La cara del terror

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Isidoro Ferry and William Hole Jr.; Executive Producer: Jack Miles; Released by Futuramic Films in America. Screenplay by Monroe Manning; Photography by Jose Aguayo; Edited by Antonio Ramirez; Music by Jose Buenagu. Starring: Lisa Gaye, Fernando Rey, Virgilio Teixeira, Gerard Tichy, Emilio Rodriguez and Conchita Cuetos.

Owing to Georges Franju's earlier classic "Eyes Without a Face", this oddly localed horror film (made in Spain) dealing with plastic surgery and revenge is very amateurish, partly due to hack auteur William Hole. The professional leading players help save the day, but it's really a waste of a good title.

Fernando Rey is a wheelchair-bound professor who has developed a formula that can heal scar tissue. When he alights upon the badly disfigured "Norma" (Lisa Gaye) he injects her with his serum with almost miraculous results, which he proceeds to display to his peers and friends. Unfortunately, the serum begins to wear off and "Norma" - who had only recently escaped from a mental institution determines to exact revenge on the doctor and his assistant "Alma". The acting and dialogue are competent, but the pace is shockingly slow - far too many development scenes and far too little actually happens to keep the attention until the last ten minutes when "Norma" goes on a bit of a murderous spree. Although the dubbing is not bad, and it looks like some of it has been re-shot in English; it still struggles to make much headway leaving more blemishes on the story than his serum could really ever hope to cure.

I thought this would be another "Facial Transplant" horror film, but not really. Our mad scientist (Aldo Rey), uses a new serum he's developed, to repair an escaped mental patient's face, (but he does not try removing others faces for the process.) Atmospheric, and often effective, the film is weakened by the director's insistence on filming it in English, despite much of the cast not actually being conversant in the language. Some performances are rather stilted by this convention, but it works, on the whole. Rey is near perfect as the lead, alternately masterful, then helpless, as the situation spirals out of his control. I believe this was removed from the usual PD sources, by the NAFTA/GATT stuff, but you know it's still lurking about. Rey was only a few years away from more "respectable", mainstream fare like "The French Connection". Well worth the effort for fans of gory 60's horror, and it's grisly highlights are often quite memorable.

Judexdot1

Except that it's not justified why she was hospitalized in a mental institution and that in the second half of the film the heroine has the left half of the face destroyed instead of the right, it's a very good film. Lisa Gaye is impeccable in a difficult role for any other actress. Veteran Fernando Rey, Luis Bunuel's favorite from movies like: "Viridiana", "Tristana", "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", "That Obscure Object of Desire", is very good too. Me, I didn't like the end. Norma doesn't deserve that stupid death, falling on the shard of glass. She doesn't deserve to die at all. I would have preferred to be helped by the doctor once again, this time with the right serum and then to help her leave the country.

Decent terror movie about a disfigured woman named Norma : Lisa Gaye , she come across a scientific investigating amazing effects of a serum , trying to synthesize the perfect skin . Then Norma is cured by doctor Charles Taylor : Fernando Rey , who develops a serum on skin of limited effects . But Norma results to be an escaped patient of a mental institution . Along the way she finds a job at a hotel and meets a playboy : Virgilio Teixeira who falls for her , and subsequently they get married . Meanwhile , two Police Inspectors : Emilio Rodriguez , Jose Martin, are investigating grisly events . But then things go wrong . Woman's flesh..Killer's soul ! Female, Yes But ..is she woman...or inhuman, Blood-Mad Beast ?

A creepy and eerie terror movie of the sixties with thrills , chills , intrigue, tension , twists and killings. The story is not massively strong , but it is not bad either , here director strings a few or different threads together and that along with intrigue as well as suspense throughout tends to ensure the film is always interesting and thrilling . Stars Lisa Gaye , Debra Paget's sister , as the nutty patient who escapes from a mental facility and she goes bersek . Fernando Rey gives a good acting , as usual, as a doctor who creates a serum able to repair scar tissue and attempts to cure a deformed woman . They are well accompanied by a motley plethora of familiar Spanish faces , such as : Conchita Cuetos a veteran actress who goes on playing , Virgilio Teixeira as her playboy lover , Gerard Tichy as a doctor , Sergio Mendizabal , Carlos Casaravilla, Ana Maria Custodio, and Emlio Rodríguez, Pepe Martin as Police detectives.

The film follows the wake of the classic "Eyes without face" 1960 the masterpiece directed by George Franju . This issue about doctors undergoing surgical operations to change faces of disfigured women was an ordinary theme in European cinema , especially by Jesús Franco or Jess Frank and his Orloff saga including : "Gritos en la noche" or The awful Dr Orloff 1962 , "El secreto del Dr Orloff" 1964 , "Orloff's Invisible Monster" 1970, "El enigma del Ataud" 1969, "El siniestro Dr Orloff" 1984 and "Faceless" 1987 or Los Depredadores de La Noche . And even Pedro Almodovar himself dealt with this plot about doctors undergoing bloody surgical operations as "La Piel Que Habito" 2011 with Antonio Banderas , Elena Anaya .

The motion picture made in medium budget was competently made by the Spanish Isidro M. Ferry and American William Hole Jr . Spanish filmmaker Isidro Ferri was a craftsman who directed a few films , shorts , documentary , such as : Cruzada en el Mar , Escala en Hi-Fi and El Pisito. While the American William Hole Jr. was a producer/director who made some films such as : Hell Bound , Four Fast Guns , The Continental Twist and a lot of TV episodes from TV series : Peyton Place, 77 Sunset Strip, Colt 45 , Cheyenne , Bourbon Street , Hawaiian Eye , Sugarfeet , Boots and Saddles , among others.