History Film / FiendWithoutAFace

* CanonForeigner: Barbara Griselle. The closest thing Walgate has to an assistant in the short story is a housekeeper. Ditto the Air Force characters, who weren't present in ''The Thought Monster''.

* CanonForeigner: Babara Griselle. The closest thing Walgate has to an assistant in the short story is a housekeeper. Ditto the Air Force characters, who weren't present in ''The Thought Monster''.

A 1958 British-American horror film directed by Arthur Crabtree, based on the ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' short story ''Literature/TheThoughtMonster'' by Amelia Reynolds Long.

''Fiend Without a Face'' is a 1958 British-American horror film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was based on the ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' short story ''Literature/TheThoughtMonster'' by Amelia Reynolds Long.

At a base in UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, the US Air Force is conducting long-range radar tests to try and get a leg up on [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar those pesky Russians]]. The people living near the base don't like how the aircraft spook their animals, and the churlish Mayor Hawkins is spreading nasty rumors about the possible [[NuclearNasty side effects]] of radiation from the atomic reactor powering the American radar equipment.

One night, people hear a [[HellIsThatNoise mysterious thumping]], [[HellIsThatNoise schlurking noise]], followed by a [[ScreamDiscretionShot blood-curdling scream]] and the discovery of a corpse with a look of frozen horror on his face. More victims follow. This gives the locals (especially Hawkins) the ammo they need to bring grievances to the feet of base commander Colonel Butler and his second in command, Major Jeff Cummings. Butler tasks Jeff with solving the mystery to restore good relations with the Canadians. He starts seeing Barbara Griselle, the sister of the first victim. She works as a typist for a scientist named Professor Walgate.

''Fiend Without a Face'' is a 1958 British-American coproduction directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was based on the ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' short story ''Literature/TheThoughtMonster'' by Amelia Reynolds Long.

[[quoteright:351:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/95d83efd996a215d84b431acc7390f48.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:351:Insert ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' joke here.]]

At a base in CanadaEh, the US Air Force is conducting long-range radar tests to try and get a leg up on [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar those pesky Russians]]. The people living near the base don't like how the aircraft spook their animals, and the churlish Mayor Hawkins is spreading nasty rumors about the possible [[NuclearNasty side effects]] of radiation from the atomic reactor powering the American radar equipment.

!!Tropes used in this film:

* UsefulNotes/ColdWar

* DiscretionShot: Averted. Except for the very first victim, we see all of the attacks onscreen. Interestingly, although the scenes of people getting their brains sucked out are free of gore (even when the fiends become visible), the shots of the fiends themselves getting killed are quite gruesome for a 1950s film. We see them shot repeatedly, complete with oozing, splurting brain matter and gobs of what's supposed to be blood but looks more like chunky salsa or thick goopy jam.

* MayorPain: Hawkins, full stop.

* CaliforniaDoubling: England stands in for Canada.

* GoneHorriblyRight: Walgate wanted to crate beings made of living, physical thought, and he succeeded. He just didn't realize they'd survive by [[GoneHorriblyWrong eating people's brains]].

* TheSiege: Similar to the later ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'', the movie's final act sees all of the principal characters hold up in Walgate's country house fighting off the (now visible) monsters.

* TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw: Constable Gibbons' theory behind the deaths is that a "rogue G.I." has gone crazy and begun murdering people, against all evidence to the contrary.

* JerkassHasAPoint: It's easy to dismiss Hawkins' opinions because he's an anti-social jerk. But just because he's a jerk doesn't mean he isn't right, and he ''does'' make some good points about how the locals don't like the American plans constantly spooking their animals and disrupting their way of life.

* DiscretionShot: Averted ''hard''. Except for the very first victim, we see all of the attacks onscreen. Interestingly, although the scenes of people getting their brains sucked out are free of gore (even when the fiends become visible), the shots of the fiends themselves getting killed are quite gruesome for a 1950s film. We see them shot repeatedly, complete with oozing, splurting brain matter and gobs of what's supposed to be blood but looks more like chunky salsa or thick goopy jam.

* TheSiege: Similar to the later ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead'', the movie's final act sees all of the principal characters hold up in Walgate's country house fighting off the (now visible) monsters.

* ImprobableAimingSkills: The Air Force officers sure are crack shots with their sidearms, especially considering the "fiends" are roughly the size of the human brains their resemble and leap all over the place.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: A lot of the "Canadian" aspects are pretty suspect.

* EagleLand: The locals (especially Mayor Hawkins and Constable Gibbons) think the Air Force personnel are America, the Boorish. They're [[JerkassHasAPoint not]] entirely wrong. Despite publicly going out of their way to be friendly and accommodating to their Canadian hosts, they privately talk them as being "simple" and "backwards."

* EagleLand: The locals (especially Mayor Hawkins and Constable Gibbons) think the Air Force personnel are America, the Boorish, but they go out of their way to be friendly and accommodating to their Canadian hosts, making them actually America, the Beautiful.

* UsefulNotes/Canada