User reviews

In 1880, the criminal called The Face is responsible for a murderous rampage in France. When the Brisson Bank is robbed in Paris and the employee Michelle is murdered, the wealthy Chevalier Lucio del Gardo (Tod Slaughter) is the only chance to save the bank. Chavalier proposes to the owner M. de Brisson (Aubrey Mallalieu) to deposit a large amount of gold, but in return he would like to marry his daughter Cecile (Marjorie Taylor). However, Cecile is in love with the efficient clerk Lucien Cortier (John Warwick) that belongs to the lower classes and refuses the engagement. In order to get rid off the rival, Chavalier uses evidences to incriminate Lucien, manipulating the incompetent Parisian chief of police.

"The Face at the Window" is dated and delightfully naive, but is also a great entertainment. The story has a despicable villain; the good guy is unfairly accused and has to prove his innocence; the heroine is extremely naive, but has strength to fight for her love; the chief of police is a complete stupid. Tod Slaughter performs another villain with his usual efficiency. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Um Vulto da Janela" ("A Face at the Window")

Tod Slaughter has to be one of the most reliably entertaining screen actors of the 30's. I've seen most of this guys films and he never disappoints. There's no doubt that his acting style is hammier than a hammy thing but there's nothing wrong with that surely? It takes considerable charisma and skill to overact as compellingly as Slaughter. This film follows a very similar narrative path to many of his other vehicles, i.e. Slaughter plays a rich pillar of the community who lives a double-life as an evil criminal, he lusts after a woman half his age who is not interested in him, so he sets about framing her fiancé with a crime he did not commit leaving the poor girl easy prey for him. Almost all his movies could be described thus. But it doesn't really seem to matter very much as Slaughter is always terrific as the leering cad and is easily the best thing about the films he stars in.

Slaughter's films were all Victorian melodramas first and foremost but this one definitely moves into more definite horror and even science fiction territory. The monster who is the face of the title is an effective looking baddie although he doesn't really get to do much and his presence in the movie doesn't make an awful lot of sense. But not to worry because, as I mentioned earlier, this is Slaughter's film and he delivers the goods as usual.

This was a fun wolf man film. It is true that Tod Slaughter is quite a bit of a 'ham' (like Vincent Price) and it is his performance that made the film fun to watch. This movie is a good watch if you enjoy the classics and werewolf films. The film is a horror film but has touches of comedy in it tastefully done.

Who is "The Face at the Window"? We have two plausible suspects: Chevalier Lucio del Gardo (Tod Slaughter) and Lucien Cortier (John Warwick) but could it be someone else? Don't expect this film to be anything like "Werewolf of London" or "Wolf Man" -- this flick it a different story than either of two mentioned films.

This movie would make a great manatee' or a rainy day film. I quite enjoyed this movie.

7/10

Yes, this film is dated. Yes, it is muddled with every possible plot contrivance imaginable in a mystery-melodrama. But, this film stars one of the kings of the horror screen - a forgotten king named Tod Slaughter. And if you have never had the opportunity and privilege to see him on screen, then you are missing out on a pure cinematic joy. He is the hammiest of the hams with his eyes rolling incessantly, his mischievous leers, his over-pronounced dialogue, and his bombastic gestures. He makes Vincent Price look like an actor accustomed to giving understated performances. Plainly put - he is fun to watch! Slaughter was a British actor known primarily for his stage work but he made several pictures. As with all his films, he is the primary focal-point of attention, and A Face at the Window is no exception. This is a fun movie to watch and should make you a Tod Slaughter fan. The story of the movie is complicated and stretches credibility at times, but is to be taken in fun....that is apparent as soon as you see Slaughter say something and gesture about.

In 1880, the criminal called The Face is responsible for a murderous rampage in France. When the Brisson Bank is robbed in Paris and the employee Michelle is murdered, the wealthy Chevalier Lucio del Gardo (Tod Slaughter) is the only chance to save the bank.

Another team-up between actor Tod Slaughter and director George King (who expertly told the tale of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street). This dynamic duo really nailed it and for that I thank them.

This is something of a horror film, though it tends to be more along the lines of a crime story. There is little about it that is outright terrifying or scary. That in no way takes away from the picture and all those involved should be proud.

A series of murders have occurred in France. The clues seem to point to a wolf or wolf-man and the police are baffled. When a bank is robbed (why would a wolf-man care to do this?!), a young man investigates the murder and robbery.

I decided to watch this film for two reasons. First, it was in the public domain, so it didn't cost anything to see it--other than my time! Second, the plot involves what might be a wolf-man--an interesting topic to me. However, the film turned out to be very poorly written--with the repeated overuse of exposition. That is where the characters are supposed to be conversing BUT give way too much background information to be realistic. Again and again, instead of showing plot, they explain back story in a clumsy manner. In addition, the characters, at times, are VERY obvious and clunky. The Chavalier, in particular, was terribly written--with Snidely Whiplash-like subtlety! As a result, I quickly lost interest--after all, if they didn't bother getting a good script, why should I care?! Sloppy and obvious.

