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Fiend Without a Face (1958 England)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 10:50 pm    Post subject: Fiend Without a Face (1958 England) Reply with quote

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An invisible killer is stalking the people on an Air Force base in Canada and the civilians in the nearby town. Autopsies of the bodies reveal that their brains have been sucked out. The killers (which become visible as the plot progresses) turn out to be white crawling brains with antennas and wiggling spinal-cord tails which they rap around the necks of their screaming victims.

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Alien beings? No -- they're the product of a brilliant and noble scientist who experiments with the "materialization of thought" (shades of "Forbidden Planet").

But the experiment goes wrong, producing evil disembodied creatures. The brain creatures start using their own intellects to create more creatures!

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The stop motion animation creatures were done by a team of Austrians. Although it's not nearly as smooth as Ray Harryhausen's work, the jerky movements lend a weird quality to the bizarre creatures, enhancing the viewer's belief that these things are definitely not natural.

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Starring Marshall Thompson ("First Man Into Space", "It! The Terror From Beyond Space"), Michael Balfour, Terence Kilburn, Kim Parker, and Gil Winfield. From the same people who did "First Man into Space". Directed by Arthur Crabtree.

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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Jul 20, 2022 12:03 pm; edited 15 times in total
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 3:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of my classes is anatomy. The "antennae" are actually the optic nerves. The eyes are not connected so it looks weird.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Never had heard about this film until I stumbled upon it this year. Low budget but a creepy & scary movie.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 9:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Good old YouTube has a fine copy of it.

________________ Fiend Without a Face 1958


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You can paste this URL —

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtR8EBEH1mA

— into the window in the website shown below. Click on thishttp://www.allsci-fi.com/posting.php?mode=editpost&p=3047 screen grab, and bookmark the site for next time.





After you've pasted the URL into the window above, click arrow on the right. The window will then look like the screen grab below.



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* Please note: For reasons unknown to modern science, SaveFrom.net will sometimes hunt for the video for several seconds and then give you this frustrating little message.




If so, just start all over by closing the SaveFrom.net window, then calling it back up and pasting in the URL again. I've had to do this three or times on some occasions, but eventually it works fine. Very Happy
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As soon as you get a window that looks like the picture below, right-click on the green download button and select "Save Link As . . . " from the pop-up menu that will appear.





When you select "Save Link As . . . " this will take you to the screen below. Your computer may-or-may-not automatically try to put the file in Downloads (the green arrow). But if it doesn't, simply select that so that the movie will be in the right place.





The name of the movie may already be in the window at the bottom, or you might have to change what is there to the name you want the file to be.

After you've renamed the file (or you decide to keep the name it already has), click Save (the red arrow).

When the movie finishes downloading — which can take 15 minutes to an hour, depending on the length of the movie and your own connection speed — it will look like this in your Downloads file if you select "View As Extra-Large Icons". Very Happy





You can watch it whenever you want. And you can copy it to a flash drive and watch it on your television if you have equipment that allows that.

Enjoy!

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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Oct 21, 2019 9:45 am; edited 12 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

___________________________________

The CHFB Friday chat crowd watched Fiend Without a Face on Feb 5th, and one of the members posted this wonderful picture on their thread about their Friday chat.

Lovely, eh? Gee, I wish more of our members enjoyed watching movies in the chat room. The CHFB gets 8 to 10 folks doing that . . . twice a week!
Sad



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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Dec 03, 2017 5:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Get a load a' this great trailer for Friend Without a Face! Imagine being ten years old and seeing this at the drive-in with your folks in 1958. Shocked

You'd beg 'em to bring you back to see it when it opened, and you'd promise to eat all your vegetables every day. Very Happy


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__________Fiend Without a Face Official Trailer


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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:22 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 5:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just think — in some parts of the world (monkey) brains are something YOU eat.

Now THEY are just getting THEIR "just" 'deserts'!

