Faceless (1988) User Reviews

"Eyes without a Face" Revisited by Jesus Franco

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 25 January 2011]

The renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Flamand (Helmut Berger) owns the Clinique des Mimosas in Saint Cloud. While shopping in Paris during Christmas with his beloved sister Ingrid Flamand (Christiane Jean) and his lover and the head of the clinic Nathalie (Brigitte Lahaie), Dr. Frank is attacked with acid by a client that had her face partially destroyed by him in a unsuccessful operation. However, he sidesteps to the acid attack and the face of his sister Ingrid is totally deformed. Dr. Frank becomes obsessed to restore Ingrid's face and together with Nathalie and their dumb and retarded servant Gordon (Gérard Zalcberg), they kidnap beautiful women and Dr. Frank kills them expecting to prepare a solution to recover the beauty of his sister. When the addicted model Barbara Hallen (Caroline Munro) is kidnapped by Nathalie, her wealthy father Terry Hallen (Telly Savalas) hires the tough private eyes and his friend Sam Morgan (Chris Mitchum) in the United States of America and sends him to France. Meanwhile Dr. Frank summons the Nazi Dr. Karl Heinz Moser (Anton Diffring) that was well succeeded in sadistic experiments implanting faces in scarred pilots. Sam snoops the clinic and discloses the dark secret of the place.

"Faceless" has the same storyline of 1960 "Eyes without a Face" by Georges Franju but revisited by Jesus Franco, with his usual bizarre situations and characters, with kink sex, rape, lesbianism, beautiful actresses and so on. The wooden face of the unconvincing Chris Mitchum is not well cast and the open conclusion is the weakest part of this film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Sem Face" ("Faceless")

A face to die for.

[lost-in-limbo · 6/10 · 25 October 2006]

A wealthy father hires a private eye to go to France and track down his missing daughter. Her disappearance can be attributed to a plastic surgeon's secret set-up, in which he and his assistant kidnap young ladies and keep them in the clinic's basement. A year ago his sister was disfigured by acid and now he's doing his best to restore the beautiful face she once bestow with the help of an ex-Nazi surgeon. While, that's going on, the private eye is getting closer to finding the connection between the missing girls and the doctor's hard work.

When I hear the name Jess Franco, I think of sleazy euro-trash by reputation. Although some might classify it as art. Now I finally got around to watching one of his films and "Faceless" wasn't bad at all. Actually I found it quite intriguing, although at times rather bland to begin with, but it gets better in the latter half by rallying up tension and ghastly makeup effects with surprising results and an oddly unexpected conclusion. Mixed into the straightforward material is an inventively malevolent idea (taken from 'The Awful Dr. Orloff') covered with manipulative erotic overtones and cold sadism. It was hard to take it all rather seriously because of the nature of certain reactions, developments and questionably hokey FX. Despite this factor the far-fetch storyline and splatter element was quite fun and extremely out-there in providing some uncomfortable moments (like what was going on in the operation room). The script was okay, but that's where I thought it got bland and was reasonably stiff when it went for that melancholy vibe.

On hand Franco chips in with a very 80's soundtrack that has that silky touch that goes down well with the flick's upbeat tempo and overall style. He definitely has a fine eye for detail. The budget shows up immensely, especially with the make-up, but more so with the calibre of actors involved on the project. Telly Savalas is only in an effectively special guest appearance. It's the classy Helmut Berger and very enticing Brigitte Lahaie that stick in mind. Their chemistry and villainous nature just oozes off the screen. Caroline Munro also provides a valuable addition to the line-up. Anton Diffring, Florence Guerin, Howard Vernon and Christopher Mitchum (who likes his gum) are all reasonable too.

This Euro joint by well renown Franco is well worth a look and a good stepping stone into his long career

Ultra gory later day Franco

[Bogey Man · 5/10 · 21 April 2003]

Spanish exploitation/sleaze/horror king Jess Franco's "Faceless" (Spanish, French, 1988) is one of his more interesting works and has a remarkably bigger budget, too, when compared to some of his older and duller films, like "El Sádico de Notre-Dame" (1974) with its numerous aka titles to name just one. Faceless has a very typical story that is like in his 1962 classic horror film "Gritos en la noche" aka "The Awful dr. Orloff" and like in that film, Howard Vernon plays "Orloff" in Faceless, too. The plot however is very thin but still the film never feels boring or too long thanks to some interesting elements in the film.

A beautiful French female gets her face ruined by some crazy woman who throws acid on her face. Her determined brother is a doctor and promises to restore her beauty and make her look an attractive girl again. This he will achieve by kidnapping young females to his clinic with the help of his nurses and a Morpho-like monster (referring to the Orloff classic from 1962), and it is not too long before they kidnap a model girl whose father starts to worry about his daughter's disappearance and so he sends a one-faced cop to France to search for her. So there's nothing too special or never-seen in the plot but still Franco manages to maintain our interest with pretty good actors, pacing and (of course) graphic gore all of which are not always present in his other, worse, movies.

This is not a typical Franco flick at all as it hasn't got gratuitous nudity and plenty of it. Of course, since this is directed by him, there are lusty characters who crave for sexual pleasure almost all the time and this animality side of human nature is a real theme in some of his classics, most notably his 1981 women-in-prison film "Sadomania - Hölle der Lust" and the 1977 classic "Liebesbriefe einer portugiesischen Nonne" aka "Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun", both of which depict humans as pretty much animals living only to satisfy their instincts for violence and especially sex, the latter film also having some commentary about church and hypocrisy that can be related to it. But these things are not so "deep" in Faceless anymore and the brief scenes of sexual intercourse and playings feel a little forced and unnecessary but fortunately they are as mentioned very brief.

There's one very interesting character here, and that is the nazi doctor who has done some horrifying experiments on living humans back in the war camps, and he is sent to complete the face transplantation for the girl. There are also some interesting issues about superficiality inside modern society in which external beauty is the most important thing for some/most, and this accompanied with the presence of the most wicked of them all, the nazi doctor, gives the film a fair amount of thoughts about rotten and disturbed society and how far its inhabitants may be ready to go in order to reach the selfish goal and save their own skin (not pun) at the expense of others. As the real life atrocity nazi character is there it all becomes more harrowing and haunting, especially when he indeed looks quite scary physically, too.