"The city of Paris is terrified due to the ghastly murders all attributed to 'The Wolf', a notorious killer. What the public doesn't know is 'The Wolf' is actually a respected aristocrat who hides his criminal activities under his false guise. The fiendish man is plotting to use the murders as a cover for a series of bank robberies…" according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Once again, fiendish Tod Slaughter (as Chevalier Lucio del Gardo) is pining for nubile young Marjorie Taylor (as Cecile de Brisson), but she has fallen in love with penniless bank clerk John Warwick (as Lucien Cortier). Yes, it sounds a lot like the plot of several other Slaughter films, especially "The Ticket of Leave Man" (1937), which had Mr. Slaughter (as "The Tiger"), threatening to come between the same co-stars. The other film is more fun, and more British; this story had more potential, but is obviously lacking.

**** The Face at the Window (4/39) George King ~ Tod Slaughter, John Warwick, Marjorie Taylor

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.

Though you often read about the "quota quickies" made in Britain under a law that required a certain amount of screen time to be allotted to local product, you don't see many of them in America-- and for good reason: most were cranked out cheaply just to comply with the law, and are awful. In a few cases, however, the quota quickie laws provided opportunity for Britain's seemingly bottomless reserve of superior stage actors to be preserved on film-- that's why we have them to thank for Arthur Wontner's very fine Sherlock Holmes in some (not nearly as fine) Holmes movies, and it's also why we have a healthy collection of films starring the splendid ham Tod Slaughter, who toured for years as a ripsnorting baddie in authentic Victorian melodramas (such as Sweeney Todd) and transferred a number of them with minimal alteration to film. The Face at the Window is reportedly the highest-budgeted of Slaughter's films, and thus probably isn't technically a quota quickie at all, but it's still brought to the screen with the smell of fresh greasepaint straight from the provinces-- specifically the provinces circa 1895. Slaughter's larger than life performances give us as good a picture of what Victorian audiences ate up as the D'Oyly Carte company did of Gilbert and Sullivan's productions, because like them he was less reviving the old melodramas than carrying on their tradition intact. You may think you've seen people doing the Snidely Whiplash-style villain, and don't need to see them again, but you haven't lived until you've seen a seemingly sane and proper Slaughter dissolve in maniacal glee-- a-ha, ahahaha, ahahahahahahahahaha!

Tod Slaughter, the man who by wisely choosing his stage name ensured himself of a lifetime supply of gloriously villainous roles, puts down his best - or my personal favorite, at least - performance here in this delightful Grand-Guignol tale set in 1988's Victorian Paris.

Paris lives in fear because of a series of grisly murders, committed by a monstrous figure who received as nickname The Wolf, since every crime can be linked to the hearing of a spine-chilling howl and the appearance of a hideously deformed face at the windows of the victims. The cruel and arrogant Chevalier Lucio Del Gardo is obviously responsible for these crimes, but it remains a mystery how, and he intends to put the blame on young bank clerk Lucien Cortier, so that the Chevalier has his beautiful fiancée (and bank owner's daughter) Cécile to himself.

Excellent late-30s shlock & horror entertainment this is, with not just a flamboyantly evil anti-hero and his whole crew of despicable cohorts, but also several other ingenious genre aspects. For instance, there's a Victor Frankenstein-like scientist who revives recently deceased bodies through electrical impulses and a wondrously theatrical finale that ends with a drowning in the Seine. Oh, and my deepest respect for the people who restored this old and crummy 30s movie! I've seen other Slaughter-vehicles that were barely watchable (like "Murder in the Red Barn") but here the sound and picture quality are flawless.

In my opinion, British horror actor Tod Slaughter deserves to be as well known as his Universal contemporaries Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Slaughter's particular brand of villainy is hammy melodrama, with plenty of cape swishing, gleeful cackling, and evil glowering (if he had a moustache, I'm sure he would twirl it). His films are cheap and cheerful potboilers, often with ridiculous plots, but Slaughter always gives it his all making them a delight to behold.

In The Face At The Window, Slaughter plays Chevalier Lucio del Gardo, AKA The Wolf, a sadistic murderer who stabs his victims in the back while they are recoiling in terror at a hideous face at the window (del Gardo's freaky foster brother, released from his cage). Del gardo is not just a killer, but a bona fide creepy lecher, lusting after Cecile (Marjorie Taylor), the daughter of banker M. De Brisson (Aubrey Mallalieu). Cecile is in love with bank clerk Lucien Cortier (John Warwick) and rejects del Gardo's advances, so the wicked man frames Cortier for theft and convinces the police that the young man is The Wolf.

