User reviews

If cosmetic surgeons could create faces like Lizabeth Scott's at will, they would be making even more than they earn now, or did half a century ago when A Stolen Face hit theaters. (But then the surgically created evil twin has been a staple of pulp movies up to John Woo's Face/Off). On holiday somewhere in England, Paul Henried, as an M.D., meets up with concert pianist (!) Scott. They fall in love, but she's spoken for. Back in grimy postwar London, he finds a patient horribly scarred in the blitz, refashions her into the spit-and-image of Scott, and marries the impudent baggage (a Cockney fadge with one foot in the gutter and the other on a banana peel). Their marriage, for some reason, does not go well. Re-enter Lizabeth Scott, who now has to play a double role.... The movie's not terrible, at least, though these noirish exercises set in Britain always have a fusty, half-hearted feel to them, more a mug of white tea than a snort of bonded Bourbon. Both Scott and Henried were well into the downslope of their careers -- which may, more than the locale, account for the enervated pace and commitment.

Lizabeth Scott has "A Stolen Face" and also has the face that was stolen in this 1952 film also starring Paul Henreid and directed by Terence Fisher. Scott plays a beautiful concert pianist, Alice Brent, who meets Dr. Philip Ritter (Henreid), a plastic surgeon, while he's on vacation. They fall in love, but she leaves suddenly. She's involved with her manager and rather than confront the situation, she just takes off.

Devastated, Ritter returns to his practice, part of which is done at a prison where he reconstructs patients' injured or deformed faces to help them rehabilitate and live better, crime-free lives. One such patient is Lily Conover (Mary Mackenzie), a thief whose face is disfigured on one side. Ritter makes her over to look like Alice Brent and marries her. Lily, however, can't quite rehabilitate. She feels stifled by the doctor's lifestyle and starts stealing and hanging with her old crowd. Then Alice Brent decides she can't marry her manager and pays Philip a visit.

This film could be considered a camp classic - the story is, but the performances are quite good. Until he returns from vacation, Dr. Ritter is a fine doctor, totally professional and generous. A bad love affair makes him into an obsessed whacko who makes over a thief into the woman he loves and marries her. Go figure. And I agree with one of the comments here - why Alice Brent didn't cut and run when she realized what he did defies imagination.

Scott is older here than in her big noir days but is radiant and beautiful in both roles. She's more animated than in other films and pulls off the Cockney nicely. The only strange thing there was that when the makeover was complete, Lily suddenly had Alice's very distinctive husky voice.

Henried gives a good performance in an impossible role. How do you play a warm, normal, hardworking man who does a complete turnaround with no indication in the script as to where it came from, no tendencies beforehand, no grasping obsession during the affair - and suddenly a patient goes under the knife and emerges Lizabeth Scott. Only in Hollywood. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Up front I must admit I am a die-hard Paul Henreid fan, and I want to reassure any potential viewers of this movie that he was professional enough to put as much effort into this role as every other one I have seen him play, despite the fact that he made this film as a blacklisted and (consequently) underpaid actor.

There were basically two things I couldn't believe regarding the plot of this movie: 1)That an intelligent, established, professional man would marry a thievin' Cockney wench even if he did make her look like his lost true love; and 2) That his lost true love, on returning to him, didn't do a mad dash the other way when she found out he had actually made someone else look like her & then married that woman. I mean, isn't that a little twisted or something?

Overall the film was pretty good, & the romance between Henreid & Scott at the B&B truly enjoyable. I thought it delightful the way Henreid nursed Scott through her nasty head cold, & I like seeing a guy who is 6'3" sit on one bar stool with his feet on the next bar stool & look perfectly comfortable. It was only when the plot wanted me to believe the unbelievable that I had some trouble enjoying the film.

Ah, but the ending was pretty darn cute, & worth the 'huh?' I uttered during the dubious parts.

"A Woman's Face" meets "A Stolen Life." Paul Henreid is a famed, highly principled plastic surgeon. We see him refusing to work on a society matron who is beyond his help. He is taken to meet a badly scarred young criminal. She isn't terribly nice but he is intrigued and takes on the case pro bono.

He is then persuaded to take a vacation. On his trip he meets a concert pianist. She is none other than Lizabeth Scott! Well, add to the movies this resembles, though in this case considerably predates, the classic "Vertigo." We can also toss "Pygmalion" int the pot, though Scott is no Wendy Hiller.

