WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Fiend Without a Face 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:15.440 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.360 Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And today we're 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.439 gonna be talking about the nineteen fifty eight British sci 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:26.759 fi horror classic Fiend Without a Face. Uh, this is 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.680 truly a kind of international venture because this is a 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:36.280 British film about an American Atomic Air Force base in Canada. Yeah, 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.000 this is This is also independently financed if I remember correctly. 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:42.519 And hey everybody, we're classing it up a bit here 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.919 today because this is a Criterion collection. Um. I think 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.680 the only previous Criterion collection film we've watched was Godzilla 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:54.480 versus Hidora. Um. And now, if you're wondering, well, what 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.720 is the Criterion collection criteria, it is quote unquote important 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:03.320 classics and contemporary are films. So today's film is about 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.000 a bunch of dudes shooting brain monsters with handguns in 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:09.560 a truly marvelous fashion. I will say that the special 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.720 effects of the last like fifteen minutes of this movie, 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:16.080 it's hard to believe that they were released in a 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.760 movie of nineteen fifty eight, Like, uh, this is a 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.080 movie mostly about invisible monsters, but once you finally see 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:24.520 the monsters revealed in their true form at the end 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.800 of the movie, they are these amazing stop motion brain 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.080 creatures and they are Ray Harryhausen level. It's like top 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:39.000 notch stop motion effects. And also gore that is absolutely disgusting. 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.320 It's like when the when the military buzz cuts are 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.360 shooting these brains, there is just chunky salsa flying out 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.880 of the bullet holes. It is gross. Yeah. Yeah. And 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.200 the sound effects are wonderful to lots of squeaky sound 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.840 effects for these guys when they're crawling around, but also 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.000 when they're inevitably shot or busted up with an axe. 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.160 Uh yeah that the effects here really feel ahead of 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.080 their time. Um, you know, there may be some I'm 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.160 sure there are some other films you can compare them 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.440 favorably to. But like, just for my own part, I'm 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.080 thinking Brainstorm Monster. I also think of The Tingler. The 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.080 Tingler came out the following year in nine nine, and 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.720 I love The Tingler. That's a great film, great monster 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.000 but and and and it's it's effectively portrayed on the 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.480 on the screen. But the like the the effects gap 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.360 between how we see The Tingler and how we see 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:33.160 these creatures. Uh, it's it's pretty pretty wide. Yeah. I 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.399 would also say a major difference is that the main 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.239 actor in The Tingler is Vincent Price, who I mean, Yeah, 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.680 I gotta love Vincent Price. The main actor in this 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.919 movie is much more down the middle of the kind 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.840 of guy who was always the stock hero in these 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:51.000 nineteen fifties sci fi horror movies. Absolute flat top dolt, 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.799 just a gray bucket filled to the brim with skim milk. 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.200 What is it about these fifties movies having the most 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.359 boring square hero almost every time? Oh? Yeah, I mean 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:05.280 it very much seems to have been the style of 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.840 the day. I mean, I'm instantly reminded of fifty ones, 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:10.160 the Thing from Another World, which is just wall to 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.400 wall with interchangeable guys that look like this. But in 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.080 terms of characters, I did enjoy a bit of the 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.799 character texture in uh Fiend without a Face, because this 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:26.400 central rectangle man is surrounded by a really interesting cast 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.160 of weirdos. There's this guy named either Gibson or Gibbons 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.200 I don't remember, but he's like the town constable who 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.000 has this baffling accent. He sounds like he's from Mars like. 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.720 Sometimes he sounds Irish, sometimes he sounds Canadian, sometimes he 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.840 sounds like New York. I really could you tell what 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.400 was going on with this guy? I could not. In general, 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.680 the accents in this this movie, we're we're kind of varied. 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:52.680 At times, you felt more like you're in a European 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.560 setting supposed to a Canadian setting. But yeah, you've got him. 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:58.320 You've got the sandwich man. I don't know if you 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.040 noticed the sandwich man, the guy who's in the military 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.880 base trying to sneak bites of bologna when the commander 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.880 isn't looking. Uh. And then you've got the psychic scientists. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:09.880 This is our second movie in a row with an 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.040 awesome crank. And then finally, of course all the atomic 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.680 radiation stuff with the workers in the reactor corps who 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.240 look like they're wearing oiled up leather trench coats. Yea, 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.400 So is this a great movie all around? Not? Really 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.920 does have some really great monsters in it, But does 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:30.760 it meet the criterion criterion? Is it an important classic? Uh? Yeah? Sure? 