Eyes Without a Face (1960)
"Les yeux sans visage" (original title)

A brilliant surgeon, Dr. Génessier, helped by his assistant Louise, kidnaps nice young women. He removes their faces and tries to graft them onto the head on his beloved daughter Christiane... See full summary »

Director:

Georges Franju

Writers:

Jean Redon (novel), Pierre Boileau (adaptation),

Stars:

Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Juliette Mayniel

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Pierre Brasseur	...	Docteur Génessier
Alida Valli	...	Louise
Juliette Mayniel	...	Edna Grüber
Edith Scob	...	Christiane Génessier
François Guérin	...	Jacques Vernon
Alexandre Rignault	...	Inspector Parot
Béatrice Altariba	...	Paulette
Charles Blavette	...	L'homme de la fourrière (as Blavette)
Claude Brasseur	...	Un inspecteur
Michel Etcheverry	...	Le docteur Lherminier - médecin légiste / Forensic surgeon
Yvette Etiévant	...	La mère (as Yvette Etievent)
René Génin	...	Emile Tessot
Lucien Hubert	...	Un homme au cimetière
Marcel Pérès	...	Un homme au cimetière

Storyline

A brilliant surgeon, Dr. Génessier, helped by his assistant Louise, kidnaps nice young women. He removes their faces and tries to graft them onto the head on his beloved daughter Christiane, whose face has been entirely spoiled in a car crash. All the experiments fail, and the victims die, but Génessier keeps trying....

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Plot Keywords:

surgeon | transplant | experiment | police station | plastic surgery | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

France Italy

Language:

French

Release Date:

24 October 1962 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus

Filming Locations:

Studios de Boulogne, Avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$19,628 (USA) (31 October 2003)

Gross:

$52,709 (USA) (28 November 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Champs-Élysées Productions, Lux Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally released in the US on double feature with the 1962 Japanese horror film The Manster.

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Goofs

License plate changes numbers between shots as the doctor is backing up and pulling into his garage for the first time. As he walks through the garage, into the house, you can see the original plate '7769' on his assistant's car.

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Quotes

Doctor Génessier: Smile. Not too much.

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Connections

Referenced in Clive Barker: The Art of Horror (1992)

User Reviews

Dark, desolate and diverting

This film is dark and somber with a spare, eerie music score that suits perfectly the macabre, surreal story. A brilliant but deranged surgeon, having caused his daughter's disfigurement in a car accident, loses touch with reality and tries to restore her beauty in a most repulsive manner. Undeterred by failure, the mad doctor continues his gruesome work, hoping to find a miracle cure that will reconstruct the girl's facial features and also relieve him of his tremendous burden of guilt. The once-lovely girl realizes that she will never enjoy a normal life or see her beloved fiancé again, and her mute telephone calls to him just to hear his voice show how empty and lonely her life has become. There are some scenes that are horribly graphic but quite well done and a few moments that are poignant and touching amid the cruelty and butchery of the movie's central theme. Each character in this grim, unhappy feature is victimized in some fashion, but in spite of its subject matter, this cult classic is lean, first-rate storytelling.