Faces in the Dark *** (1960, John Gregson, Mai Zetterling, Michael Denison, John Ireland, Tony Wright, Nanette Newman) – Classic Movie Review 11,893

The 1960 thriller Faces in the Dark is a fascinating mystery film about a terrorised blind man (John Gregson) whose wife (Mai Zetterling), brother (John Ireland) and partner (Michael Denison) send him to a remote house to recover after his lab accident.

Director David Eady’s 1960 black and white British thriller film Faces in the Dark stars John Gregson, Mai Zetterling, Michael Denison, John Ireland, Tony Wright and Nanette Newman. Based on the 1952 novel Les Visages de l’ombre by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, it was shot at Shepperton Studios.

This precursor of Wait Until Dark (1967) and Blind Terror (1971) is a fascinating mystery movie about a terrorised blind man (Gregson), whose wife (Zetterling), brother (Ireland) and business partner (Denison), make him go to a remote house to recover from the breakdown that followed the scientific development lab accident that made him blind. But what are they up to?

The tense, twisty story, based on a novel by a couple of experts at this kind of thing, Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (authors of the stories for Les Diaboliques and Vertigo), is a real gripper. But the good playing by Zetterling, Denison, Ireland and especially star Gregson is offset by Eady’s somewhat pedestrian and literal direction, which just doesn’t have the intense touch Henri-Georges Clouzot brought to Les Diaboliques. The movie remains thoroughly engrossing and entertaining though.

The sets are designed by Anthony Masters.

The cast are John Gregson as Richard Hammond, Mai Zetterling as Christiane Hammond, John Ireland as Max Hammond, Michael Denison as David Merton, Tony Wright as Clem, Nanette Newman as Janet, Valerie Taylor as Miss Hopkins, Roland Bartrop as French Doctor, Colette Bartrop, Joyce Marlowe and John Serret.

Faces in the Dark is written by David Eady, runs 84 minutes, is made by Welbeck and Penington Eady Productions, is released by Rank Film Distributors, is written by Ephraim Kogan and John Tulley, based on the novel Les Visages de l’ombre by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, is shot in black and white by Ken Hodges, is produced by Jon Penington and David Eady, is scored by Mikis Theodorakis and Edwin Astley, and designed by Anthony Masters.

Boileau and Narcejac’s novel Celle qui n’était plus was filmed as Les Diaboliques by Henri-Georges Clouzot (1955) and again as Diabolique by Jeremiah S Chechik (1996).

Boileau and Narcejac’s novel D’entre les morts was filmed as Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock (1958).

Boileau and Narcejac also worked as screenwriters, most notably adapting Jean Redon’s novel Les yeux sans visage as the 1960 horror film Eyes without a Face.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,893

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Mai Zetterling plays Christiane Hammond.