1960 French horror Rating: 16/20
Plot: Because of his poor driving (exhibited in one scene by his inability to parallel park), a brilliant doctor is involved in an automobile accident that causes his daughter to no longer have a face. He decides to remedy this by kidnapping pretty young French college students and performing experimental heterografting surgery which unfortunately doesn't work and then almost works but then doesn't. It does succeed in making his daughter really really cute for a few scenes though. The doctor gives up and befriends a confused, obviously doped-up Billy Idol while burying one of his victims in a graveyard. They record what is widely considered the first techno song, "Man Beets [sic]" which the dogs don't like very much. The daughter falls madly in love with Billy Idol's crotch, but unfortunately, her father backs into it with a car. No worries, however, as the doctor successfully heterografts a rhino crotch onto Billy Idol, and everybody lives happily ever after.
I'm not ordinarily squeamish, but the heterografting scene was pretty graphic stuff. I think my favorite part of this movie was the goofy carnival music that was almost like a theme song for the doctor's female assistant. The music would play every time the woman's car was on screen. More horror movies need carnival music. Good crisp black and white here and lots of poetic moments make this well worth looking at even if the story is a little hokey. The daughter's mask and tendency to wander aimlessly (and expressionlessly) created some creepy moments, and the final scene, one that involves birds, is especially haunting. Atypical horror, especially for the late 50s.
Note: I watched a short Georges Franju documentary from 1949 called Blood of the Beasts that was included as a bonus feature on the dvd. It splices together beautifully shot scenes from slummy Parisian suburbs and children playing with scenes from inside a slaughter house. If you want to see horses and cows slit, flayed, eviscerated, killed with a blow to the head, etc., this is for you. Otherwise, steer (pun intended!) clear. There are nuns in it, too.
My eye (not pictured: face):
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