Stolen Face (1952)

Dr Phillip Ritter a gifted plastic surgeon falls in love with an American woman Alice Brent . There's a problem with this one sided love affair and that is Alice is about to get married to another man called David . Unable to forget Alice Dr Ritter experiments by using plastic surgery on a habitual criminal called Lily Another early effort from Hammer studios before they moved in to the horror field and the most striking thing about STOLEN FACE is that it revolves around something that would have been total fantasy in 1952 and yet today is scientific fact - the face transplant . Okay you have to dismiss the reality which doesn't really tie in with the fictional portrayal as seen here but at least there's an element of imagination used . There's also a persuasive suggestion that ugly do ugly things such as crime due to an existentialist reaction as to how the world treats someone . This might be nonsense but is used as a running theme by some writers in their works most notably Colin Wilson . On top of that the idea of a man of science trying to benefit the human race and yet failing spectacularly would come to the fore from the Hammer studios later in the decade with their adaptations of THE QUATERMASS Experiment and FRANKENSTEIN so this has all the makings of a classic British thriller There's a good film in here somewhere but is constantly sabotaged by fundamental flaws . Typical of the period there's not a big pool of genuine working class actors in British Equity so we get parodies of those " Cor blimey guv " type London accents which is distracting and undermines the whole character of Lily in particular . There's also the soundtrack by Malcolm Arnold which is painfully intrusive where no character can do anything on screen without a loud manipulative orchestra starting up telling the audience how they should feel . You also have to suspend disbelief in thinking why of all the patients he could have chosen Ritter has to choose Lily for his ulterior experiment / Obviously if he chose a law abiding girl there wouldn't have been a story but the story we get here is under developed , inconsequential and ultimately disappointing

In 1950, American producer Robert Lippert formed a business alliance with Hammer studios. Under the agreement, Lippert would provide American acting talent - frequently shop-worn stars or just supporting actors who fancied a profitable trip out of the country - while Hammer would supply the rest of the cast and the production facilities. Together they would split the profits. Famous for his concern with the bottom line, Lippert produced over 140 films between 1946 and 1955, characteristically genre pieces such as I Shot Jesse James or Rocketship XM. For the British deal, most of the films were noir-ish thrillers - and include this title.Stolen Face (1952) offers the characteristic noir idea of loss, or confusion, of identity often through surgery, as seen in the plots of such titles as Dark Passage (1947), or Hollow Triumph (1958). In the present film, which has echoes of both Pygmalion and Vertigo, a plastic surgeon falls in love with a concert pianist during a vacation, thinks he has lost her to another man, and sets to copy her features when restoring the looks of another woman - incidentally a habitual criminal - whom he thereupon marries. If this sounds far fetched, then it is, but is carried of well enough by the two leads Paul Henreid and Lizabeth Scott, who between them produce sympathetic moments enough during early scenes that almost makes one forget limitations elsewhere. Another standout element of this film is the musical score by the late Malcom Arnold. There is also an interestingly ambiguous ending.

I've now watched three of the Hammer noirs that were recently released on DVD and while each is okay, there's nothing very memorable about any of them. That's precisely how I feel about Stolen Face – it's a decent watch, but it's nothing I would go out of my way to see again. While Paul Henreid gives a nice performance and Terence Fisher's direction is solid, the screenplay really lets them down. There just aren't any surprises. It's all nicely done, but I've seen it before. And if you haven't seen it, you can probably predict the film's outcome with a great deal of success. It's about as subtle as a hammer (pun intended) to the head. My enjoyment of the film isn't helped any by the presence of Lizabeth Scott. I've only seen her in two movies that I can name off the top of my head (this one and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers) and that's two too many. I can't stand the woman! One interesting aspect of Stolen Face is the interjection of little elements horror/sci-fi. After all, this is Hammer and this is Terence Fisher. It somehow seems appropriate.

If cosmetic surgeons could create faces like Lizabeth Scott's at will, they would be making even more than they earn now, or did half a century ago when A Stolen Face hit theaters. (But then the surgically created evil twin has been a staple of pulp movies up to John Woo's Face/Off). On holiday somewhere in England, Paul Henried, as an M.D., meets up with concert pianist (!) Scott. They fall in love, but she's spoken for. Back in grimy postwar London, he finds a patient horribly scarred in the blitz, refashions her into the spit-and-image of Scott, and marries the impudent baggage (a Cockney fadge with one foot in the gutter and the other on a banana peel). Their marriage, for some reason, does not go well. Re-enter Lizabeth Scott, who now has to play a double role.... The movie's not terrible, at least, though these noirish exercises set in Britain always have a fusty, half-hearted feel to them, more a mug of white tea than a snort of bonded Bourbon. Both Scott and Henried were well into the downslope of their careers -- which may, more than the locale, account for the enervated pace and commitment.