I can't give too much away but you can guess who the bad girl ends up looking like after surgery.

Scott is quite good. She given a little more range than some of her other movies gave her and she does well. The rest of the cast is good too.

The movie is, I suppose, film noir. I wouldn't say it's campy. But it is fun.

Stolen Face is directed by Terence Fisher and adapted to screenplay by Martin Berkeley and Richard H. Landau from a story by Alexander Paal and Steven Vas. It stars Paul Henreid, Lizabeth Scott and André Morell. Music is by Malcolm Arnold and cinematography by Walter J. Harvey.

After meeting and falling in love with pianist Alice Brent (Scott), plastic surgeon Dr. Philip Ritter (Henreid) is crushed when she leaves him and reveals she's engaged to another man. Upon being introduced to facially disfigured female convict Lily Conover (Mary Mackenzie), Ritter decides to reconstruct her face to look exactly like Alice...

One of Hammer Film Productions ventures into B grade noir territory, Stolen Face is deliciously bonkers! Set up takes thirty minutes as couple meet in the lovely surroundings of an English country inn, they have whirlwind love and all is lovely and jaunty. Woman runs off to her other life, doctor doesn't think straight and obviously gets more than he bargained for when giving a Pygmalion make over to someone who he himself calls "an ugly social misfit". Original woman comes back into the picture, just as the good doctor's life is in turmoil, and we hurtle to a finale that is going to end bad for one of the three principals.

Ultimately, and if anyone is taking it seriously then they may need some sort of corrective surgery themselves, it's a fun cheapie that lacks the social nous of Behind the Mask (1941), or the psychological smarts of Vertigo (1958). It's driven by its gimmick and nothing else, Henreid and Scott play it right, the latter an American noir darling having fun in the dual role, while it serves as a learning curve for Fisher who would become one of Hammer's greatest horror directors some years later.

Not very noir in reality, certainly visually, and not very memorable all told. But still a decent enough time waster for those who enjoy those sort of mad premise movies that had a glint in their eye. 6/10

In 1950, American producer Robert Lippert formed a business alliance with Hammer studios. Under the agreement, Lippert would provide American acting talent - frequently shop-worn stars or just supporting actors who fancied a profitable trip out of the country - while Hammer would supply the rest of the cast and the production facilities. Together they would split the profits. Famous for his concern with the bottom line, Lippert produced over 140 films between 1946 and 1955, characteristically genre pieces such as I Shot Jesse James or Rocketship XM. For the British deal, most of the films were noir-ish thrillers - and include this title.

Stolen Face (1952) offers the characteristic noir idea of loss, or confusion, of identity often through surgery, as seen in the plots of such titles as Dark Passage (1947), or Hollow Triumph (1958). In the present film, which has echoes of both Pygmalion and Vertigo, a plastic surgeon falls in love with a concert pianist during a vacation, thinks he has lost her to another man, and sets to copy her features when restoring the looks of another woman - incidentally a habitual criminal - whom he thereupon marries. If this sounds far fetched, then it is, but is carried of well enough by the two leads Paul Henreid and Lizabeth Scott, who between them produce sympathetic moments enough during early scenes that almost makes one forget limitations elsewhere. Another standout element of this film is the musical score by the late Malcom Arnold. There is also an interestingly ambiguous ending.

Paul Henreid stars as a celebrated plastic surgeon, who meets concert pianist Lizabeth Scott on a brief holiday. He quickly falls for her, but she disappears before telling him she's engaged to a man who has helped her in her career. A confused, sullen Henreid returns to his practice, which includes his charitable work with female inmates. Henreid believes if he can change their looks, he can change their lives. When he learns that Scott is going to be married, he decides to 'recreate' her on badly scarred thief Lily (Mary Mackenzie).

Then, to give her a better environment, he decides to marry Lily much to the disapproval of his friends. It isn't long before Lily reverts to old pals and old ways--stealing jewelry and furs, but Henreid makes excuses to the shops and pays her bills. One day, Scott shows up. She decided not to marry and she sees a picture of 'herself' (Lily) on his desk. You would think this would elicit a 'that's really creepy' response, but it's brushed aside a little too easily. Lily finds out that she's just a Scott knock-off, and makes it clear that now she's going to do as she pleases, Henreid can't stop her and her life gets wilder. How will this all work out? Watch and find out.

