Face of Terror (1962) User Reviews

Predictable, mildly interesting, of interest to some

[JHC3 · 5/10 · 26 December 1999]

Dr. Taylor (Rey) develops a revolutionary new process of restoring badly damaged human skin. His synthetic skin can quickly and painlessly eliminate scarring. Unfortunately, the Madrid Institute of Mental Health denies his request to start human testing of his procedure.

Soon after being rejected, he is approached by a desperate woman (Gaye) with appalling burn scars on the left half of her face from an accident involving an oil lamp. What Dr. Taylor doesn't know is that she is an escaped mental patient from the very institution that had just rejected his work. He agrees to attempt the procedure on her free of charge since she is to be the first human test subject. It turns out to be a resounding success.

Unfortunately, the patient flees the doctor when he discovers her true identity and wants to turn her in. During her escape, she incapacitates him with a blow to the head. Now on the run, she struggles to remain at large and even escape the Madrid area. The film follows her desperate plight to both remain free and prevent her new skin tissue from deteriorating.

"Face of Terror" (U.S. title) is rather well done in many respects. The cast is decent and the production values are fine. There are some genuinely chilling moments as our fleeing mental patient plots murder in order to get her way. Pacing is slow at times and the entire film is rather predictable, but it is still worth seeing if one is a dedicated fan of the genre.

Bothered me for decades!

[efffigie · 5/10 · 1 December 2018]

I saw this movie on a Saturday afternoon horror movie show in Chicago in the mid-1970s, and for me, it's one of those mysterious movies you remember but know nothing about! I knew it wasn't 'Eyes Without A Face' but until yesterday had no idea what it was! Fernando Rey? How strange. The really odd thing is the movie I saw on TV was re-edited. Yesterday, I watched it all the way through, and remembered every scene except for the final laboratory climax; scrolling through it I realized the movie I saw as a kid had been heavily re-edited, and after the laboratory confrontation the film ended weirdly abruptly with a bizarrely edited Police chase that made no sense at all, and the main character is killed in an automobile crash, pieced in with a totally different car, from a totally different sequence in the movie! One of the reasons the movie stuck with me was that utterly baffling ending which, honestly, despite not being strictly narrative, was so effective in communicating the death of the character, it's stuck with me all my life. I think it's because it made little sense, and in fact because the woman doesn't die while committing a criminal assault it made the movie tragic. In the movie I saw and remember she makes it, she's free, driving a car, and then just... inexplicably crashes and dies. The death of the scarred woman in the lab is not part of my memory; in the TV version I saw as a kid, in her attempt to escape she seems to crash a car and die, and the film 'ends' with the Doctor and the blonde in the lab, and then just... stops. I vividly remember the unusually bad dialogue/dubbing, the B&W cinematography, especially the facial scarring, but the ending I saw was a supremely crude editing job that cut out the original ending; but was actually extremely effective despite the crude edited-for-TV/or re-release, re-cut, 'montage' work. Yeah, she confronts the doctor, then is driving one car, than another, there is a crash, and the doctor and the blonde woman are making some comment, the police are there... Utterly weird. Anyway, I finally got to see a movie from the dimmest recesses of my memory, and I'm grateful for that.

Frightening and thrilling Spanish/USA co-production about a disfigured and insane woman who escapes from a local asylum

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 7 December 2020]

Decent terror movie about a disfigured woman named Norma : Lisa Gaye , she come across a scientific investigating amazing effects of a serum , trying to synthesize the perfect skin . Then Norma is cured by doctor Charles Taylor : Fernando Rey , who develops a serum on skin of limited effects . But Norma results to be an escaped patient of a mental institution . Along the way she finds a job at a hotel and meets a playboy : Virgilio Teixeira who falls for her , and subsequently they get married . Meanwhile , two Police Inspectors : Emilio Rodriguez , Jose Martin, are investigating grisly events . But then things go wrong . Woman's flesh..Killer's soul ! Female, Yes But ..is she woman...or inhuman, Blood-Mad Beast ?

