The Face of Marble (1946) User Reviews

Considering it's Beaudine and Monogram - it's not that bad

[bensonmum2 · 5/10 · 4 February 2005]

While The Face of Marble will never be confused with a great horror film, it is a decent little movie from the infamously cheap Monogram Pictures and director William Beaudine. John Carradine plays a doctor intent on discovering the secret to bringing the dead back to life. In most scenes, he rises above the material given and delivers a first class performance. The less said about the rest of the cast the better. They can generously be described as wooden and unemotional.

The movie begins with Carradine and his assistant attempting to bring a dead man back to life. After this fails, he tries the procedure on his wife's dog (Carradine's character kills the dog with little or no remorse or care for his wife's feelings). And finally, his wife gets the opportunity to experience the whizzing and sparking machines in his lab. There's also a housekeeper who practices voodoo and has some sort of control over the dog and wife. The housekeeper uses her power to have the dog and wife do her bidding. Under the housekeeper's control, the wife kills Carradine and attempts to kill everyone else in the cast.

For the limited budget, there are actually some good special effects. Some of the scenes where the dog walks through the walls are especially effective. Also, much of the budget appears to have been spent on fancy lab equipment. Carradine has a room full of electronic gadgets similar to those in Frankenstein. The marble effect (from which the movies title comes) is, however, not especially good or memorable.

If you can get past the lackluster supporting performances and the obvious budget constraints, The Face of Marble can be a somewhat fun little film. Not the best, but watchable.

How Do You Handle a Problem Like Maria?

[BaronBl00d · 6/10 · 13 July 2001]

Monogram Studios, director William "One Shot" Beaudine, and horror/character actor icon John Carradine team up in this fun yet implausible offering called The Face of Marble. The story deals with really two strands of plot that come together at the end. One strand tells the story of John Carradine and his young male assistant working on a way of bringing life back to life once dead. The scientific logic is weak, yet executed very nicely. The other story deals with a love triangle between Carradine, his assistant, and Carradine's wife who has fallen in love with the assistant. Carradine's wife(played by Claudia Drake) also happens to have a very "loyal" servant from Africa trained in the black arts. This servant's name is Maria, and she is the very personification of wickedness as she stops at nothing to satisfy her mistress and her own evil ends. Rosa Rey plays Maria and does a real fine job capturing and creating an atmosphere of foreboding and doom. The rest of the acting is all very acceptable. Carradine actually gives a nice, restrained performance as a somewhat misguided but basically good man. Considering the budgetary concerns, this little film is quite good. Some of the special effects are very innovative. The huge Great Dane that becomes a ghost and walks through windows and doors howling in the night is particularly effective and creepy.

Pretty good little B-horror

[funkyfry · 5/10 · 9 October 2002]

This film is distinguished by high-quality high contrast photography. There's little else here in this standard-issue John Carradine mad scientist story, in which Carradine and his assistant manage to resurrect a man, then a large dog, and finally Carradine's wife (at his perhaps obsessed assistant's insistence!). A few interesting plot twists are turned when the script starts to lose its direction (owing in part literally to the director, infamous "One Shot" Beaudine, who probably prided himself on his ethic of efficiency over all artistic or dramatic considerations), but there seems to be no effort to make a really good movie here. Too bad; it just might have been a lot better with some effort (kudos to the actors, though, who all played it straight like Beaudine wanted them to).

Just try to revive a brain.

[michaelRokeefe · 5/10 · 12 March 2011]

Pretty nice black & white horror film starring the great John Carradine as Professor Charles Randolf, a prominent brain surgeon, who retires to his mansion on a cliff that overlooks the sea. Randolf summons one of his best students, scientist David Cochran(Robert Shayne), to partner with him in an obsessive project. The mad professor wants to revive a dead brain. A drown sailor washes up on the shore becoming a perfect subject. The brain is revived; but the sailor's hair turns white and has a face that looks like it was chiseled out of marble...only to die. The dumped body is found and Inspector Norton(Thomas E. Jackson)comes to the mansion asking questions. There is Randolf's wife Elaine(Claudia Drake), the butler Shadrach(Willie Best) and a house maid Maria(Rosa Rey), who dabbles with voodoo. But this will not stop the experimenting. Apt atmosphere that sustains interest. Also in the cast: Maris Wrixon, Neal Burns and Donald Kerr.