Scott is the standout of the cast, playing both demure musician and party girl with equal skill. I first thought she was even changing her throaty whispers to become Lily (who gets more Cockney as her behavior spirals downward) but Mary Mackenzie voiced Lily throughout (there is a similarity). There are shades of Vertigo in the plot, and the score by the London Philharmonic is quite good, Odd choice for Heinreid in the cast, since he played a double part in "The Scar" just four years earlier.

1952's "Stolen Face" served as the first, tentative stab at a science fiction topic from Britain's Hammer Films, director Terence Fisher himself at the helm (the company was founded in 1935 but not fully active until 1946). With American financing from Robert L. Lippert, US distribution was accomplished by importing Hollywood veterans Paul Henreid and Lizabeth Scott for the two leads, the script credited to Universal's Martin Berkeley ("Revenge of the Creature," "Tarantula," "The Deadly Mantis") and Richard H. Landau, who wrote early Hammers like "Spaceways" and "The Quatermass Xperiment." Henried's Dr. Philip Ritter is a renowned London plastic surgeon well known for his philanthropy, turning down lucrative offers from wealthy socialites to try to rehabilitate criminals at a women's prison by transforming their features in a positive way. One such case belongs to Lily Conover (Mary Mackenzie), disfigured during World War 2 and despondently turning to theft when she cannot earn a living. Overwork prevents Ritter from proceeding, his unexpected vacation yielding instant infatuation with would be patient Alice Brent (Lizabeth Scott), a world famous concert pianist laid up with a bad cold. A week breezes by for whirlwind romance before Alice disappears the morning after the doctor's marriage proposal, for she has been hiding her engagement to the older David (Andre Morell), set to be wed following her upcoming tour. The despondent surgeon then fashions Lily's scarred visage into an exact replica of Alice, complete with sleek blonde hair, even proposing to her despite warnings that she may still harbor habitual criminal tendencies. It's not long before wealth and status do indeed mark a change in the once grateful Lily, stealing a broach and fur coat (dutifully paid for by her husband to prevent scandal), then picking up with an old ex con boyfriend. As if our beleaguered surgeon hasn't enough problems to deal with, Alice turns up on his doorstep free from all entanglements and ready to pick up where they left off, only Lily is now aware of why she sports her new features and has no intention of leaving Dr. Ritter. With a more focused approach, this mixture of Frankenstein surgery and Pygmalion makeover could have made for a genuinely exciting thriller, but in Fisher's hands it's quite a tame romantic affair that doesn't really go anywhere, concluding on a particularly absurd happy ending. Unlike Alfred Hitchcock's later "Vertigo," there are no psychological underpinnings to support this minor programmer, and Henreid fails to display any trace of obsession in a sadly dispassionate performance. Lizabeth Scott, winding down her unfortunately brief career, does manage to convey two different personalities, Alice a decent soul, Lily with her Cockney accent and longer hair offering a slightly bigger challenge as she sinks into alcoholic oblivion. Making his Hammer debut as Alice's fiancee (in for all of two scenes) was Andre Morell, later one of the studio's greatest assets, working in major prestige pictures like "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Ben-Hur," and "Barry Lyndon," while taking time out for Hammer in "The Camp on Blood Island," "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (as Watson to Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes), "The Shadow of the Cat," "Cash on Demand," "She," "The Plague of the Zombies," "The Mummy's Shroud," and "The Vengeance of She."

These dual role efforts rarely work well. The only exception I can think of as Vertigo.

To delineate the characters, one is so perfect, so sugary sweet you want to gag. The bad look alike, is truly a creation of Dr. Frankenstein. She is so childish, so bratty, so self destructive and annoying it is hilarious.

I love Lizabeth Scott. I love her even more when she's bad. Paul Henreid s a fine actor. Both deserved better but this film is still entertaining even if it is mostly camp. Think of it as Pygmalion, Of Human Bondage, Frankenstein and the Patty Duke Show rolled into one.