A creepy and eerie terror movie of the sixties with thrills , chills , intrigue, tension , twists and killings. The story is not massively strong , but it is not bad either , here director strings a few or different threads together and that along with intrigue as well as suspense throughout tends to ensure the film is always interesting and thrilling . Stars Lisa Gaye , Debra Paget's sister , as the nutty patient who escapes from a mental facility and she goes bersek . Fernando Rey gives a good acting , as usual, as a doctor who creates a serum able to repair scar tissue and attempts to cure a deformed woman . They are well accompanied by a motley plethora of familiar Spanish faces , such as : Conchita Cuetos a veteran actress who goes on playing , Virgilio Teixeira as her playboy lover , Gerard Tichy as a doctor , Sergio Mendizabal , Carlos Casaravilla, Ana Maria Custodio, and Emlio Rodríguez, Pepe Martin as Police detectives.

The film follows the wake of the classic "Eyes without face" 1960 the masterpiece directed by George Franju . This issue about doctors undergoing surgical operations to change faces of disfigured women was an ordinary theme in European cinema , especially by Jesús Franco or Jess Frank and his Orloff saga including : "Gritos en la noche" or The awful Dr Orloff 1962 , "El secreto del Dr Orloff" 1964 , "Orloff's Invisible Monster" 1970, "El enigma del Ataud" 1969, "El siniestro Dr Orloff" 1984 and "Faceless" 1987 or Los Depredadores de La Noche . And even Pedro Almodovar himself dealt with this plot about doctors undergoing bloody surgical operations as "La Piel Que Habito" 2011 with Antonio Banderas , Elena Anaya .

The motion picture made in medium budget was competently made by the Spanish Isidro M. Ferry and American William Hole Jr . Spanish filmmaker Isidro Ferri was a craftsman who directed a few films , shorts , documentary , such as : Cruzada en el Mar , Escala en Hi-Fi and El Pisito. While the American William Hole Jr. was a producer/director who made some films such as : Hell Bound , Four Fast Guns , The Continental Twist and a lot of TV episodes from TV series : Peyton Place, 77 Sunset Strip, Colt 45 , Cheyenne , Bourbon Street , Hawaiian Eye , Sugarfeet , Boots and Saddles , among others.

Neat little horror film but with poor attempts at English by the actors

[Teenie · 7/10 · 1 January 2019]

I have always remembered Lisa Gaye (sister of Deborah Paget and Teala Loring) as a prolific dancer, doing the twist and the bop in her 1950s films about rock n' roll. She is a very stunning woman with a figure to die for. This film has her using her assets to help tell the story.

It begins with a plastic surgeon (Fernando Rey) who has almost perfected a way to restore damaged human skin with a synthetic skin. He presents it to a board of surgeons at the local mental asylum where he wants permission to try it out there. The doctors reject his request so he continues on with his research. Meanwhile, a short time later a woman with a badly scarred side of her face approaches him and begs him to help her. He can see that she is a very beautiful girl who was severely burned by a lamp. What he doesn't see is that she is an escaped mental patient from the very hospital that rejected his request earlier. At first he asks her to come back another time but she is so desperate that he gives in to her and agrees to treat her. He then has her strip down to her slip and lie on the gurney in his laboratory. He has her take an oral sedative then injects her with more sedative as he begins to operate on her, alone. She emerges from the surgery heavily bandaged about her head and is kept in a room off the laboratory,her entire head swathed in thick bandages. Meanwhile, the local police are searching but are having no luck finding her. When her bandages are removed, her face is flawless with no sign of the burns. He advises her to apply a special fluid to the surgical site to keep the synthetic skin from hardening too quickly, something that he failed to address during his research. He then discovers that she is the escaped mental patient. When the doctor lets on that he knows who she is and goes to call the police, she then attacks him and runs off with his hat and coat and a load of money from his wallet, leaving him seriously injured and paralyzed. The police are notified and he is hospitalized. His assistant/fiancée (Alma) continues to research the liquid as per his instructions until he returns to the laboratory but now confined to a wheelchair. The police are on her trail when they find her gown that she wore in the asylum.