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.640 Why not? Sure? Why not? I mean I find it 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.760 comforting that Criterion collection has a film like this in there, 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.000 because again, otherwise, you know, I love Criterion Collection. I 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:43.480 think they you know, they do a great job, and 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.400 some of their additions are fabulous. But either we're all 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:52.279 just um, you know, awesome Samurai films and Fellini pictures. Uh, 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.360 it wouldn't be the same. It's nice that you have 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.919 room for not only Cronenberg, but also a picture like this. 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.279 You gotta let the camp in. Yeah, and those middle 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.640 category movies too, that they do a lot of the 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.880 ones that are kind of artsy but also kind of 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.440 pulp trash, Like I feel like Night of the Hunter 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:10.279 is kind of in that middle category. I've got the 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:12.880 Criterion of that and it's great. Oh yeah, I mean 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.840 they also a Son of the White Mayor. The first 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.880 time I watched it, I watched it on the Criterion channel. 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.400 They're streaming product. So yeah, they have a lot of 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.599 animation on there. There's a lot of weird stuff in there. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.800 So if you if you know, they don't don't assume 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.360 that it is just Samurai films and Fellini. There's there's 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:31.880 room for a lot of other stuff. Not to say 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.880 Samurai films and Fellini are not awesome and cannot be 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.080 super weird as well. Now, before we get into discussing 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.000 some of the themes of this movie, what what's the 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.360 elevator pitch? I believe it is. Your brain is gross, 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.640 your brain is a monster? Oh man? How best to 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.719 quickly summarize this? There is like an atomic air base 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.120 somewhere in northern Canada. It's like way up in Manitoba, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.159 and it's being operated by the US military. They're running 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.160 some kind of radar experiments and they've got a big 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.680 nuclear reactor, and people in the local town or mad 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.720 because of the nuclear reactor. Their cows are giving sour milk. 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.719 People start mysteriously dying when they're being attacked by some 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.599 kind of invisible creature. And eventually the culprit is linked 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.440 to the psychical experiments of a crazy old crank who 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:22.320 specializes in what was they call it psychic investigations or something. Yeah, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:26.000 and he's kind of leeching radiation off of the research 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.240 facility to further these ends. But I think this movie 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.719 actually gives us a great opportunity to talk about a 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.479 problem faced by many horror movies that go this route, 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:40.360 which is how do you handle an invisible monster? Uh? Now, 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.640 even in a movie with a generally visible beast, the 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.000 question of how much you should show and how early 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.640 you should show it, I think it's a very important one. 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.360 I tend to air more on the side of showing 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.039 less of your monster, especially early on, even though I 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.400 love to see a good monster. You know, it's good 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:59.880 for the pacing of the film, keep the mystery alive long. 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:02.479 But at the same time, you've got to have some 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.640 interesting imagery in the movie to to excite the mind, 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.840 to sort of titillate the your your sense of horror. 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:11.320 You know, you need some swatches of fur to rub, 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.440 So you've got to show a little bit of the monster. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.520 A movie with an invisible monster can't exactly do this 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.520 by showing you like bits or flashes of the monster, 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.800 so they have to provide that texture some other way. 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.000 And maybe this can be through sound design, like we 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.960 can't see it, but we can hear it. Uh. Sometimes 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.960 this is through using environmental effects, like seeing things moving 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.520 around because of the monster or monster, or seeing footsteps 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:42.360 or something. And I think this movie, uh, it's most 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.240 memorable once you can finally see the brains that are 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.640 attacking everyone, But it actually has some earlier scenes that 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.800 do work very well with this invisibility criterion. One image 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.200 that really worked for me was the scene where the 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.360 Invisible Monster cuts a slit in a screen door, which 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.160 I think is all done with stop motion, but it 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.600 looks fantastic and it's very creepy. Yeah, that's a great sequence, 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:05.360 and it's it's our first I think it's our first 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.600 real taste of the stop motion mastery to come well. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.520 I was trying to think about movies that do invisible 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.920 monsters really well and thinking what techniques do they use, 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.560 how do they do it. One recent example that came 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:22.560 to mind is the remake of the universal horror classic 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.760 The Invisible Man. This version started Elizabeth Moss, and I 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:29.240 think this is a fantastic example. This movie works especially 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.880 well because the invisibility of the villain is not just 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.960 a blunt, practical aid to his evil plans, but it's 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.960 sort of a cohesive theme that's interwoven through the story. 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.320 Like it poses questions that people, you know, many people 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.720 would face at some point. What do you do when 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.480 the thing that is threatening you is something that nobody 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.000 can see, and if you can't see it yourself, how 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.000 do you know it's real? And not just a figment 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.360 of your imagination. Uh. And this place directly into the 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.480 mechanics of the film, like they're they're really scary scenes 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.640 in it, and they work by creating lots of uncertainty. 