poe-48833 CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN is another of those No Budget, Poverty Row quickies that's surprisingly well done and ,even more surprisingly, very Entertaining. It's THE MUMMY by way of THE GOLEM, of course, but without all the overwrought Production Values. Hey, who needs Production Value(s) when you've got The Faceless Man, right...? Not that The Faceless One isn't an impressive Monster: he IS; many bigger-budgeted movies would've done well to have done as well as these guys did. CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN doesn't DRAG, that's for sure, and The Monster gets plenty of that all-important Screen Time. Can't ask for more.

sol (There are Spoilers) Found in the ruins of ancient Pompeii is this mummified man with a box of jewelry buried next to him. It's soon discovered by the eminent historian Dr. Emenuel,Felix Locher, of ancient Roman Greek and Egyptian times that the body is that of a Roman slave and gladiator named Quintillus Aurellus, Bob Bryant. Aurellus was killed, along with thousands of fellow Romans, when Mt. Vesuvious blew its top in 79 AD and destroyed the city of Pompeii!After spending some 2,000 years in limbo the ancient Roman slave/warrior Aurellus came to life, with the help of a modern x-ray machine, looking for his long lost love a daughter of a Roman aristocrat Lucila Lucia. As we'll later find out Lucila has been reincarnated and is now American artist Tina Enright, Elaine Edwards, who's fiancée Dr. Paul Mellon, Richard Anderson, is involved in the archaeological expedition that dug up the long dead and buried Quintillus Aurellus!The faceless man, Quintillus Aurellus, suddenly comes to life and cause havoc all over the Italian city of Naples, the sister city to ancient Pompeii, in looking for his lost love the now pretty American artist Tina Enright. Tina does have an inkling to just who this stone man, or mummy, is in a number of dreams she has of him. This causes her to paint a portrait of the stone man without actually knowing who he is and what she has to do with him!The stone, or faceless, man himself is so slow and uncoordinated that it's miracle that he could catch up with, as well as kill, anyone in the movie. Yet he's responsible for at least a dozen attacks that results in some two, a truck driver and museum security guard, deaths!Finally getting what he wanted, his his long love Tina/Lucla, the stone man ends going up the river, or Mediterranean Sea. This has to do with the stone man miscalculating the time that he's living in: 1958 AD not 79 AD. That cause him to self -destruct by not realizing that his escape plan, with Tina, was the wrong path for him to take! Since the long inactive Mt. Vesuvious is no longer a danger to him and the woman, together with the population of Naples, he's so insanely in love with!Nothing that out of the ordinary for a 1950's horror movie if that's what "The Curse of the Faceless Man" is supposed to be. What's really good about the movie "the Curse of the Faceless Man" is its opening and closing soundtrack together with the stock footage of exploding volcanoes that are supposed to show Mt. Vesuvious' 79 AD eruption! There's also actor Filex Locher as ancient historian Dr. Emenuel who that same year-1958-will achieve motion picture immortality in him staring as the daffy and overzealous Dr. Carter Morton in that all time bad movie classic "Frankenstein's Daughter".

tonybanderson 1950's Black & White, stilted acting exercise from some otherwise good character actors of the period headed up by Richard Anderson, featuring Adele Mara (40's and 50's second lead actress in Westerns, and "Wake of the Red Witch" with John Wayne). Notable also for appearance of character actors Luis Van Rooten as Dr. Fiorello, and Gar Moore as Dr. Ricci. Elaine Edwards (Tina) provides the obligatory "woman screaming" scenes. Supposedly shot in the vicinity of Los Angeles' Griffith Park Observatory, but very few exterior shots verify that fact, and it could have been a back lot production for any well-equipped studio. Plot involves a 2000-year old Gladiator who comes back to life searching for his reincarnated true love in order to be reunited with her in death. Tina (Elaine Edwards) is the candidate. Bob Bryant is the Gladiator, wrapped in bandages and paper mache "stone", ala "The Mummy" films, and in the end is dissolved in sea water. A very "talky" picture - lots of talk, explanation, and very little action.

BumpyRide The name of this movie eluded me but I was fortunate enough (I guess) to have seen it once or twice on "Doctor Shock Theatre" that we picked up out of Philly. Looking at some of the stills online, the walking statue is kinda ominous looking. I wouldn't want to see it following me home. It also looks like a costume the creature wore from the Lost In Space episode, "Wish Upon A Star." I wish I could remember more about the movie but it's been too many years since I last saw it. I remember it was supposed to take place in Italy. Written by Jerome Bixby who wrote many stories for episodic TV including the original Star Trek. If you happen upon this gem by all means add your review here.