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... In the meantime, her father and his assistant Louise plan out the kidnapping of young women who might be a good donor for his daughter. The only catch here is that Dr. Genessier is not looking for a kidney or liver. He's merely looking for a new face for his beloved daughter.

For a horror film, Eyes Without a Face carries on in a fashion that is not necessarily meant to scare you, but instead, just leave you highly unsettled, however; there is a highly suspenseful scene that arrives halfway through the film where a blurry, but still frightening, image of Christiane's face is finally revealed to the camera as a kidnapped "donor" witnesses the true nature of her appearance. There is also a lengthy scene where the great Dr. Genessier fully removes the face of a young woman to then surgically attach the giant flap of skin to his daughter's faceless figure. These two scenes are really the only horror elements to the film. In 1959, when this picture was released, I can only imagine audiences hiding their faces throughout many of these scenes. Back then, i suppose watching a film of this nature must have been like pulling teeth, which in the end, is more of the reason why I enjoyed watching its entirety more than once. Sure, it's no big deal by today's standards, but you can't help but watch this movie and not think of it has a landmark film that establishes excellence on many different levels of suspenseful film making. It's an altogether beautiful, mysterious, and sometimes gory tale about beauty, self worth, and in the end, freedom.

I highly recommendation seeing this French classic. I'm still however very disappointed that it didn't somehow end up in my DVD player so many many moons ago. This criterion edition of the film transfers beautifully to make it a worthy DVD to many collections, but as far as extras go, I was a bit disappointed with the lack of viewing material. There is a rather nice photo gallery but little else that will capture real interest. Still, Eyes Without a Face is one of the best French horror films I've seen and even today, the horrifically mysterious yet elegant nature of most of the films sequences will lead you to feel quite unsettled as the film comes to its final and dramatic close.

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