Boy, the characters in this film are stupid: on finding stolen coins in Cortier's work desk after an anonymous tip-off, de Brisson sends his employee packing without questioning why the man would leave his spoils in such a dumb place; when Cecile receives a note, purportedly from Cortier, she doesn't question its authenticity, despite the very dubious nature of the delivery man; Cortier tries to pass himself off as an infamous escaped criminal, his pathetic disguise fooling nobody; and when Cecile tells Police Inspector Gouffert that Professor Le Blanc can prove Cortier's innocence, she does so in front of del Gado, giving the villain the opportunity to kill the poor scientist. Logic is definitely in short supply, but Slaughter is either oblivious to the preposterous nature of the script or, more likely, acting in accordance, dialling his performance up to eleven. Either way, he's a lot of fun.

The third film version of F. Brooke Warren's Victorian melodrama is probably the slickest of Tod Slaughter's thirties vehicles directed by George King, vividly recreating 1880 Paris in high contrast black & white, fluidly photographed as usual by Hone Glendinning.

Slaughter himself, "who has terrorised all Paris" is as accustomed immaculately turned out while "capable of the lowest treachery"; as you would expect of anyone who regularly frequents a tavern answering to the name The Blind Rat.

A good Todd Slaughter Vehicle for the era.

The effects and production were within range for this era, but a bit weaker easily by today's standards.

Marjorie Taylor was attractive and had nice eyes, even in Black and White it was great to see her every time she was on screen.

A horror / thriller / mystery type film where not everything is known or figured out until the end.

It may be a bit harder to hear the UK slang and accents of the era at times, but otherwise an enjoyable short show.

A few things don't make the most sense in the plot as the story goes on, some things are convenient, but believable for the most part.

With a bit of mad scientist and possible supernatural forces mixed into this straight-forward killer on the loose thriller, you could do worse than this old film.

The wonderfully theatrical Tod Slaughter is in great hammy form in this delicious "blood & thunder" period melodrama. Based on a play by Brooke Warren, it takes place in 1880 Paris. A poor bank clerk, Lucien Cortier (John Warwick), is accused of robbery and murder. But these crimes are actually the work of a fiendish criminal known only as The Wolf - whose hideous, drooling face turns up at windows before his crimes. A respected nobleman, Chevalier del Gardo (Slaughter), has a big interest in seeing Lucien convicted of these crimes, since he lusts after Luciens' sweetheart Cecile (Marjorie Taylor).

This 1939 version of "The Face at the Window" may be firmly dated now, but that is merely a large part of the appeal. The story (adapted for the screen by A. R. Rawlinson) is entertaining and very easy to follow, the atmosphere is superb, the makeup quite good (a man named Harry Terry is billed as The Face), and George Kings' direction is efficient in its straightforward approach. It may be distracting to a viewer to watch all these supposedly French characters when none of the actors attempt French accents, but that's a very minor quibble. The supporting cast is all good: also appearing are Aubrey Mallalieu as Luciens' boss and Ceciles' father, Robert Adair as the police inspector, Wallace Evennett as a professor (whose experiments with electricity become a crucial plot element), Kay Lewis as a maid, and Margaret Yarde as a saloon proprietress who is one of del Gardos' accomplices. But it is Slaughter who dominates the proceedings. Other viewers may well automatically become fans of the legendary scenery-chewer as this viewer did. Primarily a stage actor (which comes as no surprise), he graced several motion pictures with his presence, and they are clearly all the better for it.

Eight out of 10.

In THE FACE AT THE WINDOW, a murderer known as "The Wolf" is on the prowl in Paris, robbing and killing at will. Meanwhile, Chevalier. Lucio del Gardo (Tod Slaughter) sets out to marry a banker's daughter (Marjorie Taylor), who is much younger than he is.

No one plays these lecherous, wretched roles better than Mr. Slaughter! He's the Van Gogh of histrionic villainy! When del Gardo isn't busy killing people, he's framing his rival, so that he can wed the beautiful Cecile de Brisson (Marjorie Taylor).

Is this movie melodramatic to the extreme? Yes, but it's supposed to be. Mr. Slaughter's ham 'n' cheeeze approach fits in perfectly. We're treated to one of the Maestro's finest performances. This is highly entertaining stuff, complete with a nice mad science angle that comes in handy for the finale...

Face at the Window, The (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A deranged killer known as "The Wolf" strikes terror into 1880's Paris. Is it the poor banker out to get money or the rich playboy (Tod Slaughter)? This is the best film from Slaughter that I've seen but his hammy performance, while getting laughs, makes it a bit hard to take the film too serious. The Wolf is a pretty good character and certainly a step up from Werewolf of London but the ending is wildly out of control. An interesting film nonetheless. The look and howl of the "wolf" here is a lot more effective than Universal's Werewolf of London.