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.320 There's a lot of did we really just see that? 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:10.560 Or did I hear something weird? There are several memorable, long, 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.559 uneasy shots of empty rooms that there's nobody in the room, 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.360 nothing is moving. You're just seeing the empty room for 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.400 it for a long time, and you keep wondering, is 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:22.480 something going to happen? Am I going to see anything? 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.800 Am I gonna see something move? And the tension created 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:29.600 by that ambiguity is horror gold. Yeah, I've heard great 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.080 things about about this one. I haven't seen it yet, 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:33.760 and I have to have to say I was probably 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.600 a little bit turned off of the idea of invisible 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:41.880 man movies in general because of Paul Verrhoven's Hollow Man 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.920 Pictures years and years ago. Uh that is. I love 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.840 Paul Verehoven, but that movie is a travesty. It is horrible. 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.240 But I love Elizabeth Moss, So you know, some some 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:57.120 solid invisible man effects I'd be in for that. It's 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:01.520 it's weird to think about invisible man movies because I 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:03.880 don't know that it's very it's a very appealing concept, 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.199 obviously we keep coming back to it. Um. But then 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:09.840 to have a non visual enemy, you have to have 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.360 these visual clues to really drive home what's happening. And 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.720 then I also think about various ghost films and hologram 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:23.360 people movies where you have somebody who is invisible to everybody, 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.560 but the viewer can see them. And for some reason, 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:28.960 I was just wondering, like, does that work just as 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:33.720 well as having some sort of really cool invisible person affect? Um, 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:36.760 could you do an adaptation of the Invisible Man and 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.000 just say, actually, we're going to see the invisible man 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.360 the whole time, um, and that will just be our 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:43.640 point of view for things. Oh yeah, I see what 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.120 you're saying. Just so like it's understood that the characters 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.320 can't Well, actually, I can think of a movie that 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:52.160 is sort of like that, which is Predator. Uh you know, 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.840 so in Predator there are scenes where the alien has 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.720 its invisibility cloak on, and like we the audience can 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.120 see there's something there, it's not I mean, we can't 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.520 see the full design of the creature, but we can 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.960 see a kind of blurry humanoid outline. The audience is 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.839 able to see this in a way that the characters can't. Really. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.120 I think there's only like one character in the movie 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:16.520 who can kind of see something when none of the 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.200 others can. But there's actually a way. I would say 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.040 that Fiend Without a Face and Predator have something very 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:27.640 similar in common. Both are movies with invisible monsters that 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.960 create a kind of boundary crossing revelatory moment in the 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.840 final act of the film when the invisibility is is 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:38.600 turned off. Basically like for most of the runtime in 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.560 both movies, the monsters are invisible, but then in the 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.000 last fifteen minutes or so, the invisibility fails and we 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:49.160 get to see their true form, and that transition is exciting. 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:50.800 It makes it feel like the movie is kind of 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.960 ascended into a different place, at different level of steaks. 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.040 It creates this escalating sense of horror that I think 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.640 would not be the case if the monsters had just 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.960 been fully visible from early on. Yeah. Yeah, and it 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:06.319 works well like that because that's like you said earlier, 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.600 that's that's often the case with monsters in general. Uh, 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:11.920 don't show a lot of the monster early on. Maybe 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.079 you even rely on a lot of like monster point 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:19.040 of view shots and uh, and shots that sometimes obscure 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:21.960 completely the creature that will be revealed in full later 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.240 on in the picture. Yeah, it's nice to get little 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.240 glimpses or clues, like I think in in Predator, there's 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.320 a scene early on where we don't see the creatures 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.240 full form, but we see I think, like we see 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.360 from its point of view and we see like it's 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:37.480 arm after it's been injured or something. And then with 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:39.760 the brains in this movie, we never see them in 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.000 full but like at one point we see one I 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.200 think moving through a puddle of paint or something, and 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.600 and you see the trail that it leaves. Yeah, Predator 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.240 and Fiend Without a Face are are also similar in 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.560 that some movies put off as long as possible showing 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.680 you that monster because, let's face it, the monster effect 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.000 is not that great. But both Predator and Fiend without 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.680 a Face have amazing monsters, you know, given the time 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.160 periods that these films were released in, and also like 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.320 the budgetary constraints, uh, certainly on Fiend without a Face. Uh, 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.720 Like both both of the effects look amazing when they're 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.920 finally revealed, which is almost something of a surprise in 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.200 a film. It's kind of like in Um Friday the 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:23.920 Thirteenth New Blood when the mask comes off Jason and 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.320 it looks so amazing. Okay, there's part of me that 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:31.440 doesn't expect the sub mask makeup to be that good. 