The ending leaves some things open but still it is pretty effective and crystallizes the theme of the film described above. It is obvious this film is so easy to sit through as it really has something more than just graphic gore and face mutilation, things that would have been the only things in this film if some less ambitious director had made it. And Franco always (well, almost) seems to be very interested to add something deeper in his (exploitation) films which is nice.

The gore and exploitation elements are pretty strong and present throughout the film. A needle gets plunged into the victim's eye in a zooming Franco close-up, a character gets drilled to the head in a pretty outrageous scene, but the most outrageous scenes involve the facial experiments and how good the special effects are here. It is "a little" more graphic than in John Woo's "Face Off" (1997), and Franco this time really is able to concentrate on the details and close-ups as there are nothing to be shamed of in the effects work this time. The gore and amount of it is pretty extreme so no matter what themes they had in mind, exploitation was still the main thing and those scenes pretty much the reason this film was made for in the first place.

Faceless is easily among the easiest to watch and more noteworthy films of film maker Jess Franco. It has not laughable over-acting, it has some professional actors in it, too (like Telly Savalas in a role of the father of the missing girl), it has some genuinely interesting issues which all are presented in a form of a traditional almost plot-free but well paced gore film. One major negative side for me is the awful 80's disco/pop soundtrack that plays throughout the movie and its various night club scenes and sounds like Wham or George Michael and so it is not a great delight to my ears. The plot is also full of holes and things that don't get explained (like what is in fact the status of a murder clinic of that kind?!) but still it could be much worse and ridiculous and Faceless is a respectable 5/10 achievement by the legendary Spaniard.

Not the Vase!

[angelakenney-52982 · 6/10 · 1 September 2019]

A plastic surgeon is hanging out in Paris with his sister and girlfriend when they are cornered in a parking garage by an disgruntled former patient who is angry that her face ended up deformed due to his incompetence. She throws acid in his direction, but he ducks and it ends up landing in his sister's face. He makes a vow to restore his sister's former beauty by capturing beautiful women and slicing off their faces to find the right fit for her.

For a Jess Franco film, Faceless feels a bit more mainstream and big budgeted than many of his previous films. There's still some jarring editing, odd camera placements, and scripting issues, but it's one of his more cohesive movies. For those who revel in Franco's typical trashy elements, there's still more than enough of that with elements of lesbianism, rape, maybe incest, and tons of insanely unconvincing gore.

International b-movie and trash film legends like Brigitte Lahaie (in a cold, creepy performance), Helmut Berger, Caroline Munro, and Telly Savalas star with Chris Mitchum as the lead who's on the hunt for Munro's drug addled model thanks to father, Telly Savalas. Savalas is in, maybe, 5 minutes of the movie and does all his acting from behind the same desk, so you can tell they shot all his scenes in one day.

There are many strange Euro horror film touches such as a patient of Berger's putting on 3 lbs of makeup before he enters and singing to him as he checks up on her and a deliriously weird sequence where one of Munro's gay fashion photographers is approached at his home by Mitchum who threatens to shatter an expensive vase unless he gives him tips on where Munro is. Just when you think it can't get any funnier, the gay photographer calls on his bodyguard/maybe lover named - I kid you not - DooDoo - and a buff, muscle bound guy appears out of nowhere and tries to fight Mitchum only to be turned into a sobbing mess when he's kicking in groin. You can't make this stuff up.

Faceless also has the guts to end on a really downbeat note that I was expecting, especially after all the silliness that came before it. It's a light, but entertaining entry in the Euro horror cannon and it's worth a watch.

Fanco's Ultra-Demented 80s Take on a Classic Horror-Formula

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 6/10 · 3 June 2009]

"Faceless" of 1987 is cult director Jess Franco's demented and ultra-gory 80s take on a classic Horror topic. In the heyday of European Gothic Horror some of the greatest genre films dealt with a mad scientist who was murdering young women in order to restore the life or beauty of one particular woman. Some of the most brilliant films with such a theme are Georges Franju's masterpiece "Les Yeux Sans Visage" ("Eyes Without a Face", 1960), Giorgio Ferroni's "Il Mulino Delle Donne Di Pietro" ("Mill of the Stone Women", 1960), or Franco's own "Gritos En La Noche" ("The Awful Dr. Orloff", 1962). With "Faceless", Franco brings this popular Horror-theme back, with less atmosphere, but with tons of more sleaze and demented gore. According to this site, the film is a remake of Franju's film, but it has just as many resemblances to "The Awful Dr. Orloff" (which, then again, was very clearly inspired by "Les Yeux Sans Visage").

I have been a Jess Franco fan for many years now, especially of his earlier films, and my expectations for this one were quite high, simply because it has been recommended to me by fellow Franco-fans on several occasions as the best of his newer films. It must be said that Franco's impressive repertoire of 180+ films includes masterpieces and stinkers alike, and while "Faceless" definitely ranges in the better half of his output, I cannot deny that I was a tiny bit disappointed. As explained earlier, I am a big fan of Gothic Horror from the 60s, and Franco's films about the theme, "The Awful Dr. Orloff" and the sequel "Miss Muerte" ("The Diabolical Dr. Z", 1966) are doubtlessly the best ones he ever made. "Faceless" is a welcome return to this great premise, but while I reckon the difference in styles between the early 60s and the late 80s, I would have loved the film to be a little more atmospheric and in the style of these old films, in short: a little more 'Gothic'. That being said, "Faceless" is definitely a film that Franco-fans should not miss out on.

