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Special Features
- Production stills
- Illustrated essay on British sci-fi/horror filmmaking by film historian Bruce Eder
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The mystery begins near an American Air Force base in Manitoba, where unexplainable deaths are somehow connected to the base's atomic reactor, which is being used to power an experiment in advanced long-distance radar. Thompson (who later starred in the TV series Daktari) plays Major Cummings, who discovers that the lethal monsters--slurping, unseen "mental vampires"--are actually the horrific byproduct of thought-control experiments conducted by hapless, retired professor (echoes of Forbidden Planet's "monster from the Id"). Once visible, the fiendish brains are everywhere, attacking our heroes from every angle (in a scene that may have inspired Night of the Living Dead), and sputtering puddles of blood when riddled by bullets. This climactic scene--a triumph of latex rubber fiends, eerie sound effects, and stop-motion animation--was a gory breakthrough in 1958, and it's still a worthy precursor to every gross-out monster movie that followed in its trendsetting wake. Beware the faceless fiends! --Jeff Shannon
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Customer Reviews
The video quality is as good as we can expect. It is certainly sharper and brighter than other recent presentations of the film, but unfortunately, there ARE sequences where the scratches and wear obviously could not be spirited away digitally. I sincerely doubt that any fan of the movie will mind; this isn't Bergman or Fellini we're talking about! (In the opening scene, an Air Force office is suggesting to his fellow officer that perhaps "sleep would be better than all the benzedrine you're taking." The other fellow proceeds to slam down another few bennies....only in the movies, folks!)
The extras include trailers from several other movies produced by Gordon, stills, production notes, and a full-length commentary by Gordon (executive producer) with Bruce Eder. There's a LOT of discussion about American actors in England, aiming for the American market, working with the German special effects duo, and even some very interesting background on the original "Weird Tales" story that was the basis for the film. Unfortunately, this is less a "commentary" than an interview - the discussion between the two is interesting, but almost NEVER has anything to do with what is happening in the movie, and frankly I can't recommend trying to watch the flick while listening to this track.
... Read more ›As the film begins we're at a U.S. Air Force base in Canada and we see a lone guard at night on the perimeter. After hearing some strange noises from the nearby woods followed by a blood curdling scream, the guard investigates and finds a corpse of a local man with a terror-stricken expression on his face. Major Jeff Cummings (Thompson) wants an autopsy performed on the deceased, but the man's sister, Barbara Griselle (Parker), is unwilling which causes problems as the local population isn't too keen on having an atomic powered military instillation in the area (there's quite a bit of fear about radiation). If that wasn't enough, there's also an issue with the experiments being performed at the base, those involving boosting radar capacity (to spy on those evil Reds) through the use of atomic energy in that every time they juice things up, there's a mysterious power drain...hmmm...... Read more ›
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).
... Read more ›
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