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.600 You might expect something more like in Jason Takes Manhattan, 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:38.400 where he's like a cute gray muppet. Okay, Well, before 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:52.800 we go any further, maybe we should hear some trailer audio. Brain, 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:58.640 let's go. That's not all The entire spinal cord is missing. 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.800 It's incredible. This is if some mental vampire at work. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.400 Does it come from another country or another world? This 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.160 terrifying menace that G two must destroy before it's too late. 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:16.480 Image is fading, Sir, There it goes again. Central, How 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.480 can they stop this invisible force whose only warning is 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:30.200 a weird, blood chilling sound. Only two people still alive 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.440 can help this agent find the answers, the girl who 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.360 could be a spy and the scientist who could be 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:43.040 the destroyer of the entire human race. We're facing a 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:49.280 new form of life, but nobody understands. I believe it 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.800 feeds on the radiation from your atomic plants, and that 0:14:52.960 --> 0:15:02.520 it's evil to stop him. There's only one way shut 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.440 down your atomic If I can get through, I can 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:26.120 blow out the control room. All right. Yeah, that's a fun, 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:32.760 fun trailer um including the phrase science gone wild, which 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.120 I guess is more more of a pure statement at 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:38.560 the time. Um. I mean, another thing I think it's 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.560 worth appreciating about this is I think Fiend Without a 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.480 Face was really pushing what you could get away with 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:49.520 in terms of mainstream film content, in like the level 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.680 of terror and explicit gore and stuff. And this is 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.400 really unusual for the time period. I can't really think 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.160 of any other movie like it. No, No, it definitely 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:09.800 stands out. So let's get into some of the people 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.640 responsible for this baby. So the director was Author Crabtree, 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:18.640 who lived nine hundred British filmmaker who learned his craft 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.120 under a young Alfred Hitchcock. Um. Hitchcock wasn't that much 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.000 older than him, but but that's what we apparently learned 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.720 to learn his craft. His first film was Madonna of 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:31.840 the Seven Moons, and after a string of pictures in 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.760 the early nineteen fifties, he switched to directing TV, directing 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:38.800 episodes of such shows as the Adventures of Lancelot Uh 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:43.920 and The Adventures of Robin Hood even nine Ivanhoe starring 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:50.920 Roger Moore. What wow, that sounds dry. That sounds like 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:55.080 a dry cracker. Yeah. So towards the end of crab 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.520 Tree's career and he retired by he moved into B 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:00.960 Pictures for just hand full of pictures to sort of 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.560 round out his career. But as psychotronic film scholar Michael 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.560 Weldon points out, Crabtre really hit it out of the 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.840 park with the last two two hits in a row 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.600 from Mr Crabtree, Michael Weldon writes, because he directed Fiend 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.600 without a Face in nineteen eight, followed in nineteen fifty 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.639 nine by Horrors in the Black Museum, a hypno murder 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:25.359 film starring Michael Goff. Now, I have not seen that 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.160 other one, and also I can't vouch for this because 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:30.520 I don't remember what the source was. But sometime a 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:32.480 while back, I know I was reading about this movie 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:36.960 somewhere and recall the claim that Crabtree was not exactly 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.320 happy to be working on Fiend without a Face and 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:41.639 may have tried to Did he try to abandon the 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.640 production or something. Um, I don't I don't have details 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:46.119 on that. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me. This is 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:48.760 a guy who had not been doing B movies most 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:50.640 of his career and was just kind of, I think, 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:55.920 finishing things up career wise. Uh. But you see, that 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.080 is sometimes the case with with directors actors. You know, 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.480 you look back on on some of some of these 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.840 individuals and you might say, remember them for a certain picture, 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:08.600 but that picture wasn't really big on their radar at 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:10.760 the time. It was just like the next step then 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.920 before they moved on to this or that. Uh. So's 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.760 it's always interesting, like what pictures really stand out in 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.760 the filmography? Uh, you know, even though they might not 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.879 have been super important to that individual at that time. 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:25.119 But there's no arguing with the results. This one's this 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.520 one's fun. Yeah. All right. Now, as far as the 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.080 screenwriter on this goes, we'll get to the source material 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.840 in just a second, but the screenwriter was Herbert J. Later, 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.640 who was born in nineteen twelve died in ninety three. 