Helmut Berger plays the ruthless prominent plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Flanard who, after his sister has been deformed by a disaffected former patient, has no scruples whatsoever in his dedication to restore her beauty... The cast includes several cult-actors including Helmut Berger, Telly Salavas, Franco-regular Howard Vernon (once again as a man called Dr. Orloff), Anton Diffring, who plays a demented Nazi-scientist, Christopher Mitchum (Robert's son), Caroline Munro and Pornstar/Exploitation actress Brigitte Lahaie, who plays the Doctor's mistress and ruthless assistant. The most spectacular aspect about "Faceless" is probably its ultra-demented nature and the truly gruesome gore-effects. Several scenes, such as the 'face-removal' sequence are sometimes hard to digest, even for trained Exploitation/Gore fans. Sadly, the film hasn't got the great style and atmosphere of Franco's early 'Mad Scientist' films, which were moody, creepy and accompanied by gloomy, Franco-typical scores. This film's score is its most annoying aspect, the same (TRULY terrible) 80s song is re-played over and over again. While I don't share the enthusiasm that fellow Franco fans seem to have about "Faceless", I will be the last one to deny that it is more than worth watching. Especially the gore-enthusiasts out there should have a blast. Recommended to Jess Franco fans.

Sleaze-tastic.

[Moshing Hoods · 19 September 2001]

I absolutely LOVE this film. It certainly isn't representative of Franco's work (for example, the camera doesn't focus ONCE on convulsing naked women!) but in my mind that is a totally positive thing when you consider some of the abysmal dirge he cynically churned out previously. The budget is very high and the whole production looks so polished. The locations and lighting are, for once, top notch, and the score is superb, including a great textbook exploitation film theme song.

This is the requisite Euro-tosh sleazy thriller, and there is plenty of juicy sex and violence for those who like that kind of thing. Incest, lesbianism, drug use, gore (superbly realised as well- some of the best "wet" gore effects I've seen in a film of this type!)- it's all here in abundance. This is precisely the sort of film I love because of the tacky, grimy atmosphere. Good story for once as well, and somehow they even managed to get Telly Savalas onto a sound-stage for a day to film some pointless dialogue scenes!

Recommended, most definitely... even if you aren't a fan of Franco.

FACELESS (Jesus Franco, 1988) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 20 October 2007]

I had watched a good part of this on late-night Italian TV: I caught it from the scene where the Stephane Audran character is dispatched – as it turned out, this occurred around the 36-minute mark so, obviously, I have to consider this as a first viewing!

Back then, I didn't like it at all; even if the rating doesn't suggest it, I found it hard to hate a film like this: Franco revisits familiar territory with a bigger budget than usual and a surprisingly starry cast: apart from the afore-mentioned Audran, we also have here Helmut Berger, Brigitte Lahaie (a regular of the contemporaneous horror work of Jean Rollin), Anton Diffring (in his final appearance and whose best-known role also saw him play a demented surgeon – CIRCUS OF HORRORS [1960]), Telly Savalas (who had previously collaborated with another horror/Euro-Cult great – Mario Bava), Chris Mitchum, Caroline Munro (once a Hammer starlet), Gerald Zalcberg (Mr. Hyde from Walerian Borowczyk's DOCTEUR JEKYLL ET LES FEMMES [1981]), as well as two Franco stalwarts in Howard Vernon (his last stint playing "The Awful Dr. Orloff") and Lina Romay! However, much of the director's effort goes for naught alongside the dated 1980s chic look and cheesy disco soundtrack.

That said, the contribution of the cast is variable to say the least – as a matter of fact, the film has even been ridiculed by the claim that the best performance comes from ex-porn actress Lahaie! Sure, her participation is just about the most successful element in it – infusing her character with a good balance of cold-bloodedness and sensuality (involved with Berger in the casual seduction of prospective victims) – but the latter isn't bad either (just a bit stiff), Diffring quietly imposing (his statement that he had been a collaborator of Josef Mengele at Auschwitz is hilarious, whereas Dr. Orloff learned his craft under Diffring himself at Dachau!) and the odd-looking Zalcberg undeniably effective as Berger's burly mute henchman (continuing Franco's obsession with such secondary characters). On the other hand, both Mitchum and Munro are out of their depth here, Audran clearly looks embarrassed, while a visibly-tired Savalas is saddled with a thankless role (at times, literally phoning in his performance)!

The film is perhaps best appreciated by non-Franco fans, since there's curiously little of his trademark 'style' on this occasion: with FACELESS, the director may have demonstrated that he could work within the mainstream, but he was obviously more comfortable doing his own thing in a semi-improvised manner and with the barest of resources! Besides, an audience of gore-hounds not used to Franco's earlier work wouldn't have scoffed at his outrageous touches of violence here: amputated hands, hypodermic in an eyeball, scissors in the throat, driller to the forehead – not forgetting the grisly face-grafting scenes (the first operation, which goes horribly wrong, generates some real tension with Lahaie and Berger looking on bewildered as Diffring fumes at the impracticality of the material he has to work with)!

All in all, however, the film feels too different to the quintessential Franco product – while offering nothing remotely new thematically – to emerge as anything but a curio. As I said, the incongruously glossy look and irritating minor characters (some of Berger's eccentric elderly patients and, especially, a pair of gay stereotypes intended to provide comic relief but which is actually both lame and offensive) ultimately unbalance its points of interest. I had considered purchasing Media Blasters' SE DVD, which includes a couple of Audio Commentaries (one of them by the director himself) – but, frankly, the film isn't deserving of such extensive discussion/reminiscing; besides, the disc reportedly suffers from the company's usual sloppy production (the soundtrack reverting to French for the closing line and the audio of the main feature drowning out the latter section of Chris Mitchum's Commentary track).

Literally...someone goes faceless.

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 2 January 2018]

Sure, Jess Franco is just making a new version of The Awful Dr. Orloff with this film, but with bigger stars and plenty of gore. And when you're looking for a movie to watch at 4 AM - and I often am - it certainly does the trick.

Dr. Frank Flamand (Helmut Berger, The Damned) is a plastic surgeon surrounded by gorgeous women who walk arm in arm to his fancy car. But a former patient wants revenge, so she tosses acid at him. Instead, she catches his sister, Ingrid, directly in the face, ruining her gorgeous looks.

