Faceless (1988)

Sure, Jess Franco is just making a new version of The Awful Dr. Orloff with this film, but with bigger stars and plenty of gore. And when you're looking for a movie to watch at 4 AM - and I often am - it certainly does the trick.Dr. Frank Flamand (Helmut Berger, The Damned) is a plastic surgeon surrounded by gorgeous women who walk arm in arm to his fancy car. But a former patient wants revenge, so she tosses acid at him. Instead, she catches his sister, Ingrid, directly in the face, ruining her gorgeous looks.Fast forward to a modeling shoot in Paris, where Flamand's assistant Nathalie (Brigitte Lahaie, The Grapes of Death) drugs and abducts Barbara Hallen (Caroline Munro, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, Dr. Phibes Rises Again). As she locks her into the basement of the doctor's clinic, Nathalie gets into an argument with Gordon, a maniac who lives down in the basement and chops off women's arms for a hobby.Still with us? Then let's go to New York, where Barbara's dad Terry (Telly Savalas, Lisa and the Devil) is searching for his daughter, turning to Sam Morgan (Chris Mitchum, Alejandro Jodorowsky's Tusk, Bigfoot, Chisum) to help find her. He first travels to a Paris morgue, where her body supposedly is, but the headless victim is not her as its missing a mole.Flamand and his sister meet Dr. Orloff (Howard Vernon, who played Orloff in six of his seven films) and learn how they can cut off Barbara's face to replace Ingrid's thanks to a Nazi scientist named Dr. Karl Heinz Moser (Anton Diffring, who played numerous Nazis in his career, including in Jerry Lewis' long lost The Day the Clown Cried). Plus, Franco's longtime muse, Lina Romay, appears here as Orloff's wife. When the doctor returns to his office, he learns Gordon has cut up Barbara's face.Morgan beats up Barabra's photo director before a bouncer makes him leave. He has to call Terry with some bad news - his daughter had been working as a prostitute.The doctor finds another face donor for the surgery, but Moser destroys it. That means they need to find yet another victim, during which Barbara's credit card is traced to Flamand's clinic. Morgan starts surveillance and notices that Nathalie is wearing Barbara's clothes.He arrives at the clinic and takes out Gordon, but is overcome and locked into the cell with all of the girls. The villains leave them bricked up and with their air running out. But Sam has sent Barbara's dad a message, who gets ready to rescue everyone. And then...the movie ends.Yep.The original ending of the film had Sam saving the day, but Franco wanting to make it different and leave it open as to whether Sam and Barabara survived. Why? Why ask.Oh yeah - I almost forgot. This film is replete with surgical horror, like faces being sliced and lifted off, needles into eyeballs, scissors into throats and much, much more. If only it lived up to the promise of its poster, but that said, it's grimy and seedy fun if you can't find anything else.

The classic French horror film "Eyes Without a Face" is reworked, Jess Franco style, in this enjoyably lurid exploitation drama. An incredible international cast of stars is gathered for a story in which there are many horrific highlights, including a hypodermic needle jabbed into an eyeball, a decapitation by chainsaw, a person being drilled while hiding inside a locker, and the disturbing sight of a face being surgically removed while the patient is alive and conscious. Franco guides the various trashy goings-on with a steady hand, always keeping things interesting and amusing. An American fashion model, Barbara Hallen (Caroline Munro) is kidnapped and a supposedly tough as nails private eye, Sam Morgan (the miscast Chris Mitchum) is hired by her father (Telly Savalas) to find her. The perpetrators did it in the attempt to find a donor face for Ingrid Flamand (Christiane Jean), the sister of renowned plastic surgeon Frank Flamand (Helmut Berger), Ingrid having been scarred by a vindictive former patient of Frank's, victim of an unsuccessful surgery. The eclectic group of actors also includes the stunning Brigitte Lahaie as Nathalie, Frank's nurse and lover and partner in crime, Anton Diffring as the distinguished Dr. Moser, Stephane Audran as the snoopy Mme. Sherman, Franco regular Howard Vernon as Dr. Orloff (a role he'd played for the director a number of times previous), and Franco's longtime partner Lina Romay as Orloff's wife. In addition to the trashier moments, there are also more humorous ones, as Sam threatens an effeminate photographer. On location shooting in Paris is a real asset. The soundtrack, however, gets a little repetitive with its use of that one pop song. Makeup effects are mostly quite impressive and exploitation fans will be pleased with the level of depravity on display. They'll also get a kick out of the mentally slow, hulking henchman Gordon (Gerard Zalcberg) employed by Frank and Nathalie. A number of the women present are real lookers, and it could only have made this film even better had they shown off more of their bodies. Still, this is fun stuff overall for trash fans, although the ending falls short of real satisfaction what with the way it leaves us hanging. Eight out of 10.

