BA_Harrison Ferris wheel obsessed engineer Vance Pierson (Barry Sullivan) moves with his wife and daughter to Spain to work on a hydroelectric dam. While house-hunting, Vance meets sexy blonde Laura Blanco (Martha Hyer) as she is about to torch her run-down property for the insurance money. Instead, Vance buys the place, and subsequently starts a steamy affair with the woman. When Vance's conscience eventually kicks in and he decides to end his relationship with Laura, she flips out and sets fire to Vance's home—with his wife and child still inside. Vance rushes to their rescue, but he is too late to save them, and suffers severe burns in the process. When Laura pays him a visit in hospital, the disfigured engineer swears to hunt down Laura and her daughter, no matter where they run to.Part Fatal Attraction style thriller, part twisted revenge horror, Pyro… The Thing Without a Face is nowhere near as cheesy as the title suggests. In fact, it is a surprisingly dark tale, dealing as it does with infidelity, betrayal, madness, murder, and even a hint of incest for good measure (Laura's comment that her daughter's father was her own father is quite the shocker). Vance, covered from head to foot in bandages, telling Laura to 'take her family and hide' is effectively chilling, as is watching him as he makes good on his word. I only wish that the ending had been as bold: rather than sparing Laura's daughter, I'd love to have seen Vance throw himself off the ferris wheel with the little girl in his arms. That would have made for an unforgettable and more fitting downbeat finale.

Elliot James The really interesting thing about the horror films of the 50s and 60s is the amount of implicit kink and perversity that got through the censors of the time, proving that the censors were looking for visual elements to prohibit, not plot points or dialogue. If Pyro had been produced with the same sado-erotic fever as four of the most lurid and salacious horror films ever made around the same time (Psycho, Horrors of the Black Museum, Peeping Tom and Circus of Horrors), Pyro would be a classic today. The beginning of Pyro shows the climax, a huge mistake. Producer/writer Sydney Pink felt Pyro was his best film. There are several excellent flourishes throughout Pyro, a title Mr Pink felt was not commercial for the USA. He wanted to call it Phantom of the Ferris Wheel, which is not much better. (It was titled Phantom of the Ferris Wheel in England where it did good business.) An excellent actor, Barry Sullivan shows the signs of deterioration early in the film when he verbally jousts with firebug Hyer at their first meeting. Her criminal insanity and "hot" temper excites him--this is a woman who screws a total stranger within five minutes of meeting him. Half-way through their affair, she reveals to Sullivan that her daughter is the result of incest with her own father, a revelation dropped as fast as it is delivered. Hyer looks in her mid-30's and since the girl is about ten, the writers leave the door wide open for what actually happened. Very powerful stuff for a movie made in 1961, no matter the country of origin. (How did this get through the Franco-era Spanish censors?) That he has a super-hot wife drives home the point that he has a moral compass in need of repair. Little more than a soap opera, Pyro totally disintegrates in the final 20 minutes. Crazy nymphomaniac Hyer's death is perfunctory and shot in an anti-climatic style although the unmasking scene with Sullivan on top of her is both creepily erotic and horrifically effective. (The burn make-up was excellent.) The closing scene--Sullivan kidnapping the child and going on his Ferris Wheel with cops closing in--is beyond clichéd, boring and routine. The Ferris Wheel climax of Horrors of the Black Museum pre-dates Pyros' similar ending. (The writers must have seen Horrors.) Another mood killer is the horrible travelogue-style music, some of the worst music ever scored for a thriller. It's almost as if the music was lifted from a romantic light comedy and just dropped onto Pyro's audio track, without purpose or understanding. The fire effects were very well done--too bad the demented world of pyromania was never explored in any way. A young Soledad Miranda shows an incredible kittenish sexuality very reminiscent of Yvonne Monlaur in Circus of Horrors. Her inexplicable interest in the masked fugitive Sullivan, a man more than twice her age, is a full circle rotation pointing towards Hyer's involvement with her father. I'd like to see a remake of Pyro in the hands of Eli Roth or Brian Yunza but B-level films like this are just not produced anymore, at least not for theatrical release.

