Wonderful character development!

Just perfect...

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I am predisposed to like 1950s B-movies. And this one had a lot of potential. It was basically the mummy story, set in the shadow of Vesuvius. Standard scientists and pretty girl who screams. There were two major flaws though. One was that the dialogue was full of exposition – "as you know, your specialty is… " And "as you know, you were once engaged to him." This is not only clumsy but easily remedied. In a strange twist, this movie actually made me scream aloud – but not for the reasons that the filmmakers would have wished. It was the voice-over narration. The film begins with it … All well and good. And then it goes away for 12 or 15 minutes and the next time it came back it surprised me so much I literally screamed. And it was ludicrous: the shot was of the scientist looking concerned for his girlfriend and the narration said something like " he was concerned for his girlfriend." It is as if they didn't trust their own actors, who were actually conveying the emotions quite well.The ending is very strange too. This could've been a solid seven star film for people like me who like old black-and-white horror and science fiction … But the two flaws were serious.

CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN is another of those No Budget, Poverty Row quickies that's surprisingly well done and ,even more surprisingly, very Entertaining. It's THE MUMMY by way of THE GOLEM, of course, but without all the overwrought Production Values. Hey, who needs Production Value(s) when you've got The Faceless Man, right...? Not that The Faceless One isn't an impressive Monster: he IS; many bigger-budgeted movies would've done well to have done as well as these guys did. CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN doesn't DRAG, that's for sure, and The Monster gets plenty of that all-important Screen Time. Can't ask for more.

1950's Black & White, stilted acting exercise from some otherwise good character actors of the period headed up by Richard Anderson, featuring Adele Mara (40's and 50's second lead actress in Westerns, and "Wake of the Red Witch" with John Wayne). Notable also for appearance of character actors Luis Van Rooten as Dr. Fiorello, and Gar Moore as Dr. Ricci. Elaine Edwards (Tina) provides the obligatory "woman screaming" scenes. Supposedly shot in the vicinity of Los Angeles' Griffith Park Observatory, but very few exterior shots verify that fact, and it could have been a back lot production for any well-equipped studio. Plot involves a 2000-year old Gladiator who comes back to life searching for his reincarnated true love in order to be reunited with her in death. Tina (Elaine Edwards) is the candidate. Bob Bryant is the Gladiator, wrapped in bandages and paper mache "stone", ala "The Mummy" films, and in the end is dissolved in sea water. A very "talky" picture - lots of talk, explanation, and very little action.

I remember seeing this film when i was about 8 or 9 in the early 1970s. I was scared stiff then but now look back on the memories and laugh. I discuss with my teenager kids about all the old hammer horror films that i used to watch from the 50s,60s and 70s.Im trying to get a copy of this film and any other films with the Faceless Man titles. ( black and white horrors ).If anyone can help me out it would be appreciated.I will pay money and costs of shipping or exchange for some items from Australia ie White pointers (Shark) tooth pendant.On vhs tape can be either ntsc or pal recordings.Just remember you can never replace the memories or scared feelings that these old hammer horrors gave us when we were young and impressionable.I gave this a 10 rating cos it was the first horror film i saw and the fond memories of how scared i was are still with me to this day 30 years later.