Admittedly I set the bar pretty low when I go into a Jess Franco film. Typically his films seem to be produced in the most cynical manner possible, getting any and every washed-up actor available to shoot as few scenes as possible and then to find some way of padding out the running time to make it feature length.Despite its goofy direction, strange out-of-place intentional comedy, inane dialog, poor and repetitive music, and cheap production design, this film actually has a lot going for it. For one, the cast is pretty good with a decent later-career performance from a drug-addled Helmut Berger, coupled with an earnest P.I. role from Chris Mitchum, Brigitte Lahaie trying her best not to look like a porn star, and Caroline Munro doing her best with a curiously confused, tertiary role. Anton Diffring even pops by to play another of his trademark cold-hearted Nazi / crazed doctor characters. Also look fast for Franco regulars Howard Vernon and Lina Romay in a throwaway scene.Shockingly, the sleaze & gore maintains a good pace and gradually escalates as you'd expect it to in a competent horror film. The film very rarely drags and is really mostly weighed down by the nightclub and people-driving-around-looking-at-things filler scenes. Franco really just can't resist the urge to waste the audience's time. However, overall this film must surely rank with JACK THE RIPPER among his best works (however meaningless of a compliment that may be).

A wealthy father hires a private eye to go to France and track down his missing daughter. Her disappearance can be attributed to a plastic surgeon's secret set-up, in which he and his assistant kidnap young ladies and keep them in the clinic's basement. A year ago his sister was disfigured by acid and now he's doing his best to restore the beautiful face she once bestow with the help of an ex-Nazi surgeon. While, that's going on, the private eye is getting closer to finding the connection between the missing girls and the doctor's hard work.When I hear the name Jess Franco, I think of sleazy euro-trash by reputation. Although some might classify it as art. Now I finally got around to watching one of his films and "Faceless" wasn't bad at all. Actually I found it quite intriguing, although at times rather bland to begin with, but it gets better in the latter half by rallying up tension and ghastly makeup effects with surprising results and an oddly unexpected conclusion. Mixed into the straightforward material is an inventively malevolent idea (taken from 'The Awful Dr. Orloff') covered with manipulative erotic overtones and cold sadism. It was hard to take it all rather seriously because of the nature of certain reactions, developments and questionably hokey FX. Despite this factor the far-fetch storyline and splatter element was quite fun and extremely out-there in providing some uncomfortable moments (like what was going on in the operation room). The script was okay, but that's where I thought it got bland and was reasonably stiff when it went for that melancholy vibe.On hand Franco chips in with a very 80's soundtrack that has that silky touch that goes down well with the flick's upbeat tempo and overall style. He definitely has a fine eye for detail. The budget shows up immensely, especially with the make-up, but more so with the calibre of actors involved on the project. Telly Savalas is only in an effectively special guest appearance. It's the classy Helmut Berger and very enticing Brigitte Lahaie that stick in mind. Their chemistry and villainous nature just oozes off the screen. Caroline Munro also provides a valuable addition to the line-up. Anton Diffring, Florence Guerin, Howard Vernon and Christopher Mitchum (who likes his gum) are all reasonable too.This Euro joint by well renown Franco is well worth a look and a good stepping stone into his long career