By TESS HENSON

Ah, the 1980’s. The decade of big. Big hair, big money, big egos, and a big fascination with superficial beauty. People were going to the spa, going to the health club, toning their bodies, working out, indulging in trendy diet fads, and the cosmetic surgery industry was booming.

Everyone wanted a facelift. A little nip here, a little tuck there, get rid of those crows feet, lose the chicken-skin dangling below your chin, get a nose job, get some collagen enhanced lips–hell, get a whole new face! Women were getting facial cosmetic surgery more often than boob jobs in the eighties. In today’s society, it’s reverse–there are fake boobs everywhere you look, but for the most part, facial cosmetic surgery is a rarity these days. However, in the eighties, beauty indeed seemed only skin deep.

What an opportune time for renowned sleaze-meister Jess Franco to come along, and in essence, remake one of his own films, which is exactly what he did in the case of 1988’s Faceless (aka Los depredadores de la noche and Les predateurs de la nuit).

Even though Franco did not write the script for Faceless-- which is why, aside from the high production values, many fans write it off as a non-Franco film directed solely for the cash--the scripters kept Franco’s Sixties masterpiece The Awful Dr. Orloff close at hand and mind and virtually "re-imagined" (I hate the term, but there it is) the classic film for the Eighties. Franco regular Howard Vernon even cameos as a "Dr. Orloff" at one point, so all clues point to Faceless being an indirect remake of one of Franco’s earliest offerings.

The plot revolves around a cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Frank Flamand (Helmut Berger), whose sister, Ingrid (Christiane Jean), becomes the victim of an angry customer who herself is the recipient of a botched facial surgery. The scarred woman confronts the doctor one night as he is cavorting about the town (Paris) with Ingrid and his nurse assistant Nathalie (former soft and hardcore porn actress Brigitte Lahaie) and throws a vial of acid on Ingrid’s beautiful face, hideously disfiguring it. The doctor vows that he will go to any length to restore Ingrid’s beauty, and here’s where it gets gruesome.

Somehow, he assumes that the blood of young beautiful women will help restore Ingrid’s porcelain complexion. However, when that doesn’t work, he decides that a complete facial transplant must be performed and begins looking for suitable victims. At the same time, headless corpses start turning up in the Paris streets and alleyways and police are baffled. Enter sassy, spoiled, American super-model Barbara Hallen (Caroline Munro), who has a big lust for pretty dangly things, and an even bigger lust for white powder. She hooks up with Nathalie--who seems to be the doctor’s huntress of these would-be victims--in hopes of scoring some snow, when instead she is drugged, abducted and transported back to the doctor’s lab as a potential face-donater for Ingrid.

Back on American shores, Barbara’s rich daddy Terry Hallen (Telly Savalas) grows concerned when he doesn’t hear from his daughter for a few days and is not able to get in touch with her. He hires gum-chewing gumshoe Sam Morgan (Christopher Mitchum--son of Robert) to investigate her possible disappearance. In Paris, Dr. Flamand begins to search for an experienced surgeon to perform the facial transplant since he is not skilled enough himself. He finds one in Nazi war criminal Dr. Karl Heinz Moser (Anton Diffring) who is a self-proclaimed "sentimentalist". You’ll get a laugh out of that scene when you see it!

This Dr. Moser was recommended to him by a Dr. Orloff (played as a cameo role by Howard Vernon), so there you have a direct connection to the earlier film. The plan is to transplant Barbara’s face onto Ingrid’s scarred countenance, however, their plot is foiled when Flamand flunky and Igor-type Gordon (Gerard Zalcberg) tries to have his way with Barbara one night, and when she resists he punches her in the face, effectively bruising the skin and ruining it for the delicate surgery. Nathalie is sent back out on the hunt for yet another beautiful girl.

There seems no limit to pretty, promiscuous girls in 80’s Paris, because before you can say "wake me up before you go-go", Nathalie has succeeded in bringing home another willing beauty. This time, they succeed in their endeavor, and soon the young woman is strapped to an operating table in preparation for the procedure. In a particularly gruesome sequence, Dr. Moser decides to only anesthetize the facial area, leaving the girl fully conscious for the surgery. She can’t feel anything, but just the idea that someone is awake for any kind of surgery makes me all queasy in me gutty-wuts.

