CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN (director: Edward L. Cahn; screenwriter: Jerome Bixby; cinematographer: Kenneth Peach; editor: Grant Whytock; cast: Richard Anderson (Dr. Paul Mallon), Elaine Edwards (Tina Enright), Luis Van Rooten (Dr. Carlo Fiorillo), Adele Mara (Maria Fiorillo), Felix Locher (Dr. Emanuel), Jan Arvan (Inspector Renaldi), Gar Moore (Dr. Enricco Ricci), Bob Bryant (Quintillus), 1958)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A somewhat tolerable golem B- movie thanks to fast-paced direction and a compact script. Recommended for only die-hard fans of Edward L. Cahn. It is a remake of "The Mummy (32)" and was on a double bill with the same director's better made film, "It! The Terror From Beyond Space."
A voiceover explains what happened in Pompeii two thousand years ago, that there was the terrible eruption from the volcano Vesuvius, which crushed the ancient Roman city. We are told that there were some mysteries from those days that still remain today. Flash back to modern times and a workman on an archeological dig unearths a jewel box and the mummified body of a faceless man. Transporting the stone body back to the Pompeii museum, the body comes alive and kills the truck driver, causing the truck to go off the road.
The museum curator Dr. Carlo Fiorillo (Luis) is curious about the faceless man, especially when told by the doctor examing the body, Dr. Emanuel (Felix), that the truck driver's blood was found on it. He calls in a scientific adviser Dr. Paul Mallon (Anderson) to try and make rational sense out of this. He happens to be the ex-lover of Dr. Fiorillo's daughter, Maria (Adele), who is also a scientist. But there will be no hanky-panky in this film, Paul is engaged to an American artist, Tina Enright (Elaine). Maria will also slowly realize as the film develops, that she must now find love with her father's assistant, Dr. Enricco Ricci (Gar), someone who has been waiting in the wings for her.
Tina strangely had a dream the night after the stone man caused the accident and drew him exactly as he turned out to be from the dream. Meanwhile the bronze medallion found in the jewel box is examined along with its inscription: "Whoever stands between me and what's mine shall perish. I am the Son of the Etruscan gods, Quintillus." The curse says it shall bring down the city with fire. The Etruscans were an ancient people who were absorbed by the Roman Empire. They were cult worshippers and believers in the supernatural.
One of the twists in the story comes when the doctors discover through hypnoses of Tina and other research into the black arts that Quintillus was a slave-gladiator and Tina was an aristocrat, the daughter of a senator. He was in love with her, but she rejected him because of class differences. The day the volcano erupted, he tried to save her by taking her down to the Cove of the Blind Fisherman. He was buried in the earth during the volcano and was fortunately preserved by an embalming solution like those used on Egyptian mummys and remained alive because of the radiation on the earth. If you buy this explanation, maybe I can interest you in some swampland in Florida!
As this is the same day as the historical eruption of Vesuvius, Quintillus believes that he must try and save Tina, whom he sees as a reincarnation of the senator's daughter. You can imagine how the police inspector Rinaldi (Jan) feels about accepting all this incredulous information about a faceless man, dead for two thousand years, but who keeps escaping from the museum to murder the citizens of his city who get in his way, and he can't be killed by bullets. I bet you this jaded policeman thought he saw everything! This is enough to make that swell derby he wears, spin around atop his puzzled head.
The situation is resolved when Quintillus is carrying the unconscious Tina to the sea to save her from the impending volcano, but when he steps into the water he begins to dissolve. If you don't believe that is the ending, see the ending for yourself. The filmmaker plays it straight, but if you are in the mood for some balderdash, I am sure there are some laughs to be gotten.
REVIEWED ON 3/21/2000 GRADE: C-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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