Pretty scary film for a young kid.

[magazette · 28 April 2002]

I saw this flick in 1946 as a 12-year-old, and found it pretty scary. Darkly black-and-white (most films were black and white then). What I remember most was that the faces of the dead revived didn't look like marble at all. Scared but disappointed. John W. Hall

Beware of mad scientists and old ladies who practice voodoo....

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 5 March 2014]

Rosa Rey is exactly here like the old woman who turns Raymond Burr into a creature of the jungle in "The Bride of the Gorilla". She's obsessed with her master's wife (Claudia Drake) and when she finds out that Ms. Drake is enamored of her husband's partner (Robert Shayne), she is determined to make sure that what her mistress wants, her mistress gets. Along comes Maris Wrixon, Shayne's lady friend, and the nasty Rosa utilizes her own voodoo spells to get the rival lady out of the way-as a corpse! It adds to her convenience that boss John Carradine is experimenting with bringing humans back from the dead and they quickly die a horrible death, their faces literally turning into marble, although it looks more like they swallowed fluorescent light-bulbs and somebody plugged them in. When Drake's beloved pooch becomes one of the victims, it is very clear that the doggie isn't dead, only translucent and dangerously violent to anybody other than her. Rey arranges a potion to kill Wrixon but by coincidence, somebody else gets it, and now thanks to doctor Carradine's determination to bring them back from the dead, there are two violent creatures running around.

Silly but fun, this fast moving Monogram horror film is the class-room example of what "camp" is on film. Over the top performances literally shine, although the lack of a catfight between Drake and Wrixon is sorely missing as it is obvious when Wrixon arrives that the two women both love Shayne. You know you've seen this done over and over again, especially in several earlier Boris Karloff films with titles such as "Before I Hang" and "The Man They Could Not Hang" where mad scientist Karloff played mad doctors obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. There's an actual haunting ending, almost ghost-like, which adds to the spookiness of the film. As directed by "one-shot" William Beaudine, this is a little forgotten thriller that deserves to be re-discovered and show that the minor poverty row studios could do magnificent things (at least technically) on a shoe-string budget.

John Carradine's Monogram farewell

[kevinolzak · 5/10 · 2 April 2019]

1946's "The Face of Marble" ended Poverty Row Monogram's run of genre titles since Bela Lugosi's "The Human Monster" in 1940. John Carradine had previously headlined 1943's "Revenge of the Zombies," conceding that Monogram paid higher wages ($3000 per week) than all the other Hollywood studios of the period, also featuring in "I Escaped from the Gestapo," "Return of the Ape Man," "Voodoo Man," and "Alaska." "Zombies" was a straight up remake of the 1941 "King of the Zombies, "with a very low key performance from the actor, while "Marble" is quite different; for one thing, his Dr. Charles Randolph is not depicted as a typical mad scientist but a rational and quite likable one with dedicated sidekick, Robert Shayne a good six years older though playing a younger assistant (he'd get the top slot by 1953's "The Neanderthal Man"). These experiments in raising the dead through a special serum coupled with bursts of electricity are intended to benefit mankind, but the drowned sailor fails to respond accordingly. Randolph next decides that his wife's beloved Great Dane would be perfect, but the dog becomes a vicious beast capable of walking through walls and thirsting for blood. With his wife secretly in love with Shayne, and a voodoo practicing housekeeper determined to make her mistress happy, it shouldn't come as a surprise that both Randolphs come to a bad end. The script is simply a mess, but it shapes up as Carradine's best Monogram horror, not returning to the genre until the 1956 all star entry "The Black Sleep."