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:40.880 And Joe, do you remember when we were talking about 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.679 the Nazi zombie movie shock Waves from seven and we 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.919 discussed the weird subgenre of Nazi zombie movies, and we 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.080 pointed to two earlier films with Nazi undead stuff in them. 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.600 Oh yeah, this seems to be a a rich vein 0:18:55.880 --> 0:19:01.560 of exploitation movie material undead Nazis in one way or another. There. Yeah, well, uh. 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:03.639 One of the films we mentioned was the nineteen forty 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.359 three John Carradine film titled Revenge of the Zombies, but 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.080 the other was the nineteen sixties six film titled The 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.520 Frozen Dead, in which a mad scientist keeps the heads 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.040 of Nazi war criminals alive so he can reattach them 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.280 to new bodies. Well, Herbert J. Leader wrote and directed 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.520 that movie. He also directed episodes of Meet the Press 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.920 in the late nineteen forties, and wrote and directed nineteen 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.479 sixty seven's It, starring Roddy McDowell. That's it with an 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.200 exclamation point, not to be confused with it with a period, 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:38.600 right or it or the question mark or the thought 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.000 provoking Lee open ended it with the semi colon. Oh yes, 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:45.760 all right, But like I said, this was this was 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.840 an adaptation of a of a existing work. That existing 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.800 work was was a short story titled The Thought Monster 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.600 by Amelia Reynolds who lived nineteen o three through nineteen 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:00.560 seventy eight. She was a groundbreaking female classic old author 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:04.520 who pinned the Thought Monster in ninety She wrote numerous 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:07.080 works of short fiction, many of which I'm to understand 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.280 or detective stories, though I have to admit I don't 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.560 think I've read any of her work unless I am. 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:15.960 You know, it's possible, given she wrote a number of things. 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.360 Maybe I read something in a in a compilation at 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.080 some point and I've completely forgotten about it. Yeah. Her 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:25.240 story was originally published in Weird Tales, and I think 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.960 you mentioned detective stories. I haven't read it in full, 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:30.960 but I found the full text and I did quickly 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.360 scan through it looking for some how some scenes might 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.960 align with scenes in the movie. And it looks to 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.400 me like the original story is more sort of detective 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.160 oriented than the movie is. I mean, the movie has 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:47.000 your standard military square as the leading man. In the movie, 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:49.840 he's named Major Cummings. In the original story, it seems 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:52.439 like Cummings is not a military dude, but a quote 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.399 psychic investigator who arrives in town to get to the 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.160 bottom of these strange murders. Yeah, now that sounds are 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.399 like a like a weird tale sort of story, and 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.000 get a psychic investigator in there, Rob, do you mind 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.760 if I read an exerpt from this story featuring a 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:09.879 trope that has come up on this show a number 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:13.040 of times before. Oh, all right, so this is from 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.440 the Thought Monster. That afternoon, Cummings called upon Dr Bradley, 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:19.840 who was the coroner. I am going to make a 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:23.280 strange request, doctor, he began, I'm going to ask that 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.399 you permit me to photograph the eyes of this poor man. 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:30.720 The doctor, greatly mystified, gave his consent. In the case 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.479 of a violent death, Cummings explained, as he set up 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:37.000 his apparatus, an image of the last thing seen is 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.320 usually photographed upon the retina of the eye. I want 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.640 to see whether a carefully developed enlargement won't show us 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.159 that image. At Bradley's interested request, he promised to let 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:49.880 him know the results of the experiment two or three 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.080 hours later. Therefore, he returned to the doctor's office. I 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:57.000 have drawn a blank, he confessed. The eye shows absolutely nothing, 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.480 but objected the doctor. I thought it was he saw 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:05.040 that killed him. Your theory didn't work, then asked Bradley, sympathetically. 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:08.600 No Cummings answered, And yet I don't see how it 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:11.239 could have failed in a case of this kind. There 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.000 is one alternative. Perhaps there was nothing for the dying 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:18.119 man to see. M hmmm, oh yeah. This is a 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:22.679 fun um bad science concept that famously pops up in 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:26.560 the nineteen two film Horror express uh Spanish horror film 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.080 that we've referenced a couple of times on the show, right, 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:32.120 the idea that you could find the killer's identity by 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.960 looking at the retina of the dead person, because the 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:37.560 killer was the last thing they saw. But here, uh, 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:40.240 they try to use that, but then it doesn't work 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:43.280 because I mean, in actuality it doesn't work, but also 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.760 because the monsters themselves are invisible. And this connects to 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:49.919 a recurring theme that's in the movie and the story 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.200 as well, which is that the people who died die 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.800 with expressions of such terror on their faces. It appears 0:22:56.840 --> 0:23:00.119 they have been scared to death. All right, now, I've 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.080