Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

hwg1957-102-265704 A mysterious killer called The Wolf is responsible for several killings in Paris. A bank clerk who is suspected of robbery and murder tracks down the killer. The plot doesn't really hold together but if you want full-blooded melodrama this has it all; lecherous chevalier, misunderstood hero, mad scientist, lovely heroine and the eponymous malformed face at the window. It looks good with great sets, The Blind Rat tavern being particularly good and appropriate plangent music accompanies the mayhem. Very enjoyable.The lead is played by the unique Tod Slaughter and he outshines the rest of the cast. It depends of course on how you view a Slaughter performance. Some think it is silly and laughable but others (like myself) take great delight in the unparalleled ham of his acting. His characters are unashamedly villainous and his unbridled libido when near a pretty young woman seems startlingly daring for the time. His proper surname really was Slaughter. Considering the roles he played it was a definite case of nominative determinism.

Mikel3 It was a night full of heavy rain and thunderstorms yesterday. We decided to watch some scary films from 1939 with the lights down low while our dog hid by us from the thunder. The first one we watched was 'The Face at the Window' (1939). The second was 'Human Monster' also from that same year.'The Face at the Window' takes place in Paris probably in 1880s. The story concerns grisly murders that are committed right after the victim sees a gruesome werewolf-like face in their window. Soon after that vision they're found with a knife in their back accompanied by an eery howling sound. While these murders are being investigated another side story is going on. The partner of a rich banker has eyes for his associate's much younger daughter. This creepy and lecherous character is played with gusto by actor Tod Slaughter. The daughter he wants for his wife is in love with a young penniless bank clerk in her fathers employe. The evil older man must find a way to get rid of his young rival. The story is slow at times, still most fans of 1930s crime/horror films should enjoy it like we did. I would not call it a great film; it is entertaining with some genuinely scary scenes.

morrison-dylan-fan Getting home late at night,I decided to take a look at some IMDb reviews,in the hope of finding a quick,and easy going title that I could watch for the IMDb Horror Challenge.As I got near the end of a fellow IMDb'ers first page of reviews,I noticed that they appeared to be a fan of an actor called Tod Slaughter,which led to me deciding that it would be a good time to enter the "slaughterhouse" for the first time.The plot:With the family's bank facing near closure,the Brisson's decide that they must take drastic measures to stop their bank from going bust.Being contacted by a strange man called Chevalier Lucio del Gardo,M.de Brisson initially breaths a sigh of relief,when Gardo tells him that he would be more than happy to invest in the Brisson's bank.Sadly for M.de Brisson his moment of happiness is torn to shreds,when a strange wolf man brutally kills him,shortly after Gardo had discovered that M de. Brisson's sweet daughter Ceclie de Brisson,had a secret boyfriend.View on the film:Whilst their adaptation of Brooke Warren's play never quite breaks away from its Victorian roots,the screenplay by A.R. Rawlinson and Ronald Fayre crafts a delightful mixture of Gothic Horror influence's,with the underwritten Wolfman subplot being counted by a wonderfully strange nod to Frankenstein,and some off-beat dashing heroes,which include Ceclie's boyfriend,who is more than happy to burn the local's pub to the ground!.Matching Rawlinson and Fayre's Gothic riffs,director George King soaks the movie in a thick,smoke-fulled fog,which helps to give the movie an extra bite,and also allows for Kings "unique" Horror moments in the film (a Frankenstein's monster hand!) to stand out with a real chill in the air.Entering the movie with an almost Dick Dastardly relish,Tod Slaughter gives a terrific,wild performance that lights up the entire film,with Slaughter showing Gardo go from a conniving player into a deranged maniac,as he starts to fear that Ceclie and her boyfriend may be about to discover the face at the window.

chrismartonuk-1 Forget Karloff & Lugosi. Forget Cushing & Lee, even Price and the Chaneys. Tod is king of horror for one very important reason - he quite evidently enjoys his work. This was the first Tod film I saw and - having heard so much about him prior to this - I feared disappointment. No worries. Despite the cardboard settings and woeful support cast, from the moment he strides masterfully in, we are in the capable hands of a classic film villain. The opening murder with the eerie wolf howl on the soundtracks sets the scene perfectly and then we are treated to an acting masterclass from the great man himself. Whether innocently acting the concerned friend, lecherously trying to sneak a kiss from the heroine, threatening his low-life confederates with a grisly end if they cross him or, worst of all, holding somewhat one-sided conversations with his demented foster brother, Tod holds the film together. The Chevalier is underplayed by Tod compared to Sweeney Todd - but seldom has one man wiggled his eyebrows to more sinister effect. It's a great pity that Universal studios didn't try to to entice him over for their classic horror cycle - Tod would've made a far more spirited Dracula than John Carradine in the later sequels and can't you just see him going toe to toe with Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes. Shame nobody thought of putting him up against Arthur Wontner's in the UK. The double-exposure effects for the appearance of the "face" are well done for their time and the whole film compares favourably with the Universal classics of the period.The production values are far higher than is normal for a British quota quickie of the period. The contrast between the spacious elegant rooms of the moneyed classes and the clutter of the Blind Rat - with a wealth of extras and charming Parisian detail such as the dancers - more than foreshadows the class-consciousness Hammer brought to its gothics a few decades later. So does the violent action with Lucien using an oil lamp to devastating effect - his disguise as "Renard" could have been a bit more convincing - and Tod making a sudden getaway by leaping from the window of the scientist's house and swimming the Seine to safety. John Warwick and Marjorie Taylor make an appealing couple - although Warwick is no match for Eric Portman in the earlier melodramas - and George King is improving as a director with a tightly edited montage of tense faces as the "corpse" slowly stirs into action to write its incriminating message. Tod is less of a central figure with whom we are expected to side with - even through his setbacks - as Stephen Hawke and Sir Percival Glyde were, but is still a marvellously blackhearted villain, as seen in his unsporting behaviour at the duel with pistols with Lucien. This is his finest film.