Fast forward to a modeling shoot in Paris, where Flamand's assistant Nathalie (Brigitte Lahaie, The Grapes of Death) drugs and abducts Barbara Hallen (Caroline Munro, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, Dr. Phibes Rises Again). As she locks her into the basement of the doctor's clinic, Nathalie gets into an argument with Gordon, a maniac who lives down in the basement and chops off women's arms for a hobby.

Still with us? Then let's go to New York, where Barbara's dad Terry (Telly Savalas, Lisa and the Devil) is searching for his daughter, turning to Sam Morgan (Chris Mitchum, Alejandro Jodorowsky's Tusk, Bigfoot, Chisum) to help find her. He first travels to a Paris morgue, where her body supposedly is, but the headless victim is not her as its missing a mole.

Flamand and his sister meet Dr. Orloff (Howard Vernon, who played Orloff in six of his seven films) and learn how they can cut off Barbara's face to replace Ingrid's thanks to a Nazi scientist named Dr. Karl Heinz Moser (Anton Diffring, who played numerous Nazis in his career, including in Jerry Lewis' long lost The Day the Clown Cried). Plus, Franco's longtime muse, Lina Romay, appears here as Orloff's wife. When the doctor returns to his office, he learns Gordon has cut up Barbara's face.

Morgan beats up Barabra's photo director before a bouncer makes him leave. He has to call Terry with some bad news - his daughter had been working as a prostitute.

The doctor finds another face donor for the surgery, but Moser destroys it. That means they need to find yet another victim, during which Barbara's credit card is traced to Flamand's clinic. Morgan starts surveillance and notices that Nathalie is wearing Barbara's clothes.

He arrives at the clinic and takes out Gordon, but is overcome and locked into the cell with all of the girls. The villains leave them bricked up and with their air running out.

But Sam has sent Barbara's dad a message, who gets ready to rescue everyone. And then...the movie ends.

Yep.

The original ending of the film had Sam saving the day, but Franco wanting to make it different and leave it open as to whether Sam and Barabara survived. Why? Why ask.

Oh yeah - I almost forgot. This film is replete with surgical horror, like faces being sliced and lifted off, needles into eyeballs, scissors into throats and much, much more. If only it lived up to the promise of its poster, but that said, it's grimy and seedy fun if you can't find anything else.

Faceless (1987) **

[JoeKarlosi · 5/10 · 29 January 2013]

FACELESS (1994)

Yet ANOTHER film about a doctor restoring his wife's face via skin grafts and abductions of beautiful girls. This one delivers the goods - that is to say there is lots of nudity, blood, and gore effects for those looking for it. One of director Jess Franco's better and more involving undertakings that I've seen (and I've seen a lot of bad ones). This also benefits from having an "all star cast" as far as these things go, with the likes of Caroline Munro, Anton Diffring, and Telly Savalas. Not great or even good, but decent.

** out of ****

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 7/10 · 8 June 2017]

As the 1980s sparkled on, Director Jess Franco pursued ever more personal and lower financed projects. 'Faceless' proved to be the exception. A collaboration with French video magnate René Château ensured this was a multi-million pound venture and Franco's biggest ever budget.

Always willing to surprise, his venture opened with the strains of a George Michael-style vocal song (performed by Vincenzo Thoma) that is repeated sporadically throughout – you may well know each verse word-for-word before the end credits roll. The subsequent sight of Jean Rollin leading lady Brigitte Lahaie (playing Nurse Nathalie) sitting in a car watching Barbara (former Hammer star Caroline Munro) snorting cocaine is delightfully surreal – two genre icons from widely differing backgrounds together! Perhaps surprisingly for a Spanish/French collaboration, the dialogue is spoken in English.

The impressive cast is bolstered further by Anton Diffring, and a cameo from Howard Vernon as Dr. Orloff. Terry Savalas, in his last performance, stars as Terry Hallan, Barbara's concerned father – she has gone missing and is a prisoner of Berger's clinic.

'Faceless' could be seen as a partial remake of Franco's first hit, 'The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962)', which could be seen as a partial remake of French classic 'Eyes Without a Face (1960)'. There are some good effects – the slightly fey Docteur Flamand's (Helmut Berger) unfortunate daughter Ingrid (Christine Jean) looks convincingly scarred after an acid attack, and a later injection into an eyeball is achieved very realistically. There is a retarded servant, the eyebrow-less Gordon (Gérard Zalcberg) who also gets to commit a number of gory attacks.

The story meanders somewhat from its fairly straightforward premise, but is a lot more enjoyable than it might have been, especially given the creative stagnancy in the horror genre in the late 80s. There is no real pathos for the scarred Ingrid as she is played without any suggestion of sympathy, and the open ending (changed from an upbeat finale by Franco) has irritated some – but I really enjoyed this film.

Faceless, topless, tasteless... In Franco-world, Less means MORE!

[Coventry · 8/10 · 27 November 2005]

Jess Franco's "Faceless" is late 80's euro-exploitation with the typical storyline of early 60's euro-exploitation! Namely, a celebrated surgeon who kidnaps and kills beautiful women in order to restore the beauty of his own sister who's face got horribly deformed in a very banal acid-accident. Franco, among other prominent horror directors, already made similar movies in the 60's, like "The Awful Dr. Orloff" which he still refers to whenever he has the opportunity. In fact, "Faceless" is pretty much a remake of that film but, since it's the 80's, our director can now insert a lot more nauseating gore and sexually perverted sub themes. The result is one of the most energetic Franco movies ever, with enough sleaze and sadism to satisfy even the sickest puppies among us! There are extremely graphic facial operations that'll nearly make your stomach turn, random bloody executions and an uncanny sidekick (Gordon) who feasts his lusts on the female corpse-leftovers. In between all the sickness, Franco takes the time to create a stylish and truthful portrait of the Parisian night life and the dialogues are much more adequate that usually in his films. Last but not least, "Faceless" is blessed with one of the greatest ensemble-casts in exploitation cinema ever, with Anton Diffring ("Circus of Horrors"), Brigitte Lahaie ("Island Women", "Fascination"), Helmut Berger ("Salon Kitty", "The Damned") and Caroline Munro ("Maniac", "Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter"). The biggest names regretfully only appear in cameos, like Telly Savalas and Franco-regular Howard Vernon ("The Sadist Baron Von Klaus", "Miss Muerte", "Zombie Lake"...). My advise: see this film!!

