Fiend Without a Face
| Fiend Without a Face | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Arthur Crabtree |
| Written by | Herbert J. Leder |
| Produced by | John Croydon |
| Starring | Marshall Thompson Kynaston Reeves Michael Balfour Kim Parker |
| Cinematography | Lionel Banes |
| Edited by | R.Q. McNaughton |
| Music by | Buxton Orr |
| Distributed by | Criterion (Region 1 DVD) |
Release dates | USA 3 July 1958, UK December 1958 |
Running time | 77 min. |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
Fiend Without a Face is a 1958 British black-and-white science fiction film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It tells the story of mysterious deaths at the hands of an invisible life-form that steals human brains and spinal columns. The film is based upon Amelia Reynolds Long's 1930 short story entitled "The Thought Monster", originally published in Weird Tales magazine.[1][2]
Plot synopsis
The film is set on an American airbase in rural Manitoba, Canada. Mysterious deaths begin to occur in the small town near the base, and postmortems reveal that the brains and spinal cords of the victims are somehow missing; only marks on each victim's neck are left as a clue. But the locals become convinced that nuclear fallout from radiation at the base is causing the strange deaths.
Jeff Cummings, an Air Force major, soon becomes suspicious of Professor Walgate, a British scientist living near the airbase, who has been experimenting with telekinetics; Walgate, it is soon revealed, has succeeded in developing telekinesis. The nuclear power experiments at the nearby base have enhanced it well beyond his intentions, and in the process created a new, malevolent, invisible life form that has developed its own intelligence and escaped his laboratory.
This intelligence soon begins to multiply its numbers by claiming more local victims. These creatures later become visible while continuing to feed on the higher levels of power now being generated at the airbase. Their mutated "bodies" are revealed to be the missing, now enlarged brains and connected spinal cords removed from their victims; the spinal cords have become very flexible and have sprouted feelers. These mutations allow the creatures to move quickly and even to leap; each brain has also developed a pair of small eyes on extended eye stalks.
The film climaxes with the visible creatures attacking an isolated house, where most of the film's main characters have gathered to discuss the growing crisis. Having come armed, the defenders soon discover the creatures can be easily dispatched with well-aimed gun shots to the exposed brains, but it is Major Cummings who saves the day by blowing up the airbase's nuclear power plant machinery, robbing the creatures of their high-energy power source, causing them to die quickly and then dissolve away.
Cast
- Marshall Thompson as Major Jeff Cummings
- Kynaston Reeves as Professor R. E. Walgate
- Michael Balfour as Sergeant Kasper
- Kim Parker as Barbara Griselle
- Terry Kilburn as Captain Al Chester
- Gil Winfield as Captain Warren, M. D.
- Shane Cordell as a nurse
- Stanley Maxted as Colonel G. Butler
- James Dyrenforth as Mayor Hawkins
- Kerrigan Prescott as an atomic engineer
Production and release
The film was made entirely in England. Its Canadian setting was chosen because it would appeal to both American and British Commonwealth movie audiences, while still being easy to replicate using the English shooting locations. U. S. Air Force stock aviation footage was also used to establish the military base setting and to pad-out the film's meager running time. The producers used primarily expatriate American and Canadian actors working in the United Kingdom, plus a few British actors dubbed by Americans.[1]
Screenwriter Herbert J. Leder was originally set to direct the film, but being American was unable to obtain a British work permit in time, so Arthur Crabtree replaced him as director.[1]
The film's visible brain creatures were created using stop-motion animation, very unusual on such a low budget science fiction thriller of this era. The director of these effects sequences was Florenz Von Nordoff, while the actual stop-motion animation was done in Munich by German special effects artist K. L. Lupel. Peter Neilson headed-up the British practical effects' crew.[1]
Fiend Without a Face created a public uproar after its British premiere at the Ritz Theater in Leicester Square in London's West End. The British Board of Film Censors had demanded a number of cuts before finally granting the film an “X” Certificate, but newspaper critics were still aghast at its horrifying special effects; questions were actually asked in Parliament as to why British censors had allowed the film to be released and further asked what was the British film industry thinking in trying to beat Hollywood at its own game of overdosing on blood and gore.
When the film opened in the U. S. at the Rialto Theatre on New York City's Times Square, the film's producer had an outside, front-of-the-house display showcasing a "living and breathing" Fiend in a steel-barred glass display case. It periodically moved its tail, startling on-lookers, and also made menacing sounds, done with the help of a concealed electrical device. The crowd that gathered on the sidewalk to watch the caged Fiend grew so large that N.Y.C. police finally ordered it removed because it was creating a public disturbance.
Remake
Roy Frumkes confirmed to Fangoria on 22 March 2010 that he would produce a remake of the film in 2011.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d Richard Gordon and Tom Weaver, commentary on the Criterion Collection DVD.
- ^ Amelia Reynolds Long http://amelialong.tripod.com/
- ^ ""STREET" cred for "FIEND WITHOUT A FACE" remake". Fangoria.
4. Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, Volume II (1958-1962), 1986. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-89950-170-2.