As the doctor makes the incision around the forehead, down the side of the face and around the chin area, the blood, all thick and gory, begins to flow in copious amounts. He begins to peel the skin from the forehead down, but when he reaches her brow, the skin suddenly begins to tear. Dr. Moser becomes increasingly agitated as he realizes that her skin is too fragile for complete removal, yet he continues to peel. He indeed succeeds in removing most of her face, but it has come away in strips leaving a bloody, pulpy mass of exposed flesh and nerves, wide staring lidless eyes and a gaping toothy maw. The surgery is a disaster. The girl--still alive--is then dispensed with by Gordon, who decapitates her as she writhes in agony. Gordon keeps her head as a souvenir.

Dr. Flamand encourages the distraught Dr. Moser to try the surgery again with another, more suitable victim – someone whose skin is tough enough to withstand complete removal. As Barbara is still bruised, Nathalie again is on the hunt, and this time succeeds in finding a beautiful girl whose skin is both radiant and resilient enough to withstand the radical procedure.

Meanwhile, gumshoe Morgan is hot on the trail of Barbara, having found out that her credit card had been used very recently in Paris. He follows the paper trail, and it leads to Dr. Flamand’s door. He confronts the doctor and Nathalie, who conveniently make up a somewhat plausible story about the card connection. It seems that it is going to satisfy Morgan--that is--until he spies a pretty dangly bracelet Nathalie is wearing, a one-of-a-kind diamond bracelet that was last in the possession of Barbara. As he doesn’t want them to realize he’s on to them, he leaves…only to snoop around the clinic looking for a back way in. He finds a way in, and finds Barbara along with several other young women, chained to beds in padded rooms waiting for certain doom.

He enters Barbara’s room, tries to free her, and just as it looks as though he’s going to succeed, the door is slammed behind him, and when he looks out the small window he discovers that they are being walled in, making the small room their death tomb. Dr. Moser successfully performs the second facial transplant in yet another gruesome surgery sequence, and Ingrid’s beauty is restored. Back in America, Daddy Hallen receives a message from Morgan, and when he isn’t able to get back in touch with him, decides something may be seriously wrong. In the last scene of the film, he books a flight to Paris, and leaves we the viewers dangling with an unresolved ending.

As abrupt as the ending is, it is also welcome and appropriate, because even though you may say "Is that it?" as I did at the end of the film, you probably wouldn’t want to sit through another 30 minutes or so of mystery solving when this film is all about the gore instead, and the best gore scenes are already long gone by the film’s end. And even though I’ve only given a superficial description of the film’s plot, there is some juicier character development than one might expect from an exploitative horror offering.

Take, for instance, the character of Nathalie. Not only is she Dr. Flamand’s henchwoman, but also she is very much in love with him, and is jealous of his more-than-brotherly concern over his sister Ingrid. It is only hinted at that theirs might be a more incestuous relationship, with Nathalie along as a bisexual playmate. It is she who used Barbara’s credit card, and when Flamand confronts her with it, she lets him know in no uncertain terms that she needs to buy herself nice things from time to time because he does not shower her with enough (or any, for that matter) gifts or attention.

He then notices that she is wearing Barbara’s bracelet and immediately makes the assumption--correct that it is--that Morgan had probably noticed it as well, and then admonishes her for her kleptomaniac propensities. In a hilarious bit of dialogue, Nathalie proclaims, "Well, if you would love me more, I would steal less…" One wonders if perhaps Nathalie had become fed up with being Flamand’s unnoticed, unloved and disrespected assistant and decided to use the credit card knowing that the trail would lead to him.

Nathalie is a compelling character, and Lahaie imbues her with a subtle sensuousness and innocence that barely hides the murderess underneath. In fact, virtually all the performances in this film are remarkable, with Helmut Berger turning in a more-than-satisfactory performance as Dr. Flamand. His handsome countenance and charming manner would cause many a woman to swoon in his presence, and indeed many of his patients in the clinic (not those chained in padded rooms, but regular customers) have more than a schoolgirl crush on him.

Christopher Mitchum mugs adequately as Detective Morgan, Anton Diffring makes a believable Nazi war-doctor--with just the right amount of sinister to round out his character, Gerard Zalcberg is in turns idiotically simple and scarily intimidating as the flunky Gordon, and Telly Savalas--while not given enough screen time for my satisfaction--is the bright shining light of all the performances.

