Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)

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.

We're expecting more snow and cold weather for the next few days. Sooooo...out came another Amazon Prime video pick for a cold winter's afternoon. This time we watched 'The Curse of the Faceless Man'. It wasn't bad, I was hoping for more. It's basically a mummy story with a twist taking place in Pompeii instead of Egypt. There is an Egyptian tie-in explained in the plot. Something convenient about the man being killed during the eruption as he was stealing a box of treasures from a temple in the Egyptian area of Pompeii. Never knew there was such an area...but whatever. Instead of bandages this creature is covered in a rock like crust somehow formed from his being trapped during the volcano's eruptions thousands of years ago. There is the usual mummy like plot of the creature searching for his lost love reincarnated in the present time. This time he was a gladiator slave in love with a beautiful girl from a wealthy family. The ending was a bit convenient, still the movie did have its scary moments. Like when the woman was alone in the museum late at night drawing the stone like creature as it was laying on a table. As she draws she notices slight changes in his position and at first corrects her drawing...finally she realizes it is not a mistake he is moving ! Eventually he gets up and walks towards her. She is so frightened at first she can not even scream. Moments like that made it worthwhile. I give it a 4 rating.

The name of this movie eluded me but I was fortunate enough (I guess) to have seen it once or twice on "Doctor Shock Theatre" that we picked up out of Philly. Looking at some of the stills online, the walking statue is kinda ominous looking. I wouldn't want to see it following me home. It also looks like a costume the creature wore from the Lost In Space episode, "Wish Upon A Star." I wish I could remember more about the movie but it's been too many years since I last saw it. I remember it was supposed to take place in Italy. Written by Jerome Bixby who wrote many stories for episodic TV including the original Star Trek. If you happen upon this gem by all means add your review here.

CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN (1958) is little more than a low-budget rehash of "The Mummy" story set in Griffith Park Observatory doubling as the Museo di Pompeii and Malibu locations doubling as the Bay of Naples. Though the film clocks in at sixty-three or so minutes FACELESS MAN plods along at a snail's pace. Quintillus Aurelius is an Etruscan buried in the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius who returns to the 1950's to reclaim his lost love (who has superhuman lung power - when this girl screams, she SCREAMS!) Not completely without charm but not a memorable moment in horror film history either. With Richard Anderson (FORBIDDEN PLANET, SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN) and Wolf Barzell (FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER). This flick is probably best enjoyed by Baby Boomers who were frightened by it as kids.