The definition of guilty pleasure

[capkronos · 7/10 · 31 July 2006]

I readily admit that I am not a Jesus Franco fan, especially after sitting through such mind-numbing drivel as OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES, REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER and MARI-COOKIE AND THE KILLER TARANTULA. However, he did make a handful of OK genre films that, while wildly uneven, at least managed to merge the director's excesses to create an entertaining film. While FACELESS has myriad production woes (loopy plotting, big holes in the story, a very out-of-place/silly pop tune that is repeated about twenty times...), it is surprisingly good in other areas; particularly the excellent casting, the professional photography, the high production values (René Château produced and it was released through his own company), the location work in and around Paris, the fittingly gruesome make-up effects and some effective sick/trashy passages. By dropping the empty pretension that plagues much of his other work, Franco basically gives the intended audience a more straight-forward horror story sparked by exploitation elements hearkening back to Euro-trash cinema of the past, notably to the 1959 classic EYES WITHOUT A FACE and Franco's own AWFUL DR. ORLOFF (1961).

Crazed Parisian plastic surgeon Frank Flamand (Helmut Berger, who played the title role in DORIAN GRAY back in 1970) wants to restore the beauty of his distraught, slightly disturbed, facially-scarred sister Ingrid (Christiane Jean), who had acid thrown in her face by one of his disgruntled former patients. His clinic is not only a place to work on wealthy older women (including acclaimed French actress Stephane Audran of all people!), but also (in a hidden wing of the hospital) a place to keep beautiful young ladies prisoner in padded cells. He plans on removing their faces and transplanting them onto Ingrid once he gets the technique down. Aiding him is his icy blonde nurse/lover Nathalie (former Euro porn queen Brigitte Lahaie), a hulking, perverted, semi retarded behemoth with shaved-off eyebrows named Gordon (Gérard Zalcberg) and Dr. Orloff (Howard Vernon, only in one scene), who sends him some help in the form of Nazi war criminal/doctor Dr. Karl Heinz Moser (Anton Diffring), who had previously caught fire experimenting on full face transplants. Meanwhile, New York City detective Sam Morgan (Christopher Mitchum) is on the case after Terry Hallen (Telly Savalas!) hires him to find his missing, troublesome, pampered, drug-addicted model daughter Barbara (Caroline Munro). Guess where she disappeared to?

There's plenty of all-around sleaze to keep trash movie fans glued to the screen... Rape, heavily implied incest, voyeurism, necrophilia, threesomes, male gigolos, lesbians, a flamboyant fashion designer, bad disco dancing, decapitation by chainsaw, a needle piercing an eyeball in close-up, two full face scalpings (one of which is extremely messy!), scissors stuck in a neck and much more. Interestingly (and surprisingly) in the uncut version I saw, there is almost no nudity. It was shot in English, with only some of the supporting actors dubbed. The ending was unexpected and right out of Poe. And like I mentioned before, the cast is excellent.

It's hard to imagine a classier and more sophisticated couple of sick-o's than Berger and Lahaie. Both look great cruising the club scene for victims, engaging in kinky scenarios and lashing out violently at victims in the calmest, coolest fashion imaginable. I was particularly impressed with Lahaie. Of course she looks gorgeous (and naturally gorgeous, at that), but she also has great presence as a villainess. She is dubbed in this film, but it's easy to see why she has received mainstream work along with the sex films. Diffring (who has the most incredible pair of eyes in show business) adds his usual stamp of class and a much needed injection of credibility to his final role; a virtual replay of his famous CIRCUS OF HORRORS character. Even though he has nothing to do but sit behind a desk, Savalas is the consummate professional and doesn't embarrass himself. Neither does Munro, who spends most of her scenes in a cell trying to fend off Gordon and gets to show more emotion than usual. The only bad performance out of the principles is Mitchum, who is dull and one-note throughout. Florence Guerin (in an in-joke appearance as herself) and Lina Romay as Mrs. Orloff (she has one line of dialogue) are also here, albeit briefly. 

The DVD has very good interviews with Franco, Munro and Mitchum, audio commentary from Franco and Romay, partial audio commentary from Mitchum and some trailers.

Big-budget Franco with an all-star cast of B-celebrities

[Camera-Obscura · 5 November 2006]

FACELESS (Jesus Franco - France/Spain 1988).

As usual with a Jess Franco film, the background stories from cast and crew are much more interesting than the film itself, which is pretty crappy. But, relatively speaking, it's one of his better films, with an interesting cast consisting of Helmut Berger, Telly Savalas, Chris Mitchum and legendary French porn queen Brigitte Lahaie. Franco had a relatively large budget to spend for this film, around one and a half million francs ($250,000). It all looks very glossy, very eighties, including the soundtrack with the strangely hypnotic song 'Destination nowhere.'

The film itself is good for quite a few laughs; Chris Mitchum's encounter with the muscled bodyguard "Dudu" or "Doodoo". The inexplicable presence of a drag queen in Helmut Berger's clinic, a joke Franco spontaneously made up on the set, even Helmut Berger looked a little disturbed after entering the room (Franco probably didn't tell him who or what was in the room). An electric doll (the stand-in for a body) that runs wild due to some electric failure, with its teeth clappering up and down like wild. Why fix it? Just keep it in the movie. No one will notice. Sure...

