Curse of the Faceless Man

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Edward L. Cahn; Produced by Robert E. Kent; Executive proucer: Edward Small, for United Artists release. Screenplay by Jerome Bixby; Photography by Kenneth Peach; Edited by Grant Wytock; Music by Gerald Fried. Starring: Richard Anderson, Elaine Edwards, Adele Mara, Luis Van Rooten, Gar Moore, Felix Locher and Jan Arvan.

A cheapie in which a mummified Pompeiian stiff comes back to life with the aid of a magical amulet and proceeds to knock the folks dead. Features embarrassingly exploitative white nightgown and big jugs action.

Be warned, this film could scare young kids; it certainly horrified me when I was young. Today, it would probably horrify the general public and movie critics alike.

A workman digging in the debris around Naples unearths a small chest with valuable artifacts, all of which can be found on QVC. Just by coincidence, a stone creature is found nearby, an obvious victim of Vesuvius. While the creature is being transported to a laboratory, it suddenly comes alive and kills the truck driver. The truck driver's agent is to be congratulated for getting him removed very quickly from this film. Meanwhile, the scientists, led by Richard Anderson (over a decade before his scientist-stint in "The Six Million Dollar Man") try to make sense of all this. Anderson is joined in this incompetent pursuit by Luis Van Rooten, playing Dr. Fiorillo, and Adele Mara, playing Van Rooten's daughter. Van Rooten's attempt at an Italian accent sounds more like Tim Conway's Mr. Tudball character. He keeps pointing his pipe at everyone. I liked him much better as Ralph Kramden's landlord. Swiss-born Felix Locher joins the fray as another scientist; his accent is beyond description. Locher has the pivotal job of translating an inscription which lets us all know the identity of the stone guy. He is Quintillus Aurelius (no relation to Marcus). Quintillus is Latin for "Five illus." Apparently, Quintillus placed a curse on a family, almost 1900 years before the Corleone's thought of it.

Enter Anderson's fiancée, Tina, played by Elaine Edwards, who looks like Judy Holliday less the annoying voice. She is a painter and has dreams about a stone man (or perhaps it's Rock Hudson). She has dreamt about his discovery, about the truck driver being offed, etc. We also learn that Mara and Anderson had a thing for each other years ago. This has the makings of a romantic triangle; unfortunately, there is no onscreen chemistry between anyone, so the triangle reduces to a line segment, and ultimately, a point.

Anyway, if you're still reading this, Quintillus turns out to have been a slave who was in love with his master's daughter - and since there are only two women in the cast, and one of them is dreaming about him, I'll let you figure this one out.

There are several implausible scenes in this movie, even if you can get beyond a stone man walking around Naples. For instance, Van Rooten devises a clever plan to see if the creature is alive. With Anderson and Mara at his side, he places a brooch near the creature's prone body; naturally, the big guy awakens and goes for the brooch. It is at this point that all three realize they don't know how to stop the creature. Idiots! Can you say "Exit Strategy?" Later, the creature stalks Edwards, who inexplicably is left alone in her apartment, suffering from shock. And you thought your health care plan sucked. The creature breaks down the door of the building. No one hears this. Then he breaks down her apartment door. Edwards hears this, gets up, and puts on her nightgown. Yes, you want to look your best if you're about to be carried off by a monster. Finally, she screams when she catches sight of stone boy. Anderson, Van Rooten, et al, who are standing next to the building, manage to hear the scream, but were oblivious to all the prior crashing noises. Interestingly, everyone in Naples speaks English, even the Polizia.

Quintillus throws a few tantrums, belts some people around, and gives us the obligatory monster-carrying-the-girl scene, as he ultimately tries to take his true love into the sea to save her from Vesuvius. Anderson cleverly deduces that today's date is the same day that Vesuvius erupted ("2000 years earlier"). Well, it's more like 1,879 years. Maybe Anderson decided to round up the nearest millennium. But why nitpick?

Bob Bryant plays the stone Quintillus; at least no one can accuse his performance of being wooden. Horror and Sci-Fi actor Morris Ankrum narrates, and tells us what everyone in the cast is thinking. I didn't need this. The Bay of Naples is played by Southern California.

"The Curse of the Faceless Man" is a rather inconsequential yet enjoyable horror film from the 1950s. It stars Richard Anderson of "The Six Million Dollar Man" fame.

The story begins with a body and a box of jewels being found in the ruins of Pompeii. This isn't that unusual. But the body itself is silly because it looks exactly like the ones they have on display there...but those are actually plaster casts of the bodies which had long disintegrated. Inexplicably, this is supposed to be an entire person....and looks exactly like one of the casts. However, it holds a secret...it's not quite dead! And, it has a murderous appetite if anyone comes between it and his beloved...much like in the old classic horror film "The Mummy".

So is it any good? Well, I must say that the costume looked really good. As far as the plot and dialog go, they are, of course, quite silly. But many folks (like me) like schlocky old 50s horror pictures...and it's well worth seeing and reasonably entertaining. Far from perfect, and with needless narration, it's worth seeing if you like this sort of nonsense.

The name of this movie eluded me but I was fortunate enough (I guess) to have seen it once or twice on "Doctor Shock Theatre" that we picked up out of Philly. Looking at some of the stills online, the walking statue is kinda ominous looking. I wouldn't want to see it following me home. It also looks like a costume the creature wore from the Lost In Space episode, "Wish Upon A Star." I wish I could remember more about the movie but it's been too many years since I last saw it. I remember it was supposed to take place in Italy. Written by Jerome Bixby who wrote many stories for episodic TV including the original Star Trek. If you happen upon this gem by all means add your review here.

Indeed, the title character of this patently ridiculous schlock feature does not have a face. Incased in stone, he was a slave named Quintillus Aurelius in the days of ancient Rome, when Mount Vesuvius erupted and caused the destruction of the city of Pompeii. He's discovered in modern times by archaeologists, and goes about crushing the skulls of people unlucky enough to merely be in his way. What he really wants to do is reunite with the long ago noblewoman he loved, who's conveniently been reincarnated as the movies' leading lady, Tina Enright (Elaine Edwards).

There's nothing particularly special here, but undemanding fans of low budget genre fare could find enough to keep them interested. It's cheaply made like so many other movies of its kind, and devotes too much of its time to exposition. There's also some pretty silly but endearing narration, which was spoken by the great and prolific character actor of the period, Morris Ankrum. The characters are entertaining (bravo to Felix Locher as Dr. Emanuel; he really looks like he's having fun reeling off that exposition). Edwards is a hell of a screamer, and both she and Adele Mara are definitely pretty ladies. Luis Van Rooten as Dr. Carlo Fiorillo and Jan Arvan as the requisite police inspector are solid. Richard Anderson is a jut jawed, decent enough hero as Dr. Paul Mallon, but man, oh man, is Paul a stubborn dummy. He remains hard headed and skeptical for too long.

In the end, this is an okay update of Mummy type stories, if not too memorable overall. Writer Jerome Bixby, producer Robert E. Kent, and director Edward L. Cahn truly hit paydirt with a subsequent joint effort, "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", the movie that many people regard as the principal inspiration for "Alien".

Six out of 10.