Hollywood star Paul Henreid came to Britain to play a plastic surgeon who finds out the hard way that beauty is only skin deep in this very poor man's 'Vertigo' after operating on shrewish kleptomaniac Mary Mackenzie in what is possibly the most eccentric film ever made by Hammer Films in their Exclusive days which offers the truly surreal sight of Lizabeth Scott incongruously blessed with the ability to play the piano yet dubbed with the voice of guttersnipe; an experience that is probably one of the most surreal Hammer ever provided with Malcolm Arnold's romantic piano score adding to the impression.

Insane melodrama with an over-the-top score by Malcolm Arnold proves to be an engaging experience that will make you smile quite often at its absurd plot twists, and will probably make you laugh out loud a couple of times in rollicking disbelief. The plot is almost a catalog of the obsessions, prejudices, misconceptions of human behavior and popular interpretation of love and science in the mid- 20th century. All treated with a solemn face, they give us a vivid portrait of the time. I am not blaming anybody or being censorial about the movie: I truly enjoyed most of it! Although I was one year old when it was released, watching the film was like opening a little window and remembering many things that were still accepted as true, fine or right when I was a kid. A field day for lovers of self-help manuals, this horrid version of the Pygmalion legend follows a plastic surgeon who has an affair with a pianist and loses her in the same week, and who decides to give her features to an inmate in a British prison with a scarred face. What follows has to be seen (with some very enjoyable screen moments among the seedy characters of London), leading to a self-righteous conclusion that is a letdown, considering that after all the terrible happenings that he was somehow responsible for, the surgeon closes the case with a cynical statement that leaves a sour taste. Still one admires Terence Fisher's skill to keep us fascinated for 69 minutes with another sick, maniac tale, as we grew accustomed to see and hear from him.

Director Terence Fisher, principally known for Hammer's revamps of Universal's classic horrors, had honed his craft in Hammer's low budget B's from the early 1950's made by arrangement with American distributor Robert Lippet who stipulated that the cast had to be headed by a Hollywood 'name', either on the way up or, as was usually the case, on the way down.

Here we have not one but two, both of whose stocks were rather low. Paul Henried had been blacklisted for supposedly un-American activities and was in no position to be choosy whilst Lizabeth Scott was constantly being leant out by Paramount who didn't know what to do with her. It is nevertheless their undeniable presence that sustains one's interest in this highly implausible tale of physically and psychologically scarred recidivist criminal Lily who is transformed by an obsessive plastic surgeon into the image of gorgeous classical pianist Alice whose love he thinks he has lost. The film essentially poses the question as to whether a leopardess can ever change her spots.

Typically of the time, the criminal has of course to be a cockney and is played to great effect by Mary Mackenzie. Although Ms. Scott is very good in the double role of Alice the musician/Lily the con, it is Ms. Mackenzie who dubs her voice as Lily.

The writers have no easy task in tying up all the loose ends and although the climax here is not entirely satisfactory it has at least a certain poetic justice.

For those fascinated by the theme of 'feature editing' this viewer would highly recommend Georges Franju's chilling 'Eyes without a Face' and the film it probably inspired, Almodóvar's 'The Skin I Live in'.

Dr Phillip Ritter a gifted plastic surgeon falls in love with an American woman Alice Brent . There's a problem with this one sided love affair and that is Alice is about to get married to another man called David . Unable to forget Alice Dr Ritter experiments by using plastic surgery on a habitual criminal called Lily

Another early effort from Hammer studios before they moved in to the horror field and the most striking thing about STOLEN FACE is that it revolves around something that would have been total fantasy in 1952 and yet today is scientific fact - the face transplant . Okay you have to dismiss the reality which doesn't really tie in with the fictional portrayal as seen here but at least there's an element of imagination used . There's also a persuasive suggestion that ugly do ugly things such as crime due to an existentialist reaction as to how the world treats someone . This might be nonsense but is used as a running theme by some writers in their works most notably Colin Wilson . On top of that the idea of a man of science trying to benefit the human race and yet failing spectacularly would come to the fore from the Hammer studios later in the decade with their adaptations of THE QUATERMASS Experiment and FRANKENSTEIN so this has all the makings of a classic British thriller

There's a good film in here somewhere but is constantly sabotaged by fundamental flaws . Typical of the period there's not a big pool of genuine working class actors in British Equity so we get parodies of those " Cor blimey guv " type London accents which is distracting and undermines the whole character of Lily in particular . There's also the soundtrack by Malcolm Arnold which is painfully intrusive where no character can do anything on screen without a loud manipulative orchestra starting up telling the audience how they should feel . You also have to suspend disbelief in thinking why of all the patients he could have chosen Ritter has to choose Lily for his ulterior experiment / Obviously if he chose a law abiding girl there wouldn't have been a story but the story we get here is under developed , inconsequential and ultimately disappointing