The extras are always the most interesting part of Franco-DVD's. Chris Mitchum is a likable and intelligent guy, who tells some amusing anecdotes about the start of his movie career. He also reveals that - due to some misunderstanding - he was in an outrageously expensive hotel suite in Paris, that cost more than $30,000 in total during the whole shoot, more than one-tenth of the total budget. The interview with Jess Franco is strange and he stays clear of saying anything specific about his work, which is a smart thing. He does manage to discuss the work of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Frederico Fellini and Helmut Berger, all within five minutes! The teaming of these names in one interview in such a short time must be a first.

A somewhat atypical entry in Franco's oeuvre with a (relatively speaking) coherent plot, less hanky-panky than usual, but some shocks and gore, and plenty of (unintended) laughs.

Camera Obscura --- 5/10

Creepy and scary Jesús Franco film with lots of blood and gore .

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 4 December 2020]

It begins with a doctor, lover and his sister while are walking , suddenly the latter receives an acid on the face from a unknown girl , and she results really disfigured . Later on , a model : Caroline Munro, has disappeared in París and her father : Telly Savalas living in NY hires a private eye : Chris Mitchum to find her , as he gets out the first flight to París . The tracks lead the private detective to a plastic surgery clinic run by a suspicious doctor : Helmut Berger and his helper : Brigitte Lahaie . But the various witnesses of the twisted investigation are being murdered one by one . Come Face to Face with Evil. If there is but one life , there are several ways to die .

A creepy terror with thrills , chills , intrigue , tension , grisly killings and several gory scenes . A new eerie version of Doctor Orloff series with some novelties , here the heinous starring is Doctor Flamand : Helmut Berger ,while the true Doctor Orloff is played by Howard Vernon who was usual player in Doctor Orloff series directed by Jesús Franco or Jess Frank . There is some nudism and erotic scenes , though Caroline Munro refused to be partially nude , claiming that was unnecessary and useless . Here Starring Helmut Berger gives a surprising nice acting as the nasty surgeon who attempts to cure his deformed sister by kidnapping attractive girls and as she recovers her former beauty . He is well accompanied by a popular cast with plenty of familiar faces, such as : Christopher Mitchum, Robert Mitchum's son , as the stubborn private investigator , the porno actress Brigitte Lahaie as the assistant/lover , Caroline Munro as the abducted model, Anton Driffing as a Nazi surgeon who worked for Doctor Mengele , Howard Vernon as Doctor Orloff , Florence Guerin as herself , Tilda Thamar as Madame Francois and the prestigious actress Stephane Audran, as a whell-chair patient to suffer a grisly death , among others . The motion picture produced in budget enough by Rene Chateau was regular but professionally directed by the prolific Spanish filmmaker Jesús Franco or Jess Frank. This is only for Jes Frank enthusiasts and major fan of horror films.

This film follows similar plot to Doctor Orloff saga , using the ordinary surgical operation about face change by kidnapping beautiful girls and most of them directed by Jesús Franco , at the same time these films imitated and rip-off the classic "Eyes Without A Face" 1960 , the masterpiece made by George Franju . Orloff was habitually performed by Howard Vernon who initiated in " Gritos en la Noche" or The awful Dr Orloff 1962 . It is followed by " El Secreto del Dr Orloff" 1964 aka The Mistresses of Dr Jekill USA title . It is going on by "Orloff's Invisible Monster" 1970 or Dr Orloff's Invisible Monster . Furthermore , "El Enigma Del Ataúd" 1969 aka Only a Coffin and " El siniestro Doctor Orloff" 1984 aka The Sinister Dr. Orloff . Finally , this "Faceless" or Depredadores de la Noche 1987 in which Orloff shows up as a secondary role, replacing him two doctors played by Helmut Berger and Anton Driffing , undergoing creepy , eerie and bloody surgical operations .

Great Jess Franco sleaze

[Macholic · 6/10 · 19 February 2004]

*MINOR SPOILERS*

This one has a healthier budget than most Franco has made, decent production values and actors. Here Franco rips off George Franju's Eyes Without A Face: People loose their faceskin in gory details and are subsequently disposed of. There is a particulary grim and delicious decapitation with chainsaw, this is truly a gorehounds delight and in between the bloodletting feast your eyes on Brigitte Lahie and Caroline Munro. The Horrible Secret of Dr. Hichcock is still Franco's best, but for less subtle fair Faceless is doing nicely. 6/10

One of Franco's best

[movieman_kev · 7/10 · 25 May 2005]

A coke addicted fashion model is abducted by a notable plastic surgeon after a patient her scarred throws acid in the face of his beloved. He's trying to reconstruct her face with those of other girls. The fashion model's father sends Sam Morgan, his war buddy and now a private investigator to find his daughter. One of Franco's best films, it has the benefit of being coherent and not unwatchable, putting it in the class of Jess Fronco films that only number less then a handful. The presentation is nice EXCEPT the last line of Telly Savalas is in French for no reason all.

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Sub-titled Commentary with Jess Franco and Lina Romay; Partial commentary with Chris Mitchum; Interviews with Jess Franco, Caroline Munro, and Chris Mitchum; Photo gallery; Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for "Flesh for the Beast", "Virgin of Nuremberg", and "Bronx Warriors"

Eye Candy: a couple breasts

Shockingly credible sleaze from Jess Franco

[Aylmer · 6/10 · 1 May 2010]

Admittedly I set the bar pretty low when I go into a Jess Franco film. Typically his films seem to be produced in the most cynical manner possible, getting any and every washed-up actor available to shoot as few scenes as possible and then to find some way of padding out the running time to make it feature length.

Despite its goofy direction, strange out-of-place intentional comedy, inane dialog, poor and repetitive music, and cheap production design, this film actually has a lot going for it. For one, the cast is pretty good with a decent later-career performance from a drug-addled Helmut Berger, coupled with an earnest P.I. role from Chris Mitchum, Brigitte Lahaie trying her best not to look like a porn star, and Caroline Munro doing her best with a curiously confused, tertiary role. Anton Diffring even pops by to play another of his trademark cold-hearted Nazi / crazed doctor characters. Also look fast for Franco regulars Howard Vernon and Lina Romay in a throwaway scene.

