audiences of its day every bit as much (perhaps even more) then something like Hannibal grosses out audiences today. Critics in the late 50's in fact complained that the film was too gruesome and unpleasant! The film is much better than your average 50's creature feature for several reasons. First, none of the acting is wooden or overly phony. Second, the brief romantic sub-plot does not side-track the film at all. It's handled in a far less corny and cliche'd manner than usual. The script is also better than you'd expect and has a minimum of corn-ball lines. Even the explanations of how these creatures came into existence is handled quite well. Oh there are dated elements to the film to be sure. The low budget of the film is also obvious in several ways. The military base security isn't very impressive for instance. The final solution is also amusingly naive but forgiveable when you take into the account the film was made in 1958-a time when the space age had barely begun and the real dangers of atomic radiation were still being discovered. The film is a very economical 74 minutes long. It adheres to a well known formula but it remains a very effective film bereft of most of the flaws that plague low budget creature features of the 1950's. It's dated, but the script, acting, direction and effects are effective enough to entertain modern audiences. The director was Arthur Crabtree who began his career as a cinematographer and made films such as The Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944) and Horrors of the Black Museum (1959). Fiend with a Face isn't a film you watch and enjoy because of its high camp value but because it's still a suspenseful well done film. It might seem rather remarkable that a low budget creature feature would get the full Criterion red carpet treatment--but it shouldn't. This is one of the finest examples of an effective and for its day quite controversial film that was imported from England. Suspend your disbelief, don't expect 1990's effects and have a wonderful time. You might even find the film is effective enough to give you a few chills. Really !! Christopher Jarmick,is the author of The Glass Coccon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent transfer - mediocre film
Review: I had never heard of this film and seeing it as an adult mayhave taken away some of the fun of it but I fail to see the fuss orthe reason that Criterion spent their time on this. It is a standard50's B film with good acting but the story moves very slow and issilly without any fun or campiness. As for the "specialeffects", they consist of what looks like plastic brains onspinal cords photographed in stop motion. On the plus side, thetransfer is crisp and the sound is great. Extra features include aninteresting commentary from the executive producer and a gallery oflobby cards and ads. Criterion does their standard quality jobhere.... Only for die hard fans only, I'm afraid. END
| 