Okay thriller with a rare lead for John Carradine

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 6 July 2009]

John Carradine gets the chance to be the lead mad scientist in this good but not really remarkable tale about reviving the dead. Carradine's experiments result in a temporary return to life but give the subject the title face. An experiment on his wife's dog results in its ability to walk through walls. Add to the mix a love triangle between Carradine's "younger" assistant (played by an actor a half a decade older) and Carradine's wife. Oh yea the house keeper knows voodoo. It's a busy mix that still ends up being a bit too leisurely paced. Creepy at times the film the film never truly generates a great deal of thrills and by the time the end rolls around you'll be happy to have seen Carradine in a lead, and wish he had had a better vehicle to drive. Worth a shot for Carradine fans.

The Face of Marble (1946) *

[JoeKarlosi · 2/10 · 12 November 2007]

I thought I read somewhere that this was the last Monogram production, but whether that's true or not it doesn't matter, because if it wasn't, then it should have been. It's a deadly dull affair starring John Carradine with some gray in his hair to make himself appear like an older scientist who is experimenting with the aid of his young apprentice (Robert Shayne) in bringing the dead back to life. Every time their subjects are revived, they seem to have a whitish face like marble as they are lying strapped to the laboratory table (big deal). Carradine manages to restore his faithful dog to life after it's dead, and the mutt gains an unusual ability to walk through walls in a ghostlike fashion (wooooooooohhhh). That's about all she wrote. For an ultra-cheap Monogram quickie, this thing at least actually utilizes a more fancy-schmancy lab setup than is usually allotted. The funniest running joke in the movie is that the "older" doctor Carradine constantly refers to his "young" assistant Shayne as "m'boy" when, in fact, Carradine was actually 40 and Shayne was 45 when they made this! * out of ****

Acceptable 40's horror programmer

[Woodyanders · 6/10 · 19 November 2013]

Dr. Charles Randolph (a fine performance by John Carradine) is so obsessed with reviving the dead that he neglects his wife Elaine (an appealing portrayal by the pretty Claudia Drake), who gets involved with Randolph's assistant Dr. David Cochran (a likable turn by Robert Shayne). Meanwhile, creepy old housekeeper Maria (essayed with fairly sinister menace by Rosa Rey) uses her voodoo powers to make Maria happy. Although hampered by sluggish pacing, an overly talky script by Michael Jacoby, a rather plodding and uneventful narrative, and perfunctory direction by William Beaudine, this film nonetheless manages to remain reasonably watchable and enjoyable thanks to Carradine's surprisingly restrained acting in a rare lead role, a resurrected Great Dane named Brutus who walks through walls, Dr. Randolph being presented as someone who's more driven than mad, and some decent special effects considering both the modest budget and era this movie was made in. However, the spooky atmosphere is minimal at best and there's precious little tension to speak of. In addition, Willie Best is saddled with a degrading racial comic relief role as a pop-eyed cowardly servant. That said, the terse 72 minute running time ensures that this flick doesn't overstay its welcome and it's fun to watch Carradine carry a picture for once. Okay fright fare.

Dull poverty row horror

[preppy-3 · 1/10 · 9 December 2002]

A scientist (John Carradine--sadly) finds out how to bring the dead back to life. However they come back with faces of marble. Eventually this all leads to disaster.

Boring, totally predictable 1940s outing. This scared me silly when I was a kid but just bores me now. I had to struggle to stay awake! With one exception, the acting is horrible. Such expressionless boring actors! Hopeless.

There are some good things about this: Carradine, despite the script, actually gives a very good performance. And there are a few mildly creepy moments involving a ghost of a Great Dane walking through walls. There's also one of the worst-looking knockouts in cinema history. Still, none of this is fun enough to sit through this. Avoid.

Creepy Archetypal 40's Horror with John Carradine

[josephbrando · 8/10 · 8 September 2012]

John Carradine appeared in more films than any other actor. Many of them were B-Horrors like this one. But he has such a cool persona, he is able to lift this "been there, done that, return life to the dead" black and white horror film up a notch or two with the help of a largely likable and interesting cast. Carradine plays a doctor whose scientific experiments are bordering on bringing the dead back to life. There is a love triangle mixed into the plot as well as a sinister housekeeper who practices voodoo played to the hilt by wonderful Rosa Rey, who makes a perfectly ominous witch. She is worth the price of admission alone. A great way to spend a little over an hour if you like these kinds of horror movies.