Even Christiane Jean as Ingrid, while not given much dialogue, is very beautiful to look at--much more so than Lahaie, I think, who seems to get more attention among fans--perhaps for her more, ahem, promiscuous roles. What? I didn’t mention Caroline Munro? You’re right, I didn’t. Sadly, I thought she was wasted in this film. Her character was interesting enough up until Gordon’s attack on her, but after that she was reduced to just another screaming victim.

However, for you fans of the former Hammer beauty, I would highly recommend viddying this film, because she is hotter than hot as an Eighties supermodel, replete with gorgeous black, wild, rock ‘n roll, big hair. Oh, and look for Franco’s honey, Lina Romay, in a brief appearance as Mrs. Orloff.

The foremost question in most people’s minds who have only heard of Franco’s reputation and not seen any of his offerings might be: "Is this a good film?" Poor Jess, most well-known for his more sexually exploitative material, is always getting a bad rap, but I would have to say that yes, this is a decent film, very well made, with much higher production values than a typical Franco film. It offers good performances by some great actors, a decent storyline with just the right amount of exposition between the gore scenes so as not to lose interest, and with the exception of a couple of lines, fair dialogue.

And what of the gore? And what of the nudity? And what of the sleazy sex scenes so plentiful in most Franco offerings? Well, the gore is glorious with the surgery scenes being the "wettest" parts, although there are a couple of nice scenes of Gordon gettin’ his grove on with a chainsaw decapitation and a drill bit through the skull. The nudity is there, but very understated with only one shot I can remember with a fully unclothed beauty, and the rest of the scenes just breast shots.

The sleazy sex scenes? There are very few. One with Nathalie in bed with Flamand, and another with Nathalie and another woman performing in front of Flamand--except that the furthest this went was kissing and fondling of each other’s clothed breasts, and one with Dr. Flamand and one of his victims with his hand massaging between her legs. That’s it.

This couldn’t even rate as soft-core porn, so don’t go into it expecting it to be. The closest this film comes to soft-core or hard-core porn--along with Lahaie’s porn-star association--is probably the score, which is one song, "Destination Nowhere," played over and over again until by the end of the film you are singing along because you now know all the words. It’s a typical late-eighties fusion of jazz and pop that was a sound so prominent, yet so sadly forgettable.

At one point, during a disco scene when Nathalie is on the prowl for another potential victim, another song is actually playing--a nice upbeat dance number. You will begin to think you have been spared another listen to "Destination Nowhere," but wait--there it is again, slowly segueing from the other song.

Hey! Here’s a great idea! How’s about you make your screening of Faceless a drinking game? Every time you hear "Destination Nowhere," take a swig. I guarantee you’ll have a serious buzz by just the halfway point, and will be well on your way to alcoholism by the end. The song was written by Romeo Mussamurra and sung by Vincenzo Thoma, and is also known as--you guessed it--"Faceless", just in case you want to run right out and score a copy after screening the film. Yeah, right.

My source for this film…hell, what was my source? Oh, I remember now. My source for this film was probably a third or fourth generation video copy. The colors were washed out, and the images were fading and grainy. But, hey! I hear tell there is a DVD release of this film. Shriekshow released it just this year, however I’ve heard that many of these discs were defective and unplayable, and that if you got one that wasn’t, you were one of the lucky few. I’m not sure if it’s been re-issued yet.

Because my source was a video copy, I have no idea (mainly because I didn’t time it) if I was watching the uncut 98 minute version. The Spanish version only runs at 90 minutes, but I am not sure what scenes were cut. I don’t think I was watching the Spanish version though, because it was in English with some irritating form of Dutch or German subtitles running throughout, so my guess is it was the uncut offering. Of course, the Shriekshow version sports the uncut version with interviews of Franco, Munro, and Chris Mitchum and running commentary by Franco, Mitchum and Lina Romay along with the usual talent bios and trailers.

In ending I will put forth that this film has been touted as possibly the best of all Franco offerings. With its high-polished look, large budget, quality actors and memorable performances, it may very well have achieved that status. However, I shall leave it to you to decide if this is indeed a film full of substance, with a social commentary on the superficiality of the times, or if it is just a rather good-looking Franco film whose beauty is only skin deep.