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2017 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

A few nice trivia items from IMDB (the text in blue, as usual). Cool
________________________________

In an interview, star Marshall Thompson recalled that director Arthur Crabtree didn't really want to direct the film — he thought sci-fi was "beneath" him--and often didn't show up for work. Eventually, according to Thompson, Crabtree walked off the picture, and Thompson himself finished directing it.

Note from me: This bumps up my admiration for Marshall Thompson considerably. Not only did he star in several very enjoyable sci-fi movies, he rescued this particular one from a prima donna who nearly wrecked the whole production!

A publicity stunt went somewhat wrong in New York City. The Rialto Theater in Times Square featured a sidewalk promotion for the film — one of the prop "brain creatures" was displayed in a cage on the sidewalk outside the theater, wired for sound and motion. However, the crowd it attracted grew so large that they were snarling pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and the police demanded that it be removed.

Note from me: Apparently the prop was pretty impressive when viewed "live and in person". And not only was it wired for sound and movement, it was in color! I wonder if there are any pictures of this historic event. Very Happy

The film created a public uproar after its premiere at the Ritz Theater in Leicester Square. The British Board of Film Censors had already demanded a number of cuts before granting it the "X" certificate.

Note from me: Cuts? "X" certificate? Good lord, what did those silly Brits do?

More to the point, is there any way the film could restored? Shocked

The Criterion Collection DVD has a hidden gag on it added by the authors. If you check the disc name/ID on a PC through various means, the ID reads AFIENDINNEEDISAFIENDINDEED, i.e. "A fiend in need is a fiend, indeed".

Note from me: Clever. After all, without this little joke, this would just be "A Fiend Without a Farce!" Laughing

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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:22 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Skullislander
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PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2017 12:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I also downloaded a copy of this movie direct from youtube a few weeks back, along with CURSE of the FLY, a similar-genre film also made in the UK with a similar ambience.

The stop-motion effects with the brain-spine things near the end are a highlight of subversive mainstream cinema to me personally and this movie is a welcome addition to the lower-budget gems prevailing from this period.
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
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What's that sound? Is it, perhaps, the sound of your brain being sucked out?

Try to imagine that sound. Well, you don't have to imagine it — not if you watch this delightful little film on the possible problems of introducing a new lifeform to our planet.



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ABOVE: Townfolk are worried; a Professor Walgate tries to explain his interesting theories; Marshall T. goes exploring.

The place is the U.S.-Canadian border. A conflict soon arises between the military personnel of a radar base and the locals.

You see, strange deaths have occurred. We, the audience, have the privilege of witnessing these, along with the ghastly sound effects (sort of a 'thump-thump>sluurpp' kind of vibe).

These are invisible creatures, apparently. Initial blame is on atomic fallout and there's even talk of jets flying overhead, causing cows to behave strangely.

But, it's none of the above. Instead, a local professor ends up offering a long explanation on his theories of thought materialization. Seems like he, uh, materialized a lot more than anyone would have wanted.


_____________

The film is creepy enough until this point — these little killers can't be seen and can therefore sneak up on people easily enough.

Then the local nuclear reactor's power is boosted and the things become visible. They appear to be moving brains, with spines attached. Their only desire is to fling themselves at people and try to suck their brains out, usually via the back of the neck.

The final battle is an intense, early example of bloody, grisly cinema at work. Bullets CAN kill these things, thankfully, and they tend to expire with a lot of blood oozing out. All this cinematic wonder is accomplished with stop-motion animation — not quite up to Harryhausen standards, but effective in its own little creepy way.

_______ ____

The most disturbing scene for me, however, was at the midway point, when a local tough guy gets half his brain sucked out (see photo above). He ends up severely mentally deficient — it's a truly unsettling, uncomfortable moment and a further reminder of the dangers posed by radical science and scientists (according to this film, at least).

Some of these concepts, sounds and creature FX were copied by the British Sci-Fi Horror film Island of Terror (1966), another stab at science-created monsters.