Worth seeing for Carradine.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 10 October 2013]

Horror legend John Carradine remains a delight to watch, as always, in this mostly routine but reasonably atmospheric tale from Monogram and director William Beaudine; he raises the rating by a point. The rest of the cast is adequate at best. The special effects are actually not bad. The script by Michael Jacoby (based on a story by Edmund L. Hartmann and Wilhelm Thiele) is awfully talky, a clear sign of a very low budget. Still, this is the kind of thing people could still easily enjoy watching in those wee hours of the morning.

Carradine portrays Dr. Charles Randolph, a fairly typical mad scientist (actually, he's not THAT mad) who wants more than anything to conquer death and bring the dead back to life. Alas, his experiments are not working out. Sometimes they even have weird side effects, such as his wife's rejuvenated dog developing a taste for blood and the ability to walk through things. Yes, this movie features a "vampire dog" 32 years before "Zoltan Hound of Dracula". Adding another wrinkle to the plot is the conniving housekeeper on the premises, Maria (Rosa Rey).

Some plot twists are mildly amusing and help to keep the film somewhat entertaining. At least it has the typically short running time (73 minutes all told) for a genre picture from this era. Female cast members Claudia Drake as Elaine (Randolphs' wife) and Maris Wrixon are easy enough on the eyes. Robert Shayne ('Adventures of Superman') has some likability as Randolphs' colleague and Willie Best adds un-p.c. comedy relief as a pop eyed butler. Rey is a hoot in her role.

All in all, this is diverting enough while it lasts.

Six out of 10.

Tepid...amazingly tepid!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 9 October 2012]

This is a very unusual low-budget horror film. While it stars perennial horror star John Carradine, he plays a most unusual sort of 'mad' scientist. That's because while the idea of reanimating the dead seems quite crazy, his motivation and demeanor are rather normal. In fact, he even seems kindly and very well-intentioned. His notion is that a recently dead person might be brought back to life using electrical gizmos--and it's really not all that different from using shock to bring heart attack patients back to life today. Unfortunately, the secret formula and the flashing electric gizmos seem to be only partly successful--leading to a deathlike marble appearance on one corpse followed by an almost immediate re-death. Soon, the good doctor tries this formula out on his dog and the animal is revived. But when his wife is murdered by an evil voodoo priestess (seriously, folks), will he dare use the technique on his wife? And, if so, what will her new life be like? While the film isn't as silly as you'd expect, the film does suffer some from a relatively lifeless script. You want to like the film but there are just too many slow patches. A 3 is perhaps a bit overly generous but the movie doesn't quite raise to the appropriate level of awfulness to earn a 2.

John Carradine as a Mad Genius? Yes, Please!

[gavin6942 · 7 October 2011]

Totally engrossed in his project to bring the dead back to life, Dr. Charles Randolph (John Carradine) fails to notice his wife Elaine's interest in Randolph's young lab partner, Dr. Cochran.

The sound and picture of this film need serious clean up, if possible. And there is some strange, latent racism here. But beyond those issues, there is a lot of horror potential -- reviving the dead, voodoo and a lab with electricity going everywhere. Randolph fits the idea of a "mad scientist" perfectly (but with less wild hair).

Some scenes are hard to follow because of how dark the picture is, but the story is decent, and if there was a way to fix this up, I would increase my rating.

Science and Voodoo

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 20 November 2014]

"Dr. Charles Randolph" (John Carradine) is a scientist who is working on a personal project at his home concerning bringing the dead back to life. Assisting him is a young doctor by the name of "David Cochran" (Robert Shayne). Also present in the house is Dr. Randolph's wife, "Elaine" (Claudia Drake) and her maid "Maria" (Rosa Rey). Anyway, because Dr. Randolph is so devoted to his work Elaine develops a crush on David. However, David doesn't share the same feelings toward Elaine due to his betrothal to another woman named "Linda Sinclair" (Maris Wrixon). So when Linda comes to visit this upsets both Elaine and Maria-who is devoted to Elaine and also happens to be a practitioner of voodoo. Now, rather than reveal any more of the story and risk ruining the film for those people who haven't seen it I will just say that it was a mildly entertaining B-movie for the most part. Although it had a good cast and they all played their parts well enough I didn't especially care for the ending at all. Likewise, the special abilities demonstrated by both "Brutus" (the dog) and Elaine defied the "normal" characteristics attributed to this particular genre. This is possibly explained by the combination of science and voodoo but it certainly wasn't made clear enough. That said while I don't consider this to be a bad movie by any means it certainly had some faults and as a result I rate this film as slightly below average.

