The Age of Commercialism

As Good As It Gets

A Disappointing Continuation

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

PYRO...THE THING WITHOUT A FACE is an obscure American-financed horror flick shot in Spain with a Spanish cast and crew and an American leading actor. Said actor is none other than old timer Barry Sullivan (VIOLENT NAPLES) playing a Ferris wheel repairman of all things, whose seemingly perfect life falls into disarray when he begins an affair with an unstable woman.What follows is a tempestuous story of romance, revenge, tragedy, and retribution, yet it's all done on a very low budget which robs the film of its impact. It's also a derivative work which reminded me of HOUSE OF WAX and HORROR OF THE BLACK MUSEUM in places although it doesn't have much of the impact of either of those two classic horror flicks.Sullivan is an okay actor but he has little to work with in his one-dimensional role here. The supporting cast are quite average although future Euro starlet Soledad Miranda, who would be killed in a car accident at the outset of her burgeoning cult career six years later, has a central role in the latter half of the proceedings. As a film, this just about gets by with a few Gothic moments and a couple of decent fiery set-pieces, but it's obscure for good reason, which is that it's simply not very good.

When I saw that this film appeared to be a Spanish horror movie, I had very, very low expectations--as Spanish horror of the 60s and 70s typically is very high on the "cheese factor". However, it turned out that this really wasn't a horror film AND it was a pretty good film regardless where it was made. My only real complaint about all this is that in this era, practically all the foreign films were dubbed into English before coming here. While I must admit that the dubbing was excellent (far better than usual), my being an annoying purist makes me always want to see a captioned film. Plus, as the film starred American actor Barry Sullivan (and he used English throughout), then I guess they had no choice. It was a very common practice in Spain and Italy to get American actors and then dub them or the rest of the cast. Such luminaries as Burt Lancaster, Broderick Crawford, and Richard Basehart made such films.The plot of the film is a lot like the later FATAL ATTRACTION, as a husband has an affair with an unstable woman and later the unstable woman attacks the man's family. In this case, the lady decides that if the man's family is dead, then he will return to her and they can marry! So, she sets the family home on fire when he is gone, though he returns prematurely and is also burned badly in the fire--so much for the plan. While the family is killed, the husband swears vengeance on her and soon afterwords disappears from the hospital.For quite some time, the police vainly look but there is no trace of the man. However, several extended family members of the arsonist mistress are killed in fires and the police are convinced that she will be next---though she, too, has disappeared out of fear for her life.Now as I said above, the film turned out to be very good, though there were two things working against it. First, the doctors described Sullivan's burns as being so severe he didn't look human. However, later when you see him he looks pretty normal and like his old self (aside from his hands) yet when the police and an old friend see him, they don't even recognize him! So apparently, his friend was an idiot. Second, while I liked the film a lot, the second half was a tad disappointing as it went on too long. The time from the fire to the conclusion was a bit too much and would have benefited from being a tad shorter. Still, the ending was very good and it was a good film overall. It must have, to a degree, influenced the makers of FATAL ATTRACTION--they are THAT similar.

A married man has a torrid affair with the previous owner of the house he has bought for his family. He tries to end the affair, but the woman will have none of that. She sets the house on fire killing his wife and child. Burned beyond recognition, the man vows revenge against his former lover.Overall, Pyro is a nice little horror/thriller. The plot, although predictable, is generally well paced and only gets bogged down by the love story on one or two brief occasions. It's the predictability that keeps me from rating Pyro much higher. There are a few chills to be had like the scene where the woman runs in fear down a deserted street at night, afraid that her disfigured lover is about the catch-up with her. The acting is a notch or two above what I have seen in other early Spanish horror films. Both Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer give excellent performances in the lead roles. Hyer, in particular, is wonderful as the scheming, murderous ex-lover. Finally, the burn make-up is effectively creepy. It's the stuff of nightmares.A couple bits of trivia – first, apparently Pyro was the first horror/thriller movie to be filmed in Spain. Whether it's true or not, I don't know. I just thought it was interesting. Second, cult fans may be interested in catching Pyro to see a young, pre-Franco Soledad Miranda in a small role. She doesn't do much, but she has a presence about her that's unmistakable.

Engineer Vance Pierson moves to Spain, where he will oversee the construction of his invention: a generator shaped like a ferris wheel. He meets a desperate young woman, Laura, who is trying to burn down her home for the insurance money she so badly needs. He stops the woman and they become passionate lovers. But soon Vance wants to end the affair he's having with Laura and go back to his wife and daughter. The jilted mistress flares up into a jealous rage and gets revenge on Vance...and he makes it his mission in life to get his own revenge on her. Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer are excellent as the leads. Cult star Soledad Miranda appears as Liz, the daughter of a carnival worker, who falls for a mysterious older man. This was the first movie to have a $50 million set (Spain's Belesar Dam). Additionally, it was the first horror suspense movie filmed in Spain. It also was the first movie ever to be filmed in the province of Galicia, which is in northern Spain.