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10


_______________ Fiend Without A Face Review


__________



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus


Last edited by Bogmeister on Sun May 19, 2019 3:06 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I'm surprised that BoG rates this interesting (but not overwhelming) little movie at 8 out of 10 . . . but he gives This Space Children a measly 6.5!

Jeez, the nerve of that guy, eh? Shocked

Well, with all due respect to Bogmeister, I for one agree with Michel de Carvalho — a three time Olympic athlete with an MBA degree from Harvard, and a billionaire banking magnate who owns 25% of Heineken beer — who says The Space Children is better than E.T.!

Of course, since he starred in it, he might be a bit prejudiced. But I did NOT star in it, and I've loved it for 61 years! Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When coloization is done bad it looks like this:



[See The Thing From Another World (1951) thread for a better view.]

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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eadie wrote:
One of my classes is anatomy. The "antennae" are actually the optic nerves. The eyes are not connected so it looks weird.

Fascinating idea! Very Happy

The brain creatures in movie are actually pretty accurate to the shape of real brains in several ways. For example, notice the fold on the left at the bottom that looks sort of like a chin and a closed "mouth".



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That feature is present in the diagram below.





The optic nerve connects with a normal brain near the bottom, instead of straight out of the top — but only because it has to lead directly to the eyes in the front of the head.

With these brain creatures the "antennae" can sprout out in any direction at all! And remember, these creatures are the product of the old scientist's Krell-like "thought experiments".

They break all the rules just by existing!

So, Eadie, I think your suggestion that those "antennae" are modified optic nerves makes a lot of sense.
Very Happy
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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The Spike
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:37 am    Post subject: The Thought Monster. Reply with quote

Fiend Without a Face is directed by Arthur Crabtree and written by Herbert J. Leder and Amelia Reynolds Long (story The Thought Monster). It stars Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves, Michael Balfour and Kim Parker. Music is by Buxton Orr and cinematography by Lionel Banes.

Some sort of invisible assailant loose on the Canadian border and is attacking a U.S. Army Base and the local residents in the surrounding area. The locals are convinced it has something to do with the nuclear power plant, the army not so, especially since the unseen foe's modus operandi is to suck out the brains and spinal cords of its victims!

A mental vampire. A fiend!

Wonderfully bonkers Brit sci-fi horror that nicely builds premise and characters to then unleash the beasties in all their stop motion gory glory. It's a pay off well worth your patience, which when it comes down to it is not a lot to ask for in a movie that doesn't even run to 80 minutes. Standard clichés of many 50s creature feature schlockers apply, such as romance, straight backed heroics, dumb decisions made and averted, nice characters, bad characters, silly dialogue and some incredibly creaky science.

The principles of thought control.

The budget is obviously not stretching to great heights, but Crabtree was adept at creating great suspense and atmosphere with minimal cash funds, as he proves here. There's a sense of paranoia drifting over everything, perfect for the 50s fear of the nuclear age, and scenes such as when our hero is trapped in a mausoleum are skillfully crafted for maximum impact. Then the last 15 minutes arrive and it's The Alamo as our roll call of survivors try and stave off the attack of the killer brains! Delightful creations that look like brain snails with spinal cords that leap around and attach themselves to the victims necks.

The effects are nifty for the era, the gore equally so, while the sound effects, and Orr's brilliant musical score, are of a real high quality. Daft for sure, but not insultingly so like so many cheaply turned out films of the time, this is a 50s sci-fi horror fan's fun bag ticket for a good night in. 8/10

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 12:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Bravo, Commander Spike! Very Happy

While enjoying your post I was rerunning the stop motion scenes in my head, thinking about how less-than-smooth that animation is when compared to the work of Ray Harryhausen and Pete Peterson.

And suddenly it hit me that the strange quality of the brain creatures movements actually works to the film's advantage! These are not actually living creatures, they're materializations of energy. So, naturally they're appearance and movements defy all the norms!



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The fact that these hideous abominations appear "out of phase" with reality is perfectly consistent with their unearthly nature!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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