Ya gotta wonder if William Castel watched this and came up with the idea for The Night Walker (1964).
In Faces in the Dark, Richard Hammond, a rich bossy industrialist, working on a better light bulb for the world, gets blinded when, on one of its test runs, too much juice causes it to burst in his face. His blindness gives a green light to the plans of his partner in the business and his adulterous wife. While he is recovering at the hospital they set their scheme in motion.
When Richard finally reawakens at home after a long stay in hospital its a new world of smells and sounds that he must learn to navigate in. He is a stubborn man and an independent one. He relearns the parameters of his room and then the house and he manages to conquer the difficulties. He starts to become concerned when he starts to smell and hear things that others don't. He thinks the accident affected his brain. He stews on that for a while. Then when he overhears the new maid telling his wife that she told him, Richard, that she didn't hear a bell ringing. Richard suspects that his wife and business partner are conspiring to get him committed to an insane asylum and to take over the business.
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| John Gregson as Richard Hammond and Mai Zetterling as his wife Christiane |
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| John Ireland as Max Hammond |
In Castels' The Night Walker he fast forwards a similar storyline. A rich scientist working in his home lab gets blinded in an explosion. He suspects his wife of having an affair after overhearing her talking in her dreams. Then he gets killed in another lab explosion and his lawyer tries to make the mans wife thing she is going crazy so that he can get control of the estate
Directed by David Eady, Written by Ephraim Kogan and John Tully and based on the novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Cinematography was by Ken Hodges. The theremin heavy Music was by Mikis Theodorakis.
The film stars John Gregson as Richard Hammond, Mai Zetterling as Christiane Hammond, American Film Noir/Western vet John Ireland as Max Hammond, Michael Denison as David Merton, Tony Wright as Clem, Nanette Newman as Janet, Valerie Taylor as Miss Hopkins, and Roland Bartrop as the French Doctor.
Noirsville
A low budget Café au lait Thriller Noir that keeps your attention even with the pedestrian cinematography and the uninteresting sets and locations. Its got a nice unexpected twist too 6.5/10
watching now
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