The 50’s was full of Sci-Fi – Horror films, some were great some were best left forgotten, but this film always seems to be the one that gets brought up on many lists from that era.
“Fiend Without A Face” is a classic example of 50’s Sci-Fi/Horror, great sunday viewing!
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
The Criterion Collection DVD has a hidden gag on it added by the authors. If you check the disc name/ID on a PC through various means, the ID reads AFIENDINNEEDISAFIENDINDEED, i.e. “A fiend in need is a fiend, indeed”.
A publicity stunt went somewhat wrong in New York City. The Rialto theater in Times Square featured a sidewalk promotion for the film…one of the prop “brain creatures” was displayed in a cage, wired for sound and motion. The crowd it attracted grew so large that the NYCPD had it removed.
The film created a public uproar after its premiere at the Ritz Theater in Leicester Square. The British Board of Film Censors has already demanded a number of cuts before granting it the “X” certificate.
This 1958 British production was based on “The Thought-Monster” by Amelia Reynolds Long, which was published in the classic American pulp magazine “Weird Tales” in 1930.
In the US, MGM distributed this film second on a double-bill with Torpedo Run (1958).