Passive CASABLANCA French actor Paul Henreid's cheated on again, here in Hammer's noirish-drama STOLEN FACE, describing how Henreid, a plastic surgeon, made a badly scarred female career-criminal look exactly like the beautiful (and surreptitiously engaged) sophisticated pianist he fell for during the first half, resembling more of a Douglas Sirk melodrama than the intended crime-thriller by Hammer's future stock auteur Terence Fisher...

Enter American import Lizabeth Scott, who turned to England what she couldn't find in America, having portrayed both good and bad girls in stateside noir films, and here she plays both... despite only the original classic pianist character baring her own famously sultry low voice, which would have fit better than dubbing the original pre-surgery Mary Mackenzie for consistency (which wouldn't matter given the initial far-fetched premise)...

Although it takes over half the otherwise wispy run-time before Scott turns sneaky, corresponding with a former male crook while preferring taverns to operas, and shoplifting everywhere she goes before the original good girl returns for the previous dramatics to converge...

So it's a shame that Lizabeth couldn't play the femme fatale for much longer, and that initial surgery should have happened from the beginning since STOLEN makes a better second-half crime flick than first-half romance.

When his proposal of marriage to American pianist Alice Brent (Lizabeth Scott) is rejected, successful plastic surgeon Dr Philip Ritter (Paul Henried) uses his skill with a scalpel to turn scarred, psychotic, habitual thief Lily Conovor (Mary Mackenzie) into the spitting image of his beloved and marries her instead; but as the saying goes, beauty is only skin deep, and despite her angelic looks Lily is still a hard-living slag on the inside and soon returns to her old ways, fraternising with her friends from the criminal community. So far, so far fetched, but matters get even more complicated for Phil when Alice comes back to him, having changed her mind about marriage...

With its themes of vanity, obsession and madness, early Hammer production Stolen Face could be seen as a precursor to the French classic Les Yeux Sans Visage (1960) or the wonderfully deviant Corruption (1968), as well as an indicator of the darker direction that the studio would eventually take; unfortunately, the film is neither stylish nor sleazy like the aforementioned titles, instead occupying mediocre melodramatic potboiler territory, and despite solid direction from Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher and a decent cast (Scott does particularly well in her dual role, convincingly pulling off a Cockney accent), it all makes for a rather unmemorable experience. The ending is particularly dumb, with all manner of contrivances resulting in a predictably happy ending for Alice and the good doctor.

(1952) Stolen Face PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA

Successful plastic surgeon, Dr. Philip Ritter (Paul Henreid) has been recommended by another doctor to change the appearance of a former criminal/ convict, Lily (Lily Conover) disfigured face. And upon him working so hard and barely without any sleep, he almost causes a serious car accident along with his faithful associate, Dr. Jack Wilson (John Wood) on the passenger side and recommends him to take a vacation. And when he does go on vacation, he then rents one of the rooms of an inn he begins to fall in love with a successful pianist, Alice Brent (Lizabeth Scott). He is so much in love with her, he then asks her to marry him, and without saying anything she then leaves him. It was during then viewers find out she was already in engaged before he met the doctor his name was David (Andre Morell), and it was not until the doctor begins to settle back to the city again, she calls him up to let him know of the news. As a result of unable to getting her out his mind, he then decides to reconstruct Lily's disfigured face into Alice's presuming he can also change her erratic behavior as well once he marries her. The operation became successful with the only way to tell the difference is her voice. Complicating matters is the fact Alice's current husband, David leaves or divorces her, leaving her so that she is able to go back to the doctor.

More soap opera than it is crime drama as no murder was committed throughout. The entire experience is entirely watchable with almost predictable results. This is one of those movies where the best way to watch it is by watching it without any preconceived notions since by reading about the premise does not sound so great to begin with.

I saw it as a child and looked for it on video. Finally got a poor video of it, but i'm glad I own it. I really like this film, maybe it's because I am a big fan of Lizabeth Scott....maybe I like English movies, I don't know...I just like it!!! Yes, this film is dated, but it still works today.