Shockingly, the sleaze & gore maintains a good pace and gradually escalates as you'd expect it to in a competent horror film. The film very rarely drags and is really mostly weighed down by the nightclub and people-driving-around-looking-at-things filler scenes. Franco really just can't resist the urge to waste the audience's time. However, overall this film must surely rank with JACK THE RIPPER among his best works (however meaningless of a compliment that may be).

More trash and sleaze from Jess Franco!

[The_Void · 8/10 · 17 July 2006]

Prolific director Jess Franco made a lot of crap during his career, but in his filmography there are several hidden gems - and Faceless is definitely one of them! True to Franco's style, the film is trashy and sleazy throughout, but it's the eighties atmosphere that sets this film apart from the majority of Franco's opus, as Faceless takes in trashy eighties pop and themes of vanity, which ensure that the film is always obviously a product of the eighties. The story has been used many times before - mostly in films made in the sixties; films such as Eyes Without a Face, Circus of Horrors and Franco's own The Awful Dr Orloff (which gets a nod in this film), but never before has this sort of been given as much blood, gore and nudity as it gets in Faceless. The film begins with the disappearance of a model named Barbara Hallen. Her father hires a private detective to find her, and while on her trail in Paris; the detective eventually makes his way to a private clinic where strange experiments have been going on. The not so good doctor has a woman whose face he wants to fix - and he's using skin from young women to do it!

The film's biggest plus point has to go to the scenes of gore! Sequences that see things such as a needle in the eye, a drill through the skull, a chainsaw decapitation and numerous surgery sequences are well done, and bound to delight gore fans. The cast is also a standout element of the film, as Franco recasts Howard Vernon in the role of Dr Orloff, and we've also got performances from the likes of Telly Savalas, Anton Diffring and Jean Rollin's beautiful frequent collaborator, Brigitte Lahaie. The story isn't massively strong, but it's not bad either as Franco strings a few different threads together and that, along with the gore and skin going on throughout, tends to ensure that the film is always interesting. The music that Franco has chosen is good in that it suits the style and feel of the film, but Franco uses the central song a bit too often, and it starts to grate after a while. Overall, Faceless might not do much for fans of serious films, or for those that dislike Jess Franco in general; but Faceless is one of the better films that the director has worked on, and comes recommended to the right sort of people.

The return of the mad doctor in a movie at the edge of the commercial

[ang-lee · 7/10 · 27 October 2014]

inspired by the movie masterpiece Eyes Without a Face - Georges Franju (1960) , Uncle Jess signed his most successful film in my humble opinion ... mad doctor of topics dealt with in the old movies of Jess Franco is then at its ease in telling a story over and over again but giving it a personal touch that ' rivers of blood and lots of sex main elements in his vast career ... the film is set in the cosmetic surgery clinic of Dr. Flamand .... He kidnaps young women for a long time in order to give the appearance a time to the beautiful mistress disfigured .... the movie is not a masterpiece but for lovers of sleazy European cinema is really not to be missed ....if you can recover from other films by the same director to see how they make a great movie with a small budget ...

Franco with a Budget and a Great Cast

[Michael_Elliott · 24 October 2015]

Faceless (1987)

*** (out of 4)

After his sister has acid thrown into her face, Dr. Flamand (Helmut Berger) and his assistant (Brigitte Lahaie) start kidnapping women so that their faces can be placed on the sister. They end up kidnapping a model (Caroline Munro) so her father (Telly Savalas) hires a private investigator (Christopher Mitchum) to track her down.

FACELESS is a very interesting film for director Jess Franco because throughout the decade he was making ultra low-budget movies and porn films. This here was considered his "comback" as he was given a very high budget, a great cast and familiar material to work with. The EYES WITHOUT A FACE/THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF subject matter is something the director dealt with throughout his career and when you put everything together he turned in a good movie here.

I think the best thing the film has going for it is the terrific and familiar faces. Berger and Lahaie are both extremely good here displaying the coldness they have. You've got Mitchum who does a good job paying homage to the type of roles his father would have played. Savalas is fun in his few scenes here. As for Munro, she basically just has to be tied down to a bed and scream but it's still fun to see her. Fans of Franco will also enjoy seeing Howard Vernon playing Dr. Orloff and Lina Romay has a brief cameo as well.

The film's higher budget allowed Franco to make a professional looking film and it looks just that. This film certainly proved what Franco could have done if he had the budget. I know some fans don't like this "classy" look but it's still interesting to see what he could do. The film also benefits from having some gory special effects with several scenes of faces being taken off their victims. While the effects aren't always believable they're at least gory enough to keep you entertained. There are some flaws including the non-stop playing of the title song as well as there being a few too many scenes so some editing would have helped.

Still, FACELESS is a very interesting film for the Spanish director and it's certainly worth watching.

One of Franco's best funded films

[dopefishie · 6/10 · 23 December 2022]

One of Franco's best funded films

There are a number of seasoned actors here. The highlight by far is Anton Diffring who plays an evil Nazi doctor, and he does it so well!

Brigitte Lahaie gives an uneven performance here. Some of her scenes are quite good, and others are not.

Telly Savalas and Christopher Mitchum are both pretty bad here.

The special effects are also hit or miss. Some are fantastic and still effective today. Others are obviously bad.

The plot is the same mad doctor mutilating victims story that we've seen Franco do a number of times before - but this version is by far the most graphic and most memorable. There is a nice critique of the superficial glam culture of the 80s here, and it feels more thoughtful and intelligent that most of Franco's other films. Def worth checking out if you're a fan of this kind of thing.

Good to watch during dinner.

[coldwaterpdh · 6/10 · 16 March 2008]

I'd recommend a big steak, a bottle of red wine, some candles, a special lady, and this film for a perfect romantic evening.

I was surprised by how gross this film was! Impressed, too... I think films like "Hostel" and "The Devil's Rejects" owe a lot to the 1988 sleaze-fest "Faceless." I've read a lot about how Franco's other films suck and I have to say, from what I've seen, I agree. I have "The Castle of Fu Manchu" and "A Virgin Among the Living Dead" and both of them were painful to get through. "Faceless" remained entertaining throughout and I never got bored for a second. And it's a pretty long movie.

