Man with Two Faces (1964) User Reviews

Unusuaal support feature

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 11 October 2022]

Tab Hunter stars in this British support feature. He has just been released from prison at the end of a sentance for murder. He goes back to his wife and son. He has never actually met the son and finds great difficulty in bonding with him.

The British title is "The Man With Two Faces" which seems to imply that Hunter has a split personality. However this is not referred directly in the film.

It is clear that he needs help but he is not prepared to consider it. So much of the time he is quite hostile to those around him,and of course we all know that this is likely to lead to trouble sooner or later.

The climax when it comes is rather less than breathtaking.

However i am pleased that i have been able to view an otherwise forgotten film.

a rather nasty little Tab Hunter vehicle

[Howard_B_Eale · 24 August 2007]

Now here is a very peculiar movie and I'm wondering why it's not been revived and turned into a creepy cult hit.

Tab Hunter is quite convincing as a scary-eyed Aryan-blonde psychopath living in London, who emerges from prison over the opening credits and immediately proceeds to psychologically - and eventually physically - destroy his small family. Seems Tad murdered someone and had never seen his little boy (played extremely well by a presumably four or five year-old Andy Myers), and as soon as he comes home to his long-suffering wife and meets his son, the alarm bells start to ring.

While it could be argued that Hunter overplays the giggling psycho somewhat, it works, in large part because the fine ensemble cast keeps the tension up without descending into hysterics, everyone pussy-footing around the clearly damaged dad.

Not quite film noir, and not quite melodrama, THE MAN WITH TWO FACES, as it is known in the U.S., is a peculiar small-time thriller with a curiously detached tone that prefigures the so-called British New Wave which emerged over the following years; Tab is definitely an angry young man here - though rather too angry for comfort.