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Stolen Face (1952)
Topic Started: Jan 18 2012, 09:51 AM (327 Views)
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Yes, I'm still amusing myself by reading Wayne Kinsey's book on Hammer Studios: The Bray Years and watching early Hammer melodramas. See the description under Man Bait for more information, since Wikipedia is closed today 'n' all.

This is the first of the early Hammer films that I've seen that I can wholeheartedly recommend as superior entertainment; it's a goofy but excellent film. Oddly enough, it wasn't filmed at Bray at all; after doing several films there, the studio was looking for a permanent home (they would decide to stay there, and take out a long-term lease) and filmed this at Riverside Studios.

Paul Henreid is a dedicated plastic surgeon in London who takes a much-needed vacation to the countryside that's interrupted by a sneezing, coughing, wheezing woman in the next hotel room. He slips her a note recommending aspirin and scotch; she returns it with a note that she only has aspirin. He brings over a bottle of spirits, discovers it's Lizabeth Scott over there, introduces himself, and pretty soon, brother, does Liz feel better!

She's a concert pianist about to embark on a tour of the continent, which he knows; she's gonna get married to her manager as soon as the tour's over, which he doesn't. When she tells him and breaks off the affair, he's heartbroken and returns to work, where he meets a young woman, a cockney habitual criminal whose face has been disfigured. He gives her - Lizabeth Scott's face! Way! And then he marries her, and tries to teach her to be a lady (pronounce that "luuy-deee", ducks) and enjoy opera and stuff. Damn, Hitchcock SO ripped this movie off. Anyway, she is soon carousing with her old friends and stealing jewelry and furs and whatnot, and meanwhile the REAL Liz returns to Henreid's life, having broken off the engagement. Drama ensues.

I sure hope this points in the direction of the early Hammer film dramas getting better and better, because it's a wonderful little film and I enjoyed it very much. Miss Scott gets to have some fun with a dual role, Henreid settles in and brings gravitas to an unbelievable story, and director Terence Fisher keeps things moving, with a climax on a train that's very Hitchcockian, actually. Put this movie on your radar.

Stolen Face is on the Hammer Film Noir Double Feature disc with Dane Clark in Blackout.



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