Norma gets a job as a waitress in a local upscale hotel restaurant where she meets a very wealthy playboy who comes on to her, along with the hotel owner who also makes a pass at her, causing her to knock over the flask containing the precious liquid. He invites her up to his quarters where she then murders him and flees the hotel. She goes to the playboy's home and they discuss getting married and going to Paris where she can get away for good. They get married by a justice of the peace. Enroute to the airport, her face returns to the grisly scarring where her fiancé sees it and runs from the car onto the road. She then runs him over and takes off.

At this point, she drives to the surgeon's laboratory, demanding more of the fluid. He sees that her face has returned to scars. Determined to find it, she ransacks the laboratory, breaking beakers and test tubes, looking for the fluid. The doctor admits his mistake and tells her that she must go back to the asylum where he can properly treat and observe her. She refuses and breaks a flask with which she threatens to stab the doctor. Alma comes in and fights with Norma. To stop the fight, the doctor holds up a flask containing the fluid but then drops it on the floor, breaking it. Norma is completely berserk now and continues her quest to kill the doctor but meets her demise. She falls into the fluid and her face changes back to the beauty that she was while the police, the doctor and Alma wait for the coroner.

I enjoyed this film except for the obvious struggle of the Spanish actors to pronounce their lines in English. Fernando Rey didn't seem to have such a difficult time but the others did. Lisa Gaye adopted a convincing Spanish accent but slipped into her American persona at times. Her performance was outstanding as was that of Rey, which held my interest in the film. There is a lot of jumping from one scene to the next as if certain parts were cut from the American print which became annoying after a while but overall, a pretty good film.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 3 October 2021]

'The Face Of Terror' is a misleading title as it's not about a face that terrifies but a woman terrified that her own face will alter once the effect of her plastic surgery wears off. It's not a horror film at all. The leading character Norma Borden (played well by Lisa Gaye) is more to be pitied than feared. This is a good film with good performances, particularly Fernando Rey as the dedicated doctor anxious to cure skin disfigurements. If you view this as a sad drama rather than a thriller it is a rewarding film. The ending is a bit weak but otherwise it's worth seeing.

Eyes without a half- face

[ulicknormanowen · 5/10 · 1 January 2021]

The subject was taken by force from "les yeux sans visages " (eyes without a face") ,Georges Franju's horror classic (1959).

One of Luis Bunuel's favorite actors,Fernando Rey is cast as the scientist who secretly works ,his colleagues putting disparagement on his discoveries ;both him and his assistant take on the roles of Pierre Brasseur and Alida Valli .And like in the French movie, the surgery finally fails .

But the movie takes a divergent road as far as the patient is concerned :she's escaped from a mental institution and she has already committed crimes ;Lisa Gaye, who is disfigured ,after recovering her beauty , will use it to attract a wealthy man.A girl for womanizers ,she is not.And she makes it clear to her suitor.

The screenplay is disjointed ,full of implausibilities ,and there's plenty of filler :a mediocre cover of the French hit "Daniela " (written by Georges Gavarentz , Aznavour's collaborator),and some flamenco .

The best moment comes when the newly-weds leave for their hooneymoon : in the car the horrified husband discovers that his wife's face is becoming as it was before the operation..

Fine if slightly bland mad doctor effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 15 March 2017]

Attempting to solve a medical conundrum, a doctor tests a special serum to restore a disfigured woman's beauty through a secret surgery only to later realize not only does the serum wear off but his victim is an escaped mental patient and forces him to try to stop her.