Some Really Off Beat Stuff in this Low-Budget Quickie

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 3 February 2015]

There's a Lot Going On in this Monogram Quickie Directed by the King of Quick Draws, William Beaudine and Starring John Carradine. It is a Mad Scientist Movie but the Scientist Here is Really Not Mad, Just Determined to Help Mankind Although He Does Experiment Out of the Box.

Robert Shayne is the Assistant and Figures in a Love Triangle of Sorts and there is Voodoo Magic, a Brain Surgery Suffering Wife that Really has Nothing to do with the Story, Reincarnated Ghostly Apparitions, a Family Dog that Walks Through Walls, and Some Mad Lab Scenes that are Somewhat Impressive.

It's a Jammed Packed Little Low Budget Movie Crammed with Sincere Characters and One Loopy Lunatic, Some Grisly Murders, and the Whole Thing is Handled Perfectly Serious and Straight. That Makes for Some Edge and it is More Melodramatic than Scary and has More Food for Thought than Usually Found in This Type of Outlandish Horror.

Overall, it is Above Average and the Tone is Quite Different than the Usual B-Movie Crazy Scientist Stuff. The Cast is Good and the Result is an Unusual Display of a Number of Ingredients Thrown Together Quite Irrationally and Intentionally and that Makes this Stand Apart from its Poverty Row Cousins.

Awkward Story But Watchable

[Rainey-Dawn · 6/10 · 8 March 2023]

What a rather awkward combination of horror tropes and story! This one is a mix of mad doctor preforming a 'Frankenstein'-ish experiments, voodoo by a gypsy-witch, and a ghost dog rolled into a bizarre tale with a strange love triangle.

I feel the writers where trying for something different - and they achieved that but stirred too many ideas into one film.

2 main plots: The first plot is of a doctor and his assistant working on bringing back the dead. The other plot of a wife that fell in love with the assistant and her witch maid uses voodoo to try to capture the heart of the young assistant. The ghost-dog is just sorta there - the bridge between the two plots which fits together in the end.

Did I like the film? To a degree yes it was fun! But it's too much of a mixed bag to be good. Bonus points here for John Carradine who did his best with what was handed to him.

6/10.

Nice minor Monogram with a ghostly Great Dane.

[gr8dane · 8/10 · 28 January 2000]

Surprisingly atmospheric Monogram entry that features classic horror elements of bringing the dead back to life and voodoo. The story follows two scientists in their attempt to bring the dead back to life. A voodoo housekeeper throws a monkey wrench into their plans. The Great Dane plays a key part to this nifty melodrama.

Marble madness.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 4 May 2023]

John Carradine plays well-meaning but misguided Dr. Charles Randolph, who is attempting to perfect a process for bringing the dead back to life; Robert Shayne is his assistant Dr. David Cochran. The pair successfully revive a dead dog, only for it to turn transparent, disappear through solid walls, and drink the blood of local livestock!

Meanwhile, Charles's wife Elaine (Claudia Drake) has secretly fallen for David, something that has not gone unnoticed by her loyal servant Maria (Rosa Rey). When David's fiancé Linda (Maris Wrixon) turns up, Maria conspires to get her out of the way using voodoo magic, but kills Elaine by mistake. Distraught, Charles takes his wife to the lab to try and restore her to life...

I've seen a lot of mad scientist movies from the '30s and '40s, but as far as I can recall, The Face of Marble (what does that title even mean?) is the only one to feature a transparent plasma-slurping pooch and a voodoo housemaid. Without these incredibly daft elements, the film would be instantly forgettable, but with the WTF? Factor so high, it's hard not to have a good time with this one.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for Willie Best doing what Willie does best.

