ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

Keep Watching the Skies! by Bill Warren.

This mostly lively pseudo-American thriller is one of the most ghoulish, gory pictures of the 50s. Although not bad overall, the film has a very conventional plot structure.

The acting is mediocre, the dialogue is perfunctory. There's also a scientific blunder at the climax: the control room of an atomic pile is blown up to shut down the pile. That would hardly do the trick.

Nonetheless, director Arthur Crabtree at least tries to build suspense in unconventional ways, and strives to keep the action going even when nothing is really happening.

There are no clever ideas, no good dialogue, very little characterization. The script serves as just a blueprint to get from the beginning to the end of the film.

There are two major virtues to Fiend Without a Face: the special effects, and the direction by Arthur Crabtree. The movie was filmed efficiently on a low budget. Crabtree attempts a few stabs at characterization.

The most memorable aspect of the film are the outstanding effects. The effects crew were Baron Florenz Von Nordhoff, K.L. Ruppel, Peter Neilson. The animation itself was done in Munich, Germany.

There are real exuberance and attention to detail shown in the startling effects that mark the climax of the picture. The fiends are treated inventively, with wit, and even a kind of characterization, at least enough to generate a bizarre, cockamamie pathos for these crawling brains.

It's a shame that no other company ever turned to Ruppel and Von Nordhoff for similar effects; they remain an unknown team — even experts in the field of special effects, such as Jim Danforth, confess to total ignorance about them. But this one film shows that they are imaginative, amusing and highly inventive.

Reviews of the film at the time were less than enthusiastic.

[Bud Brewster]

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I hate to say it, but if Bill had seen this movie as a ten-year kid at a drive-in theater with his parents — instead of as an aging film critic writing a review for his book — he wouldn't have written such a scathing analysis.

I'm surprised that he wrote things like, "The acting is mediocre, and the dialogue is perfunctory". For Pete's sake, what does "perfunctory" even mean?

I looked it up. Here's what I found.
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adjective: perfunctory

(of an action or gesture) carried out with a minimum of effort or reflection.
"He gave a perfunctory nod."
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Bill's review is, to but it bluntly, perfunctory.

He dismisses the movie's merits while admitting it was low budget. Did he expect a version of Hamlet on at bargain basement price?

To paraphrase the saying which states, "Those who can't DO . . . TEACH", I'll offer this variation.

"Those who can't PRODUCE movies . . . REVIEW them."
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's another YouTube member who has created Drive-in Double Feature videos which include a vintage drive-in "welcome messages”, the trailer for the movies, and a double feature

It even has those great old “snack bar” promos during intermission!

"So, get comfortable, folks! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!"

Enjoy!_

Drive In Double Feature: First Man Into Space & Fiend Without a Face (1958)


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)