This one wasn't all that bad of a horror/thriller. Once this one gets going, among it's better qualities is the fact that there's a rather great deal of fun to be had with the effects of the surgery. Although slightly neutered, it comes off rather well in the context of the story and features some rather fun times throughout here with the different after-effects of the operation showing her treatment and recuperation along the way that delivers just enough to give us an idea something is off about the procedure and brings in some rather nice and welcomed elements in this section. From the worries about the liquid drying too quickly to the differences in body temperature causing an adverse reaction to the process, this section really drives home a rather grisly set-up to the later realization that she's deteriorating and coming undone while she continues on with her newfound freedom the lifestyle currently gives her. The ways in which she goes to keep that identity a secret from others, often resorting to shocking murders to cover up her crimes, this carries the later half along with the police investigation to find her after the escape using the different means of evidence to find her. This does enhance the pace leading into the finale in her confrontation in his laboratory from the varying threats and brawling to the surprise manner in which it concludes itself, which along with the grotesque look of the disfigurement makes for the film's positives. There's not a whole lot really wrong here, as the film's main flaw featured here is the change in storyline from the other efforts from that time-period does make this one stumble with it's pacing. Bringing onboard the plot line about her escape into the world at large and not keeping it focused on him killing for attempts to perfect the formula, there's not a whole lot of actual action to be found here for a large part of this one. This focus on the investigation instead doesn't give this one a ton of interesting things to do and simply following her on the run trying to stay out of the police's custody that never amounts to anything and really lets the film get dragged out far more than necessary. It never really keeps to a consistent pace and causes the film to feel far longer than it really should without having much going on around the main story, and while it does enhance the finale with the contrast against the other scenes, for the most part, it's not a big factor going on around here. Along with the quite shortsighted and abrupt ending that just stops the film suddenly, these here are really all that hold it back.

Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

Face it, many blemishes in this tragic story

[thejcowboy22 · 4/10 · 14 October 2019]

I had problem with a constant runny nose when I was in college. I was recommended to see a Doctor in the town of Glen Head, NY. He was very engaging, well read, classy and soft spoken and I believed in him . The trouble was his medications never worked. Despite all those visits, my nose and sinus problems persisted. At first, instant relief. But then side effects would take over. No quick fixes here. I caught this movie The face of Terror on Chiller back in the late 1970's. Actor Fernando Rey who plays the Kindly, debonair Plastic surgeon Charles Taylor reminded me of actor Yves Montand. He also reminded me of that aforementioned Doctor who tried nasal procedures that failed. The good Doctor Taylor drives to of all places, a mental institution where you see a woman (face obstructed) doing some gardening. The Doctor meets with other men in the medical profession in a board room. The first thing you notice is that some of the Doctors voices didn't match as the dubbing department was deficient. Dr. Taylor was promoting a new technique in plastic surgery. The medical board rejected his proposals due to financial rights on their part. Dejected, the Doctor leaves the grounds with a stow-away in the back seat of his car. The stow- away, you guessed it, the woman gardener with the hidden face. Upon his arrival at his stately home /laboratory, the woman shows her self and the horrible face scarred from an earlier explosion. Dr. Taylor at first was questioning how this woman knows about his work and second where did she come from. Upset and overly emotional the woman pleaded and said she'd do anything to feel normal again. I was taken by the fine acting on the part of our female lead Norma (Lisa Gaye). She was so plausible I actually believed she was really scarred. She even threatened suicide. The Doctor complies and performs the operation alone hiding his patient from his fiance. The big day comes to remove the bandages. The operation was successful as our patient is extremely beautiful. Everything is not perfect as the Doctor notices that the facial compound is drying to fast. He shares this with Norma as she must applies the lubricant or her face daily or the original facial scars will return. The Doctor notices her clothing which was marked for mental patients. Awestruck and concerned Dr. Taylor is ready to call the authorities when Norma clubs him over the head rendering him unconscious. She takes the lubricant, his money from his wallet, steals the car and heads off to the city to buy clothes and start a new life. This sets up our story of deception and murder. The movie at this point becomes a detective story. Question? Does this genre fall under horror, science fiction or Drama? I guess the scared face of our leading lady puts this movie under science fiction. The police had many opportunities to wrap this case up but it was Norma's beauty that milked the story. Despite Norma's compulsive nature I felt empathy for her throughout the movie . All she wanted was a second chance in life. I was totally impressed with actress Lisa Gaye's beauty and wondered about her other acting performances. She appeared in mostly 1960's dramas .i.e., Perry Mason, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip to name a few. Also appeared in westerns. She retired from acting in 1970 to raise her daughter. This movie did hold my interest but wasn't the kind of movie for Chiller theater watchers.

