Fiend Without a Face [Criterion Collection]

Director: Arthur Crabtree, Marshall Thompson

Overview

"The disc for this fast-paced B-film is full of excellent features. The transfer itself is presented in widescreen (anamorphic) with an aspect ratio of 1.66:1. The sound is in Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono) and English subtitles are available. There are some mi

Product Details

Release Date:	01/30/2001
UPC:	0715515011327
Original Release:	1958
Rating:	NR
Source:	CRITERION
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[monaural]
Language:	English
Time:	1:14:00
Sales rank:	12,823

Special 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

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Marshall Thompson	Maj. Cummings
Terence Kilburn	Capt. Al Chester,Capt. Chester
Kim Parker	Barbara Griselle
Michael Balfour	Sgt. Kasper
Gilbert Winfield	Dr. Warren
Shane Cordell	Nurse
Stanley Maxted	Col. Butler
James Dyrenforth	Mayor Hawkins
Kerrigan Prescott	Atomic Engineer
Kynaston Reeves	Prof. Walgate
Peter Madden	Dr. Bradley
R. Meadows White	Ben Adams
Lala Loyd	Amelia Adams
Robert Mackenzie	Gibbons
Launce Maraschal	Melville
Gil Winfield	Dr. Warren
Buxton Orr	Composer

Technical Credits

Herbert Leder

John Croydon	Producer
Peter Nielsen	Special Effects
Peter Neilson	Special Effects
Puppel Nordhoff	Special Effects
Herbert Leder	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Chapters
0. Chapters
1. Prologue/Opening titles [3:46]
2. "We're all human here" [6:24]
3. Test Baker [5:09]
4. Two Deaths and a funeral [2:16]
5. Mental vampire [3:05]
6. Enough damage for one day [4:27]
7. Invisible predator [4:47]
8. Nothing supernatural [5:35]
9. Manhunt [6:49]
10. Cemetery [5:50]
11. Crisis at the plant [4:46]
12. To free thought [6:34]
13. Invisible no more! [7:46]
14. To kill a fiend [4:53]
15. Situation well in hand [1:55]

Menu

Main
Play The Movie
Menu Group #1 with 16 chapter(s) covering 01:14:10
Commentary
"mad Science Spawns Evil Fiends!"
Exploitation!
"It Came From..."
Trailers
Fiend without a Face
The Haunted Strangler
Corridors of Blood
First Man into Space
The Atomic Submarine
Lobby Cards
Vintage Ads

Editorial Reviews

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.