FIEND WITHOUT A FACE

One of the fiends goes on the attack!

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958), Director: Arthur Crabtree, Colorized. 

Canadian locals near an American air base with an atomic power plant blame the Army for everything from less milk from the cows to too many noisy flights overhead, but then when dead bodies start turning up everyone gets worried. Townspeople and military people alike are beset by invisible creatures that are somehow able to suck out brains and spinal cords from victims through two holes in the skull. The foolish Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves) has managed to materialize his thoughts in the shape of living, malevolent brains that have now strangely multiplied and are on the attack. The brains use the atomic power to become visible to Walgate, Major Cummings (Marshall Thompson of It, the Terror from Beyond Space), Barbara Griselle (Kim Parker), whose brother was the first victim, Captain Chester (Terry Kilburn) and others in the exciting climax. Will the brains take over the town?

Kim Parker and Marshall Thompson

Fiend Without a Face is a silly but fun monster flick with some decent acting and more than decent stop-motion animation of the brains, along with excellent, creepy sound effects. The brains are not only able to pull themselves along the ground by using their attached spinal cords, but can actually launch themselves into the air! The whole thing is very much like a comic book story, with absurd "science" and a great deal of illogic. Walgate tries to explain how the brains came to be in one sequence, but his explanations only cause more confusion. But in the long run it doesn't matter as Fiend is short, fast-paced, and very entertaining and amusing. Thompson manages to keep a straight face throughout and always claimed that he actually directed much of the movie. James Dyrenforth, who plays the ill-fated mayor, was also in The Giant Behemoth. Arthur Crabtree also directed the zesty Horrors of the Black Museum. 

Verdict: You can't beat those brains! ***.

HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM

Michael Gough

HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (1959). Director: Arthur Crabtree.

Crime writer Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough) taunts Scotland Yard for failing to solve the murders of several women in extremely grisly incidents. The latest victim had needles shot into her eyes and brain when she looked into a doctored pair of binoculars. Bancroft thinks the murders may be tied into Scotland Yard's "black museum" of criminal artifacts, although he has his own black museum that in his opinion puts the Yard's to shame. 

June Cunningham

Bancroft has a handsome assistant, Rick (Graham Curnow), who does whatever his employer tells him. Bancroft is also keeping a buxom lady named Joan (June Cunningham), but in a scene that plays like something out of Of Human Bondage, she bitchily taunts the lame author when he refuses to give her any more money. Joan is later beheaded by a man with a grimacing, disfigured face. And there are more murders to come ...  

Michael Gough and Beatrice Varley 

Horrors of the Black Museum is a delightfully lurid and ghoulish horror flick with the usual zesty, adroit, if over-the-top performance from Gough at his best. Cunningham is also vivid and gets to do a sexy dance number in a pub. Curnow, Geoffrey Keen as Superintendent Graham and  Gerald Andersen as the ill-fated Dr. Ballan are also effective, while Shirley Anne Field makes an attractive fiancee, Angela, for Rick. Beatrice Varley also makes her mark as Aggie, the owner of an antique and notions store that stocks many items of interest to Bancroft. 

Graham Curnow 

Horrors of the Black Museum is a riot of deadly guillotines placed on top of beds, dead bodies boiled in acid, murder by ice tongs, and other tasteless tidbits that will delight the horror fanatic. One imagines that the first sadistic killing involving the binoculars might have turned a few stomachs back in the day. This is one of a trio of films Gough did for producer Herman Cohen, Konga and Black Zoo being the other two. 

Verdict: All this and CinemaScope, too! ***.