Friday 3 May 2013

MAY 3, 2013

091 THE CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN (1958) Directed by Edward L. Cahn **

As you might expect, a low-budget horror movie from producer Robert E. Kent but an easy time-killer if, like me, you are quite forgiving of this type of thing. It is in most respects just another perambulating Mummy film although in this case it is a man who was buried in the ashes when Mount Vesuvius destroyed the city of Pompeii. What more can I say except that it doesn't outstay its welcome and in one scene (see the still below) achieves a real eeeriness. The cast is nothing to get excited about although it does feature the lovely Adele Mara as one of the two females. The hero is Richard Anderson who looks rather unhappy and uncomfortable - perhaps because he'd read the script and knew he had to go into the sea wearing his toupee. Scripted by sci-fi writer Jerome Bixby who wrote IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (the precursor to ALIEN) and the interesting THE MAN FROM EARTH (2007).

The Curse of the Faceless Man

Also viewed :

092  THE HOBBIT (2012) Directed by Peter Jackson ****
093  PARTIE DE COMPAGNE (1938) Directed by Jean Renoir ****
094  BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING (1936) Directed by Jean Renoir ***

2 comments:

Cerpts said...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh dear. I haven't seen this one in years but I remember it being very very dull. I used to quite like it as a kid when I'd catch it on CREATURE DOUBLE FEATURE but when I finally saw it again in the late 90's I was decidedly underwhelmed. I'll have to dig out my VHS and give it another try. Like you, I am quite forgiving to this sort of thing and I suspect my rewatch will plunk me down somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. And of course we all know and love Richard Anderson as dear old Oscar Madison: head of the OSI in charge of bionic people!

ernest said...

So many of these old horror films have just been titles to me for so many years I suppose actually getting to see them tends to make me view them through rose tinted spectacles. However unless I am bored silly by them I see little point in hitting them with a critical baseball bat.