Cheapo Manages a Few Good Touches

[dougdoepke · 27 January 2015]

For a horror movie, it's pretty hard to come up with a fresh version of reviving the dead. Here well-intentioned scientist Carradine wants no monsters, just an opportunity to give folks a second chance. Of course, things turn out otherwise, when a revived mastiff dog walks through walls on his way to ripping out throats. It doesn't help that creepy housekeeper Maria has her own voodoo plans, while a romantic triangle emerges between Carradine's wife Drake and lab assistant Shayne plus his girl Wriston.

Sound complicated. Yes, too bad the script didn't pare down and concentrate on creepy aspects. And I agree with others—we should see more of Carradine who's quite effective in restrained fashion. On other hand, there are those crackling Frankenstein arcs, better than expected for cheapo Monogram, while the spectral images passing through walls are also well done. However, maintaining a spooky mood with a more boffo ending would have really helped. Then too, I could have used more of the marble faces that are both novel and unsettling. But then, this is a low-budget quickie that still manages a few compensations.

ONE WEIRD FILM YOU CANNOT MISS.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 9 November 2019]

Don't know if its the title or the bizarro plot, but THE FACE OF MARBLE has developed a cult following thru the years. It's genuinely a one of a kind horror film.

Monogram Pictures wisely cast John Carradine in the lead, fresh from playing Count Dracula at Universal, now a mad doctor attempting to bring the dead back to life, including his wife. The studio writers had the knack for assembling some strange stories, and they truly hit the bullseye. The dead are subsequently turned into marble --yes marble! -- including a menacing Great Dane that walks through walls? Add an ominous housekeeper who practices voodoo at night. There is just something about this flick that makes it campy fun right to the end.

Robert Shayne, playing the good guy caught up in all the experimenting, noted in later years that the set was always dark, either for mood reasons or a tight budget, and Carradine spent his off camera time receiting Shakespeare! In fact, Carradine was known to have been seen walking the streets of Hollywood for years receiting Shakspeare, whether it was a hobby or whatever, perhaps just to get out of the house.

By the way, the gigantic Great Dane (Brutus) was also featured in some of the BOWERY BOYS movies, and had the same name as Carradine's dog in THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE (1944). Good trivia question.

Best directed by William Beaudine, who obviously had fun with this story, also directing the BOWERY BOYS series for Monogram. Good cast of popular B film actors, such as Claudia Drake, who had recently appeared in the cult film DETOUR, Thomas E. Jackson, once again as the detective, and comedian Willie Best.

True, a minor addiction to many of us cult film followers, and thankfully, finally restored and on dvd. Don't miss this.

It's supposed to be horror, but...

[Wizard-8 · 10 February 2015]

I wasn't expecting too much from "The Face of Marble", despite it starring John Carradine, seeing that it was a quickie effort by Monogram Pictures and directed by the all too prolific William Beaudine. After seeing it, I will admit that it's not a terrible movie... but it's definitely very, very mediocre. Beaudine does take what had to be a painfully low budget (and short shooting schedule) and make a movie that looks okay. He even puts in a little atmosphere here and there. Unfortunately, in the end there is painfully little that could be considered horror. While there is material like a vampire dog, it does almost all its business offscreen. As it turns out, most of the movie is talk, talk, talk, and it's so drab dialogue (on top of a very slow-moving story) that not even Carradine can put some life into the dialogue given to him. While this is not one of the worst movies I have ever seen, I don't see any classic horror fan finding much positive to say about it.

Boring

[Michael_Elliott · 11 March 2008]

Face of Marble, The (1946)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Boring horror film has John Carradine playing a scientist who's so caught up in bringing the dead back to life that he doesn't notice his wife and assistant are getting it on. Carradine is quite mute in this outing, which is a shame and the story is boring and by the numbers. It really would have been a lot better had Carradine gone over the top and brought some life to the film. There's really no life or energy in this film, which is why the viewing will wish he'd turn into marble. This Monogram film hasn't yet turned up on DVD but you can find it at various online stores.