He's a caring doctor...not some mad scientist! And, it's NOT just some crappy horror film!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 30 November 2020]

While "Face of Terror" ("La Cara del Terror") looks like a crappy Spanish horror movie on the surface, it's really very well made and the dubbing is pretty amazing. And, it's well worth seeing.

When the story begins, Dr. Taylor (Fernando Rey) approaches the board of directors at the hospital, asking permission to try out a radical new type of plastic surgery...using actual plastic and using it to rebuild the faces of badly disfigured people. Oddly, the board rejects his proposal so he decides to continue his work on his own. Soon, a badly disfigured woman arrives....telling Taylor she knew about his work and begging him to help her. Naturally, he's filled with compassion and performs surgery on her and incorporates his new secret formula.

What the nice doctor doesn't realize, however, is that Norma (Lisa Gaye) is actually an escaped and dangerous mental patient from the hospital. And, after completing the surgery and having outstanding results (she's now very beautiful), he learns the truth and insists she return to the hospital. However, she's afraid and conks him on the head....making her escape. Soon Norma has found a job and appears to be trying to create a normal life for herself. But being beautiful offers its own obstacles and soon she's being sexually harassed and ends up killing the pig. But this isn't her last killing.

I really liked this film for quite a few reasons. First, although it was originally a Spanish language movie, it was very seamlessly converted to English. Most Spanish horror films of the era were horribly dubbed. But in this one, scenes with Taylor and Norma were re-shot with the actors speaking English and doing their own dubbing. As for the other characters, they also were dubbed very well and it wasn't the usual clumsy and distracting dubbing. Second, although Norma has some mental health issues, you CAN understand and even justify a couple of her killings...it's NOT a case of a maniac just killing folks. I also liked the ending. All in all, a surprisingly good and enjoyable film that defies so many of the expected stereotypes and cliches.

The horror of facial repair, Mexican style

[Judexdot1 · 8/10 · 24 June 2004]

I thought this would be another "Facial Transplant" horror film, but not really. Our mad scientist (Aldo Rey), uses a new serum he's developed, to repair an escaped mental patient's face, (but he does not try removing others faces for the process.) Atmospheric, and often effective, the film is weakened by the director's insistence on filming it in English, despite much of the cast not actually being conversant in the language. Some performances are rather stilted by this convention, but it works, on the whole. Rey is near perfect as the lead, alternately masterful, then helpless, as the situation spirals out of his control. I believe this was removed from the usual PD sources, by the NAFTA/GATT stuff, but you know it's still lurking about. Rey was only a few years away from more "respectable", mainstream fare like "The French Connection". Well worth the effort for fans of gory 60's horror, and it's grisly highlights are often quite memorable.

Judexdot1

Very good, less two aspects!

[RodrigAndrisan · 8/10 · 16 December 2020]

Except that it's not justified why she was hospitalized in a mental institution and that in the second half of the film the heroine has the left half of the face destroyed instead of the right, it's a very good film. Lisa Gaye is impeccable in a difficult role for any other actress. Veteran Fernando Rey, Luis Bunuel's favorite from movies like: "Viridiana", "Tristana", "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", "That Obscure Object of Desire", is very good too. Me, I didn't like the end. Norma doesn't deserve that stupid death, falling on the shard of glass. She doesn't deserve to die at all. I would have preferred to be helped by the doctor once again, this time with the right serum and then to help her leave the country.