IMDb RATING
6.1/10
4.8K
YOUR RATING
A scientist's thoughts materialize as an army of invisible brain-shaped monsters (complete with spinal-cord tails!) who terrorize an American military base in this nightmarish chiller.A scientist's thoughts materialize as an army of invisible brain-shaped monsters (complete with spinal-cord tails!) who terrorize an American military base in this nightmarish chiller.A scientist's thoughts materialize as an army of invisible brain-shaped monsters (complete with spinal-cord tails!) who terrorize an American military base in this nightmarish chiller.
Terry Kilburn
- Capt. Chester
- (as Terence Kilburn)
E. Kerrigan Prescott
- Atomic Engineer
- (as Kerrigan Prescott)
Meadows White
- Ben Adams
- (as R. Meadows White)
Sheldon Allan
- Sentry
- (uncredited)
Alexander Archdale
- Minister
- (uncredited)
Eddie Boyce
- Jacques Griselle
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn an interview, star Marshall Thompson recalled that director Arthur Crabtree didn't really want to direct the film--he thought sci-fi was "beneath" him--and often didn't show up for work. Eventually, according to Thompson, Crabtree walked off the picture, and Thompson himself finished directing it.
- GoofsAnyone who has been in the military for any army knows that while on guard duty, you can never leave your post for any reason until properly relieved. No military guard would leave their post to look in the woods for a disturbance.
- Quotes
Prof. R. E. Walgate: What have I unleashed?
- Alternate versionsOriginal UK cinema prints were cut by the BBFC to heavily reduce sounds and shots of gore from the climactic destruction of the creatures. The version shown by BBC as part of the Moviedrome season was the same cut cinema print, and this was later issued on UK DVD in 2003 on the 2 Entertain label.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Aweful Movies with Deadly Earnest: Fiend Without a Face (1973)
Featured review
Fun little odd addition to the Criterion collection...
... which usually highlights the best films from around the world. So you'd expect and you would find "Seven Samurai", "The Third Man", and "Bicycle Thieves" among those films that are or have been in print by this group. But why this film?
I really don't know. Maybe just because it is a good representative of late 50s sci fi horror. In the 30s and 40s people were afraid of Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man. In the nuclear age people are just not that afraid of a giant bat. And that's where this little film comes in.
It's got lots of angles covered. There is the American military installation in Canada. The military and the nearby farming community do not like or trust one another. There is nuclear power at the installation...to power the radars? I looked this up and this actually was a thing. The natives think that the nuclear power plant is effecting the milk production of their cows. One nearby villager is killed one night when he is nearby the military installation taking notes. Then three more locals are murdered. And in a most unusual way. Their brain and spinal column has been sucked out of their body through a tiny hole in their head. And whatever killed them is invisible. So now the Canadians think there is a crazy American soldier killing people on top of everything else.
So enter Major Cummings (Allan Thompson) to solve the mystery. And this film is so very 50s. Cummings openly takes speed so he can work late hours. His idea of romancing a gal is to walk into her house just because the door is unlocked to find her clad only in a bath towel. In fact, Cummings is so bad at romance a special sax score plays whenever it is supposed to be a romantic moment, because you'd never figure it out without that cue. And we are just waiting to see what this invisible killer looks like because it makes the weirdest "swishing" noises as it approaches.
To obviously be a B film with a low budget, it does what it does well, and manages to include as a clue a word that does not exist - "sibonetics". Did they mean cybernetics? I'd recommend this quirky little film that is home in both the Criterion Collection and MST3K.
I really don't know. Maybe just because it is a good representative of late 50s sci fi horror. In the 30s and 40s people were afraid of Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man. In the nuclear age people are just not that afraid of a giant bat. And that's where this little film comes in.
It's got lots of angles covered. There is the American military installation in Canada. The military and the nearby farming community do not like or trust one another. There is nuclear power at the installation...to power the radars? I looked this up and this actually was a thing. The natives think that the nuclear power plant is effecting the milk production of their cows. One nearby villager is killed one night when he is nearby the military installation taking notes. Then three more locals are murdered. And in a most unusual way. Their brain and spinal column has been sucked out of their body through a tiny hole in their head. And whatever killed them is invisible. So now the Canadians think there is a crazy American soldier killing people on top of everything else.
So enter Major Cummings (Allan Thompson) to solve the mystery. And this film is so very 50s. Cummings openly takes speed so he can work late hours. His idea of romancing a gal is to walk into her house just because the door is unlocked to find her clad only in a bath towel. In fact, Cummings is so bad at romance a special sax score plays whenever it is supposed to be a romantic moment, because you'd never figure it out without that cue. And we are just waiting to see what this invisible killer looks like because it makes the weirdest "swishing" noises as it approaches.
To obviously be a B film with a low budget, it does what it does well, and manages to include as a clue a word that does not exist - "sibonetics". Did they mean cybernetics? I'd recommend this quirky little film that is home in both the Criterion Collection and MST3K.
helpful•212
- AlsExGal
- Mar 28, 2021
- How long is Fiend Without a Face?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Ungeheuer ohne Gesicht
- Filming locations
- Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK(forest scenes)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £50,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 14 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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