Curse of the Faceless Man (LA MALDICION DEL HOMBRE SIN CARA, Spain Import, see details for languages)

Before THE NIGHT STRANGLER and THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, Richard Anderson divided his work between a LOT of TV work (a regular role on one season of PERRY MASON and appearances in a host of other series) and movies (FORBIDDEN PLANET being one of the better known examples). FACELESS MAN gives him a solid role in a generally decent genre flick.Overall, it's essentially the expected 'mummy runs amok and carries off the girl' sort of thing that we've all come to love. However, there's the added the variation that this creature is a stone-encrusted victim of the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius that devastated Pompeii. That earns kudos for originality within a well-worn trope. However, I can't give it five-star review though, even if I do pull it out occasionally to watch it again.Why? Well, it runs into several snags as the film gets rolling.First of all, there's the ongoing narration. This is one of those unfortunate films in which they TELL you whats happening. That got (for me) a little annoying after a while. I think we all got the general idea that things had changed a bit since AD 79, and the new world would be confusing to someone from that era.Secondly, the female lead is a painful screamer and a bit of a whiner. I'm assuming she was given the job of portraying an average woman who's undergoing ongoing trauma as she gets to (unwillingly) know the resurrected Etruscan, but I honestly cringed whenever she appeared onscreen from the moment she began sniveling abut 'I have to know.' Her screaming voice (and she screams a lot) also set my teeth on edge.Lastly, there's a limiting quirk to the creature. The volcanic ash with which he was coated contained a radioactive element which kept him in an inert state on half-life until he was excavated from the ruins. En route to the museum, he manages movement twice -- once when his hand is first exposed by a workman (who looks a bit like Mel Blanc), and again when he musters sufficient energy to kill a truck driver. This depletes his supernatural batteries and he goes inert again.That would have put an end to him as a menace, if not for the subsequent decision to x-ray his outer crust to see what exactly is left inside the casing. That recharges him and he goes on a rather modest rampage, killing a museum guard and later kidnapping our hapless scream queen.Cue more narration, delivered over stock footage cribbed from some other film (likely THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII). In the end, there's another death before nature finishes him off like an ambulatory Alka Seltzer tablet,.I'd looked for this from my college days, having seem Jerome Bixby credit with the script. I caught up with it much later. As I like 'bad' movies, it gets a pass for bring decent entertainment. With the exception of the above points. Sans narration and with a better actress in the female lead role, it would have worked (for me at least) worked much better. Still, it's worth a watch for the novel elements of the plot.

What makes this movie’s take on the mummy story unique is that it’s based on an actual historical event - the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the summer of 79 AD which completely buried the city of Pompeii under tons of ash.The titular Faceless Man is one of the victims of this tragedy.Unfortunately, his “stony” existence is based on a fundamental misunderstanding.During the early archaeological excavations of Pompeii, they found strange cavities in the solidified volcanic ash that buried the entire city. When they filled these cavities with liquid plaster, they discovered the holes formed the shape of human victims frozen forever in their death throes. The actual bodies inside had long since disintegrated leaving the body’s impression in the solid ash like a mold.The victims’ bodies were not covered in lava which would’ve destroyed them... so our Faceless Man wasn’t made of stone, but of plaster by modern archeologists! (No wonder he dissolves in the water at the film’s climax.)Despite this error, knowing what the Faceless Man represents makes this particular “mummy” movie especially poignant and chilling.Kino Lorber’s BD is top notch especially for a film occupying the lower half of an original double-bill theatrical release with the superior “It! The Terror From Beyond Space” back in 1958.The BD’s detailed black and white image is quite sharp with good contrast and natural film grain throughout, and it astounds me that a little neglected film relegated to obscurity can look so good after all these years!There is also an entertaining and informative commentary included and well worth listening to.

un monnezzone del 58 della Metro in cui invece della classica mummia che riprende vita per assolvere ad una missione di secoli addietro c'è un etrusco estratto dalla lava del vesuvio che fa la stessa cosa. mistero e terrore di un horror poco coinvolgente ambiebtato in una italia un po' strana. mi piace per gli attori che all'epoca erano nel genere. un bel bianco e nero anche se in versione originale infatti avrei preferito l'edizione doppiata in italiano con le magnifiche voci dei nostri doppiatori. consigliato ai patiti del genere

variation sur une momie de pierre,très bon.

MGM Limited has come across with a wonderful B movie staple of Chiller Theatre Sixties television- Director Edward L Cahn's 'CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN'- 1957, one of the more unusual Mummy films released up to that period. We Horror fans were already introduced to the ancient love connections of Boris Karloff's IM-HO-TEP and Princess Anck-es-en-Amon and Lon Chaney Jr.s KHARIS and his beloved Princess Ananka. Now we meet Quintillus Aurelius, an Etruscan slave who is woken up after an excavation in Pompeii seeking his beloved Roman princess Lucilla Amorena who is now reincarnated in the body of artist Tina Enright. The film is the product of Producer Robert E Kent who along with Director Cahn released many Horror/Sci-Fi B's throughout the fifties. Cahn has a very uneven career in this genre blending the excellent (IT-THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE:1956) with the ludicrous (VOODOO WOMAN:1958). This film emerges as one of his best as the story moves at a great clip telling its story with the help of actor Morris Ankrum's narration and Kenneth Peach's beautiful ciarascuro black and white photograpy. It also helps that the atmosphere is enhanced with an excellent music score by Gerard Fried which lingers in the mind long after the film is over. The screenplay is by the underrated short story writer Jerome Bixby who also scribed Director Cahn's 'IT- THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE'. The cast is quite good with the beautiful Adele Mara who fans may remember as the tragic airline stewardess sucked out of the door of Robert Ryan's airplane in Director John Farrow's excellent 'BACK FROM ETERNITY'-1956, Felix Locher who also appeared as the elderly scientist in Director Richard Cunha's fun guilty pleasure 'FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER'-1958, and Elaine Edwards as the artist/princess. The only thorn is the hero played by Richard Anderson who is so wooden that he actually slows the film down. He would go on to memorable roles in Director Dan Curtis's 'THE NIGHT STRANGLER'- 1972 and becomes Lee Major's boss in the Seventies TV Series 'THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN'. Quintillus is created by the venerable Charles Gemorra who graced many an ape costume throughout the thirties and forties B-movies and actually suspends disbelief as the stone character actually comes to life. The makeup and costume is excellent for the zero budget this film had. The endeavor emerges as a great, tragic love story climaxing at the bay of Naples as Quintillus brings his beloved princess to the ocean believing he is still escaping the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, this sequence resembles the climax of Director Reginald Le Borg's 'THE MUMMY'S GHOST'- 1944 where Chaney's Kharis carries reincarnated Princess Ananka played by Ramsey Ames into the the nearby swamp. Highly recommended for fans of B-movie Fifties Horrors, MGM has released the definitive version in a crisp DVD-R transfer in full screen for all you perfectionists out there, alas, there are no extras or chapter breaks but it looks beautiful and really shows off the talents of Director Edward L Cahn who always came across with the goods no matter what he made.