Fiend Without a Face [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

This sci-fi horror cult classic is based in and around a U.S. long-range radar installation in the Canadian wilderness, where soldiers and civilians alike are being struck dead by an unseen force. At first, the base commander believes these murders may have been the work of spies operating out of the woods -- a theory supported by unexplained fluctuations in power output from the base's nuclear plant. Because of the proximity of this reactor, residents of the nearby town begin to suspect the deaths are due to a radiation leak. The real answer turns out to be far more insidious. Autopsies reveal that the victims' spinal fluids have been sucked dry through holes at the base of their skulls. The bizarre murders are eventually linked to the work of psychic researcher Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves), whose experiments materializing human thoughts have not only been causing the power fluctuations, but have resulted in the creation of invisible brain-monsters. When the creatures attack the plant operators, a massive surge of radiation is released, revealing the creatures in all their hideous glory -- depicted by marvelous stop-motion animation -- as leaping, tentacled brains with wriggling antennae. This leads to the film's notoriously gory final act, in which the brain-things surround our heroes in a mountain cabin, descending in droves as the dwindling band of survivors hack, chop, and blast away at the beasts. After a slightly sluggish start, this intelligent and well-crafted thriller kicks out all the jams for a horrific climax, distinguished by some of the goriest effects seen in any film from the 1950s. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Audio: PCM Mono
• Screen: Black and White
• Subtitle: English
• Features:
  • • Widescreen transfer, with digital picture restoration and enhanced for 16x9 televisions
    • Audio commentary with executive producer Richard Gordon and genre film writer Tom Weaver
    • Illustrated essay on British sci-fi/horror filmmaking by film historian Bruce Eder
    • Trailers from Gordon Films: "Fiend Without a Face," "The Haunted Strangler," "Corridors of Blood," "First Man Into Space," and "The Atomic Submarine"
    • Rare still photographs and ephemera, with commentary
    • Vintage advertisements and lobby cards
    • English subtitles

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Arthur Crabtree

• Producer:

  John Croydon

• Screenwriter:

  Herbert J. Leder

• Cinematographer:

  Lionel Banes

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Frederick Lewis

• Composer (Music Score):

  Buxton Orr

• Editor:

  R.Q. McNaughton

• Set Designer:

  John Elphick

• Costume Designer:

  Anna Duse

• Makeup:

  Jim Hydes

• Special Effects:

  Peter Neilson, Puppel Nordhoff

• First Assistant Director:

  Douglas Hickox

• Short Story Author:

  Amelia Reynolds Long

REVIEW:

• Fiend Without A Face is about as neat and compact a sci-fi chiller as was released in England in the 1950s -- indeed, it is the only real challenger to the primacy of Val Guest's two masterpieces of the genre, The Quatermass Experiment (1955) and Quatermass 2 (1956). Director Arthur Crabtree, a cinematopher-turned-director, demonstrated a good command of his actors -- mostly just getting out of the way and letting them run with the script -- and a knack for intermixing the drama and the special effects, the latter courtesy of Peter Neilson and Puppel Nordhoff. Coupled with a dedicated cast led by Marshall Thompson, who could play the material in the most earnest manner possible, the result is a truly chilling mystery/chiller. One of the novel twists of the story is an explanation for the killings that manages to put a grisly twist on Forbidden Planet's notion of monsters driven by man's own subconscious urges and destructiveness -- that, and the graphic realization of those ideas on camera, plus a final siege that recalls elements of Night Of The Living Dead, have helped to make Fiend Without A Face an enduring classic of its genre and, much like the Quatermass movies, one that continually gains new fans. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi