FACE OF FIRE
1959, Sweden / US
Aka… Mannen utan ansikte / ‘The Man Without a Face’
(Swd), Face of Fire (US)
Ex: Face of Fire (Can), Il Mostro è dietro l'angolo /
‘The Monster is Just Around the Corner’ (1962, It), Maschera di Fuoco / ‘Mask
of Fire’ (Alt It), Cara de Fuego (Mex), Face of Fire (UK)
T: 79m
Pc: Mardi Gras Productions Inc. [Albert Band, Louis
Garfinkle] (Hw) & Maxim Productions Inc. [Albert Band & Louis
Garfinkle] (Hw) & SF-Svensk Filmindustri (Stockh)
Dist: Allied Artists [Robert Abernathy & Richard B.
Smith] (08/09/59), Allied Artists (09/21/59, Can), Svensk Filmi (10/03/60,
Swd), Distribuzione Globe International [Giovanni Petroncini ?] (05/16/61, It),
Saga Film (62’s, Swd), NBC TV (09/15/84, US tv, Buffalo, Torstar, p184), WB
Archive (03/31/2015, US, dvd)
D: Albert Band; P: Albert Band, Louis Garfinkle &
Gustaf Unger
Sc: Albert Band & Louis Garfinkle; Sh: “The Monster”
(1898, US) by Stephen Crane’s; Ph: Edward Vorkapich; Ed: Ingemar Ejve; M: Erik
Nordgren
C: Cameron Mitchell (Dr. Ned Trescott), James Whitmore
(Henry ‘Monk’ Johnson), Bettye Ackerman (Grace Trescott), Miko Oscard [Michael
Lee Carol] (Jimmie Trescott) Royal Dano (Jake Winter), Lois Maxwell (Ethel
Winter), [?] (Jenny Winter, daughter), Robert F. Simon (The Judge), Robert
Trebor (Dr. John Moser), Richard Erdman (Al Williams), Howard Smith (Sheriff
Nolan), Aletha Orr (Martha Goodwin), Lorena Holmin (Carrie Goodwin), Doreen
Denning (Kate, Goodwin maid), Hjördis Petterson (Mrs. Kovac), Jill Donohue (Bella
Kovac), Harold Kasket (Reifsnyder, the barber), Charles Fawcett (Barbershop
patron, mustache), Vernon Young (Older Man in barbershop) Annabelle Lee
(Prostitute) & Calvert Cross
Syn: 1898.
Whilomville, near Junction Town and Three Tracks Junction, New York State [?].
A local handyman saves a child in a fire, but the burns he receives disfigure
his face so much that the townspeople avoid and shun him.
Comm: [Filmed
in Stockholm, Stockholms län, & Trosa, Södermanlands län, Sweden, as
America, from October 1958 – January 1959]
FACE OF
FIRE was based on Stephen Crane’s novella “The Monster” (1897, US), which
was part of his ‘Whilomville’ stories, set in America, that were written
between 1871-1900. He is best remembered
for writing the anti-war Civil War story “Red Badge of Courage” (1895, US),
that would be filmed before (1951) and after (1974) FACE OF FIRE.
“The Monster” is set thirty years past “Badge”, and was
about an African American handyman named Henry Johnson, who is employed by the
town's physician, Dr. Trescott. He becomes horribly disfigured after he saves
Trescott's son from a fire only to be branded a "monster" by the
town's residents.
To put FACE
OF FIRE into a historical context it is set in the same year (1898) as
Sergio Leone & Tonino Valerii’s MY NAME IS NOBODY (1973). Just
further North.
At times FACE
OF FIRE looks and feels more like a ‘Mark Twain’ story (early 1850’s). The
setting of the book was rural New York State (never stated in the film), that
might seem a tad un frontier like though. The filming and casting of ‘Swedes’
as Americans, at the time, must have been as jarring as some of the early ‘Euro
westerns’ had been to homegrown and local North American audiences. They would
have looked as out of place as the Italians did on some of the cheaper
‘Spaghetti’. Such films as SAVAGE
GUNS (1961) at least were able to say they were set in ‘Mexico’ and look
it. The thought of shooting an actual reel western in Sweden in the 50’s would
have sounded as absurd as making one in Italy a few years later (A FISTFUL
OF DOLLARS, 1964).
Actor James
Whitmore must have been disheartened when he found out his character had gone
from being ‘Afro-American’ to Caucasian in the rewrite. Early on he wears a
straw skimmer. A few years later he would get to wear ‘black face' in the
thought-provoking docudrama “Black Like Me” (1964, US), about a white
newspaperman who goes undercover during the American civil-rights movement of
the Sixties, to get to the truth. Whitmore would later appear in the third “The
Magnificent Seven” installment GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1969).
Cameron
Mitchell, here taking time out from fighting Italian ‘Vikings’, would soon
mosey back to Italy and appear in a pair of spaghetti westerns THE LAST GUN
and MINNESOTA CLAY (both 1964). He grew a mustache and a goatee for his
part here.
Filmmaker
Albert Band (1924-2002) was the son of illustrator Max Band, and along with
scripter Louis Garfinkle (1928-2005), announced they were doing a film
adaptation of Crane’s story ‘The Monster’ on October 23, 1957. The pair had
already made the original teenage oater, “The Young Guns” (09/12/56, US), that
starred Russ Tamblyn (SON OF A GUNFIGHTER, 1965). ‘Young Guns’ was
released in Sweden by Action Films, as “Med dragna revolvrar” / ‘With Revolvers
Drawn’ (03/23/64), well after FACE OF FIRE!
Almost on his
own Band would co-direct MASSACRE AT GRAND CANYON (with Sergio Corbucci,
1964), and THE TRAMPLERS (1965). Band & Garfinkle would then make a
pair of Spaghetti’s THE HELLBENDERS (1966, Italy) and A MINUTE TO
PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE (1967, Italy) together.
On FACE OF
FIRE’s Mardi Gras Productions board of directors were actors Robert Ryan (CUSTER
OF THE WEST, 1967, US / Spain) & Robert Culp (HANNIE CAULDER,
1971, UK).
A pre ‘James
Bond’ Canadian-born Lois Maxwell is in the cast. American Charles Fawcett would
later be in APACHE’S LAST BATTLE (1964), UNCLE TOM’S CABIN (1965)
and SAVAGE PAMPAS (1966). Band & Garfinkle, as stated above, also
headed south to Italy.
By Michael Ferguson