Sleazy, wet, sick, and awesome. Euro-trash cinema at it's finest here. If you like this one, I'd suggest "Beyond the Darkness." 6 out of 10, kids.

Just get a mask smh

[DanTheMan2150AD · 6/10 · 8 December 2023]

Insanely sleazy Eurotrash quasi-remake of Eyes Without A Face, Faceless marks my first foray into the domain of Jesús Franco, one of profound confusion and exceptional intrigue. Nearly everyone in Faceless is either suffering from a severe form of substance abuse or craving intense sexual pleasure. It's made all the more hilarious by the peculiar ADR and unflattering camera angles, almost like Franco was directing with his eyes sown shut. There are plenty of gross-out effects for the gore hounds among us, coupled with an 80s disco pop soundtrack that clashes horribly with the rest of the film but I found myself bopping to on more than one occasion. A softcore shocker to be sure, Faceless rides high thanks to the laughable over-acting, cheers Telly, and touches upon some genuinely interesting backstories (Anton Diffring's Nazi Doctor being the prime example) that otherwise bleed into the background of this routine exploitation horror that seems to have been produced by a can of hairspray and a kilo of primo cocaine.

Blimey! A decent Jess Franco film!

[BA_Harrison · 8/10 · 9 July 2006]

I never thought I would see the day when I would award a high rating to a Jess Franco movie, but Faceless proved to be far better than any of the director's other output that it has been my misfortune to see.

Helmut Berger plays Dr. Frank Flamand, a renowned plastic surgeon desperately searching for a way to restore his sister's beauty after she is terribly scarred in an acid attack. Since this is a Franco flick, this means removing the faces of unwilling donors, who have been abducted by Frank's sexy assistant Nathalie, and transplanting them onto his disfigured sister.

When top model Barbara Hallen (Caroline Munro) is selected by the nutty physician as a possible donor, and snatched mid-assignment, her father (Telly Savalas) hires a tough private eye to find her.

Franco delivers a quality piece of sleaze, laden with nudity, lesbianism, rape, torture, gratuitous gore and bizarre characters (which include an extremely camp photographer, the doctor's hulking sidekick and a Nazi surgeon). Working with a higher budget than usual and a quality cast, the director avoids his usual pitfalls—dull, meandering story lines with dreadful editing and camera-work—and gives the audience a gleefully OTT gore-fest with some occasional unintentionally-hilarious moments for good measure (the 'private eye versus muscle-man' fight scene, for example).

The effects are particularly gruesome and pretty realistic and include such delights as a syringe in the eye (in glorious close-up), a botched face transplant, a drill in the head, and a nice scissors-through-the-throat scene.

Franco also proves once again that he has an eye for beautiful women; loads of great looking ladies populate the movie, and although they don't get completely naked, they do wear some rather fetching skimpy underwear.

I'm still finding it hard to believe, but I have no hesitation in recommending this movie to all fans of horror and sleaze.

Facing Uncle Jess.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 9/10 · 9 August 2019]

When the best films of 1987 poll kicked off ICM,the first thing which came to mind was to check the credits from the year, of who the old IMDb Horror board regs had called "Uncle" Jess Franco. Before he suddenly passed away this year, a family friend called Guy had told me that this was the last big budget (for him!) the auteur had made,and finding it matched the year,I looked at the faceless Uncle Jess.

View on the film:

The first time he had a decent budget since Jack the Ripper (1976),co-writer/(with Pierre Ripert/Jean Mazarin/ Michel Lebrun/ Dominique Eudes and producer Rene Chateau) directing auteur "Uncle" Jess Franco brings his Orloff creation back into the era of the Erotic Thriller,which Jess enters with a tasty heaping of stylised kitsch, (backed by the toe-tapping Disco crooning tunes sung by Vincenzo Thoma)brimming from the pounding bright reds and his own unique, scatter-shot whip-pans landing on the pristine, garish clothes, reflecting the vanity of those being forced under the knife for beauty.

Whilst toning down his trademark button-bashing zoom-ins to light moments of hot lesbian action, Uncle Jess puts the extra cash he got on screen in excellent practical special effects set-pieces, striking from a Lucio Fulci-style poke in the eye, to gore hounds delight of face removal operations brimming with red.

As detailed in Stephen Thrower's outstanding book Flowers of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema of Jess Franco- Volume 2, Jess had wanted to give Orloff (what would turn out to be the final appearance of the character) a bigger in the ending with a final twist, which was blocked by co-writer/producer Rene Chateau, and that leaves Orloff being given an added,subtle layer to his murky past,and a farewell threaded in a oddly bitter sweet vibe,when stepping out of the operation room for good. Surrounding the ghouls with a gaudy, eye-abusing backdrop, Jess goes down the corridor of women being locked in a (mental) prison, and with the co-writers attacks the amoral (a theme in Jess's work) vanity of the era with relish.

Dripping exchanges between Dr Flamand and his "patients" with ripe acid dialogue, the writers twist the stereotype of the "Mad Doctor/ Scientist" genre, first in Ingrid not being forced, but a willing partner for the killings to be committed in order to restore her beauty, "specialist" Dr. Moser being more concerned with his ego than the acts being committed. Holding the richly cynical atmosphere right to the end, the writers avoid a clean happy ending, instead holding investigator Morgan on a cryptic ledge.

Reuniting with Uncle Jess, sexy Brigitte Lahaie gives a icy cool turn as deadly vixen nurse Nathalie, whilst Caroline Munro and Stephane Audran (!) bring the screams as Barbara and Sherman. Joined by the welcome return of Howard Vernon's Orloff, and Helmut Berger's eyes of madness as Dr.Flamand, Anton Diffring gives a mesmerising turn in one of his last roles, drilling into the cold, deadly professional way Dr. Moser looks at the faceless.