Directed and written by Georges Franju, Eyes Without a Face had an ignoble introduction to U.S. audiences, playing as a second feature with The Manster when, in truth, this movie is anything but the kind of junky B-movie audiences were led to believe it was. After all, it was released as The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, and that title, while great, doesn’t speak to the art inside this film.
This is the story of Doctor Génessier (Pierre Brasseur), who becomes obsessed with fixing his daughter Christiane’s (Édith Scob) face, destroyed in a car crash he caused. Sitting in a strange lab surrounded by huge dogs and captured doves, he lures women to their doom, taking their faces and grafting them onto Christiane’s, but the surgeries never work; her face always falls apart, and she must return to wearing the all-white mask that conceals her decimated visage. At one point, she says, “My face frightens me. My mask frightens me even more.” Is it any wonder that John Carpenter has stated the influence that it had on his most famous film?
Obviously, Eyes Without a Face became the kind of movie Jess Franco loved so much that he remade it several times, starting with Gritos en la noche and building through his series of Orloff movies, perhaps best realized in Faceless. Other films inspired by this include the Michael Pataki-directed Mansion of the Doomed, Atom Age Vampire and Corruption.
I’m so pleased that this movie is now recognized as the classic that it is. When it came out, critics universally reviled it. Their error is now writ large for all to see.
One thought on “Eyes Without a Face (1960)”
Comments are closed.
Les Yeux Sans Visage is one of the greatest horror films of all time. It has a look and feel like no other and is disturbing to this day. I find it amazing that when doctors accomplished the first face transplant, it was in France. Proof of a higher power who also loves the movie? You be the judge.