dwr246 Love is a passion that burns like a fire. So it has been said for centuries. This cautionary tale takes a rather literal view of that assertion, and brings us a surprisingly good thriller.Vance Pierson (Barry Sullivan) is an engineer who moves to Spain for work related reasons. Accompanying him are his wife Verna (Sherry Moreland), and daughter Sally (oddly, this small part doesn't appear to be credited to the actress who played her). They are a happy family, crammed into a tiny apartment. So Vance decides to buy a house. He goes to look at a rather impressive one, and arrives just in time to stop the owner, Laura (Martha Hyer), from burning it down so she can collect the insurance money. While Vance convinces her that she'll do better with the proceeds from a sale of the house, sparks of a different kind fly between the two of them, and soon they are involved in a passionate affair. However, when first a co-worker, and then Verna learn of the affair, Vance decides it's time to end it. As he is breaking things off with Laura, he makes the mistake of telling her that if it weren't for Verna and Sally, he would be with her. Laura decides that perhaps the best thing to do is to get rid of Verna and Sally, and since she has already mapped out a strategy for burning down the house, she simply waits until Vance has gone out for the evening and Verna and Sally are asleep upstairs, and then she sets fire to it. Vance returns unexpectedly, and runs into the burning house to try to save his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, all he succeeds in doing is getting badly burned himself while Verna and Sally die in the fire. Laura goes to visit Vance in the hospital, and when she confirms Vance's suspicions that she set the fire, he orders her out of his room, telling her that if he ever comes across her again, he'll kill her. Horrified, Laura leaves. The action shifts forward a few years, and Vance, now horribly disfigured, and wearing a mask all the time, is a roustabout with a carnival. For some strange reason, the owner's daughter, Liz (Soledad Miranda) is smitten with him, but given Vance's past, he is understandably unwilling to get involved with her. And then one day the carnival arrives in the town where Laura lives...Given the setup, this could have been a really cheesy movie, but the writing is surprisingly good, giving the story twists and turns that keep it from becoming predictable, and a few nasty shocks that definitely grab the viewers' attention. Vance's ultimate revenge on Laura is presented in a way that is not satisfying, helping to point out that perhaps revenge was not the right solution to his problems. All in all, a more thoughtful script than one would expect from this kind of movie.From a production standpoint, the best part of the film was watching Laura set up the fire by splashing gasoline throughout the house, taking the added step up hooking the plumbing up to a gas can, and then setting a fuse to give herself time to get away. When the fire spreads through the house, it is an exciting, if frightening scene. Contrasted with that, the scene where Vance renders Laura unconscious, and sets her apartment on fire is much tamer, helping to make his revenge on her unsatisfying. And the makeup used to show Vance's face when he reveals his disfigurement was also impressive.The acting is a bit stylized, as was typical of the time period, but overall it is good. Sullivan gives an excellent portrayal of a complex man, delving into the dark corners of the mind of a man who first succumbs to lust, and then is driven by guilt and anger. Hyer's performance sizzles. Her beauty bewitches, and while her actions are deplorable, her regret at the outcome of what she has caused gives you a small amount of sympathy for her. Moreland's betrayed wife is well done, and the uncredited actress who plays Sally turns in a good, if occasionally cloying performance. The only real puzzle is Miranda, who gives us no clue as to what her character's attraction to Vance is all about, thus while her actions speak of good intentions, they make little sense, since we have no context in which to put them.A dark, cautionary tale, surprisingly well done. A curiosity piece, but one well worth seeing.

Kelt Smith Low budget, odd little movie has some chills, and good performances by MARTHA HYER and BARRY SULLIVAN. Laura Blanco (HYER) is a divorcee with a young daughter who has a fling with family man Vince Pierson (SULLIVAN). When his wife finds out, Vince tries to break off from Laura. She, however, has other ideas and believes that if Vince's wife & daughter are out of the way, she'll have him all to herself. Seeing Vince leave his house with wife & daughter still inside upstairs, Laura slips in and splashes gasoline around and sets the house ablaze. She even goes so far as to cut the water off, and attach a container of gasoline to the plumbing. Vince comes back and runs into the burning house to save his family. I can't say anymore without giving away the ending, but the rest is a pretty good thriller. HYER is very good as pure evil Laura. SULLIVAN also does well as Vince. In some ways this movie might remind you of FATAL ATTRACTION 20 years earlier. A stern warning to married men seeking greener pastures. This was one of AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL pictures, low on production dollars, and yet with its creepy plot, still a worthwhile thriller!!!