EYES WITHOUT A FACE: 4K UHD Blu-ray combo (Champs-Élysées/Lux, 1960) Umbrella Entertainment
Until 1960, the film industry in general, and the American film industry in particular, were uniformly contented to skate on the edge of implied human depravity; the noir crime/thriller, yet to be coined as such, still representing crime as stylish ‘whodunit’ escapism. Part of the industry’s apprehension was distinctly hinged on the ideal that a world involved in the very real carnage of war was best served by more lighthearted entertainments at home. But the lion’s share of restraint was held together by an unwritten morality clause, backed by the threat of government sanctioned reprisals as instigated via the Catholic League of Decency. The fear that church and state would somehow align against the entertainment industry, was enough to get the dream merchants to comply with producing ‘tasteful’ flicks, vetoing their creatives who, otherwise, might have wished to challenge this conservative status quo. Hollywood had, in fact, been no stranger to salacious content in the 1920’s. Sex so...
