hwg1957-102-265704 A mysterious killer called The Wolf is responsible for several killings in Paris. A bank clerk who is suspected of robbery and murder tracks down the killer. The plot doesn't really hold together but if you want full-blooded melodrama this has it all; lecherous chevalier, misunderstood hero, mad scientist, lovely heroine and the eponymous malformed face at the window. It looks good with great sets, The Blind Rat tavern being particularly good and appropriate plangent music accompanies the mayhem. Very enjoyable.The lead is played by the unique Tod Slaughter and he outshines the rest of the cast. It depends of course on how you view a Slaughter performance. Some think it is silly and laughable but others (like myself) take great delight in the unparalleled ham of his acting. His characters are unashamedly villainous and his unbridled libido when near a pretty young woman seems startlingly daring for the time. His proper surname really was Slaughter. Considering the roles he played it was a definite case of nominative determinism.

Cristi_Ciopron Another crime movie from the Slaughter& King team of the '30s; Slaughter acts in his usual Captain Fracasse style, he was, like Zucco, one of those movie stars who after-wards sank without a trace (and I certainly mean no disrespect to Zucco, he's not as trashy as Slaughter). A young, hopelessly bland and obviously tame bank clerk is pitted against a cereal killer who ravages the Paris sometimes in the 19th century. The unlikable young clerk is very in love with his employer's daughter, whom the father is quite disposed to sell in exchange for a large deposit of gold that would balance his firm. This crime movie also has a vaguely Sci—Fi subplot; the idea being that a person would raise from the dead with the clearest mind and able to give the police the sought after details. The story is dragged into Paris' underworld of taverns and lowlifes. Like other King flicks, it has that vaudeville atmosphere and stage look. These are sensational, eminently morbid tales told with a sort of grim enjoyment. The movie equivalent of the thrash rock of the '80s—or a Buttgereit of the '30s, take your pick.As an actor, Slaughter was the vilest trash; which you can see for yourself.

kidboots When I lived in Sydney in the '70s it was the vogue of the "music hall restaurants". There were quite a few around - you could go out to tea and then be entertained by a blood curdling melodrama where you had to boo and hiss the villain and make appropriate sounds for the hero and heroine. Neutral Bay had a very good one and with plays like "Sweet Nell of Old Drury" and "The Spring Heeled Terror of Putney Green" you knew you were in for an entertaining night.This is exactly what this film is like - it is thoroughly entertaining. Tod Slaughter is the whole show - he acts and gestures everyone else off the screen. That you know at once he is the villain makes no difference.Paris 1880: there is a killer on the loose called the Wolf, who is also responsible for a string of daring robberies. M. de Brisson's bank has just been robbed and Lucio del Gardo (Tod Slaughter) arrives on the scene to try to solve the mystery. He has just seen Cecile, the banker's daughter and is determined to make her his own. The only thing that stands in his way (he has already talked her father around) is her fiancée, Lucien Cortier, a clerk at the bank.By subtle innuendo (and much leering and ogling) he starts suspicions that Lucien is the Wolf. It is up to Lucien to clear his name and win Cecile back. But wait - there's more. Del Gardo has a monstrous half brother (who is the face at the window!!!). Del Gardo has made a promise to his mother (40 years before!!!) that he will always keep his brother in a cage in the cellar - never letting him be seen by anyone.At 65 minutes it is blood curdling entertainment!!!!!

mgmax 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!