Clearly inspired by Georges Franju’s masterpiece EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960), here we get another variation of the oft-filmed horror scenario, but this time comingled with ’80s gore, pathological perversions, a third-rate detective story, and plenty more besides. Based on a story co-written by French movie mogul René Château, and featuring an all-star cast, Jess Franco’s FACELESS (1988) is an ambitious and irresistibly crazed confection, which has finally made the leap to high definition thanks to those ever-reliable folks at Severin Films.
Dr. Flamand is a plastic surgeon (Helmut Berger) who runs an exclusive clinic on the outskirts of Paris. As he enjoys a night out in the city with his sister Ingrid (Christian Jean) and his assistant Nathalie (Brigitte Lahaie), he is accosted by one of his former patients whose face was disfigured following one of his procedures. Vowing revenge, she throws acid at him, but the botched attempt leaves Ingrid badly scarred, so with the help of Nathalie and their depraved servant Gordon (Gerard Zalcberg), they abduct various women in the hopes of restoring Ingrid’s face with a next-to-impossible “face transplant.” But when they kidnap Barbara Hallen (Caroline Munro), an American model working in Paris, her father (Telly Savalas) becomes suspicious when he doesn’t hear from her, so he hires Sam Morgan (Chris Mitchum), a private detective and ex-Army buddy, to try and track her down…
Anyone familiar with Franco’s lower-budgeted work throughout most of his career, will immediately be struck by the film’s polished veneer, which possesses a decidedly different tone compared to say, his highly individualistic Golden Films productions from the early-to-mid-eighties. Jess had not been privy to such financial splurges since his days working for Harry Alan Towers back in the ’60s, but this generous budget soon began causing problems for the veteran director as evidenced in Alain Petit’s book, Jess Franco ou le prospérités du bis. “Jess had a hard time holding on to his usual collaborators, who were indispensable in order to make a movie as close as possible to his own style”, wrote Petit. Petit also likened Jess to being “sole master of his ship” who was not used to overseeing “master ocean liners”, a set-up which Jess obviously disliked. But despite the stormy production difficulties, Franco still managed to demonstrate an astute use of a commercial genre, just like he did some 25 years previous when he helmed the similarly-themed THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF (1962). Much like any number of horror films from the period, FACELESS is also loaded with several practical gore effects,including decapitations, dismemberments, power-drill lobotomies, and of course, the requisite face transplants, one of which goes horribly wrong, but the film’s muted, far from convenient resolution (which is pure unadulterated Franco!) may have curtailed the film’s obvious commercial aspirations.
Topped off by an impressive, all-star international cast led by Helmut Berger, whose rather softly-spoken demeanour hides a sinister benignity, it is Anton Diffring whose performance as an egotistical ex-Nazi plastic surgeon (“The donors’ fears and panic are the best stimulants!”) that is most memorable. In a sly nod to his earlier role in Sidney Hayers’ CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960) as you guessed it, a plastic surgeon, Diffring commits himself with grim determination as the over-confident genius (“I’m sure your hands are still magical!” remarks Nathalie), and dominates the film whenever he’s onscreen and is rather unbefitting of his guest-star billing. Berger’s insatiably adulterous love interest comes in the beautiful shape of Euro-starlet Brigitte Lahaie, who also performs sincerely and exudes the quiet menace of a cold-blooded killer with perfection. Other than filling a vital catalytic function in the story, Caroline Munro’s character is mostly consigned to sitting in a padded cell while French screen veteran Stéphane Audran ‘sticks’ around long enough for a particularly gruesome bit of gory mayhem. Among other genuinely humourous touches, Franco-regular Howard Vernon shows up as the esteemed Dr. Orlof in a brief, but pivotal scene while Lina Romay also shows up in blink-and-you’ll-miss-her cameo as Orlof’s wife!
Despite its rather lofty pedigree, FACELESS was given spotty distribution in North America, first appearing on Canadian VHS courtesy of the long-defunct Malofilm, and heavily-edited in most English-speaking territories. Bypassing VHS altogether in the U.S., Franco’s ‘comeback’ film wasn’t officially released until 2004 when Shriek Show debuted the film on DVD. A fine-looking disc, this featured the uncut film with audio options in both English and French, but for some strange reason, the last line of the film was only spoken in French, which only helped validate Shriek Show’s poor QC issues at the time. However, it did include several fantastic extras including a wonderfully detailed feature-length French language audio commentary from Franco and Romay (subtitled in English), a ‘selected scenes’ audio commentary from Chris Mitchum, and video interviews with Franco, Mitchum and Munro, along with the usual photo gallery and theatrical trailer.
Absent from the home video market for the better part of two decades, Severin’s UHD / Blu-ray combo features a brand new 4K transfer and looks absolutely phenomenal, and works wonders with both the film’s surprisingly vibrant palette and Maurice Fellous’ slick camerawork, rendering it quite literally picture-perfect. A long time coming, the film will surely never look better than it does here! As expected, he DTS-HD 2.0 audio options in both English and French are also free of any issues, allowing Romano Musumarra’s incessant theme song (“Destination nowhere…”) to come through as clear as ever! Optional English subtitles are also provided.
Extras include the aforementioned audio commentary from Franco and Romay (once again subtitled in English), which, after all these years, still remains a must-listen for die-hard Francophiles or just casual viewers wanting to know more about this cinematic duo. French and English trailers conclude the extras on the UHD. The remainder of the extensive special features are included on the Blu-ray, and begin with The Female Predator (16m07s), an on-camera interview with Brigitte Lahaie produced by the folks at Le Chat qui Fume. In it, she discusses everything from producer René Château (who had a “desire to direct”), his falling out with Jean-Paul Belmondo, the rather remarkable cast he put together for FACELESS, the difficulties Franco had during the shoot (“I think that Jess Franco suffered a lot on this shoot!”), her thoughts on both Jean Rollin and Franco, and much more. In Facial Recognition (20m27s), author and film critic Kim Newman talks at great length about “Cinema’s Plastic Surgery Nightmares”, beginning with Lew Landers’ THE RAVEN (1935) to Franco’s FACELESS and everything in between including Franco’s earlier Dr. Orlof films. In Parisian Encounters (25m55s), Caroline Munro chats about her introduction to Franco, how she landed the role in FACELESS and why she decided to do it because it was “out there.” She also comments on her many co-stars and how “honoured” she felt to be working with many of them. Of course, being a Franco film, Murderous Passions and Flowers of Perversion author Stephen Thrower is interviewed in Predators of the Night (26m08s), which is another extremely thorough discussion about Jess’ working conditions throughout the ’80s and what led him to helming FACELESS, his many influences for the film, his dislike of working around special effects, and much more.
Other, no less significant bonuses include a Faceless EPK (8m33s), which contains behind-the-scenes clips of Jess directing on-set and brief interviews with Mitchum, Savalas and Berger, as well as Therese II: The Mission (3m31s), a short film starring Brigitte Lahaie as a gun-wielding nun, which was originally included on every 35mm print of FACELESS as a “preliminary program.” Being the completists that they are, Severin Films also incorporate the Franco and Mitchum interviews, and the ‘selected scenes’ commentary from Shriek Show’s disc.
Slickly constructed and featuring a wonderful cast, Jess Franco’s FACELESS is an irresistible and colourfully outrageous Euro horror, which is expertly handled by the folks at Severin Films with their flawless UHD / Blu-ray combo. As usual, their disc also includes reversible cover art and a wonderful slipcover, which fans of Brigitte Lahaie should appreciate. Order it direct from Severin Films.
PLEASE NOTE: All screen grabs are taken directly from the Blu-ray and not the UHD.
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