Identify this classic movie moment!

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

It's a classic movie moment! The patient sits in a chair in a dingy plastic surgeon's office, as the bandages around the face are unwound. The surgeon grimaces at what he sees after removing the bandages! The patient demands a mirror, gazes into it, smashes it, and bursts out in maniacal laughter!

Now I've seen this classic movie scene spoofed twice, once in "Batman", with the Joker being the patient, and once in the "Simpsons" when Lisa gets her braces. My question! What the heck is the movie that the original scene is from???? Who's in in it! I've been longing to know!

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

I don't know, but my guess would be Eye of the Beholder from the Twilight Zone.

[BobT]

It's not from the "Twilight Zone". In that particular episode, the doctors pull off the bandages and immediately recoil in horror. I believe a nurse drops an instrument of some kind. We don't realize there's a problem until the faces of the doctors are finally revealed.

[headshok]

I learn something new everyday, I guess. The Internet Movie Database listed a number of movies that were referenced by Batman. One of them was Les Yeux san Visage, a 1959 French horror film. The plot summary:

A brilliant surgeon, Professor Genessier, helped by his assistant Louise, kidnaps nice young girls. He removes their faces and tries to graft them onto the head on his beloved daughter Christiane, who has been entirely spoiled in a car crash. All the experiments fail, and the victims die, but Genessier keeps trying...

My WAG would be that this is the movie that you are looking for, but I haven't seen the movie (although I probably will try to find it now after reading the user reviews; sounds creepy), so I can't say for sure.

[headshok]

Argh. The movie is Les Yeux sans Visage. Sorry.

[Alonist]

WAG: Mr. Sardonicus?

[Fear Itself]

I seem to recall a similar scene in Dark Passage (1947), with Humphrey Bogart. Bogie is a fugitive who undergoes plastic surgery to hide his identity. The interesting thing about this film is that the first third of the film (before he has the surgery), is shot from a first person perspective; we never see Bogie's face until after the surgery.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

Hmmmm.....could it be a repeating motif from an ever more obscure source? But thanks for pointing out the predecessors, gang.

[barbitu8]

One more guess. Could it be [i]the Phantom of the Opera[/]?

[Alias]

It was spoofed TWICE on the Simpsons. Once with Lisa and her braces, again with Krusty and a plastic surgeon.
The surgeon is supposed to make Krusty look different, but when the bandages are removed he looks exactly the same... only with breasts.

[samclem]

Fear It's not from *Dark Passage* .

I got it out of library today and scanned it quickly. Bacall takes the bandages off of Bogie at her apartment. No such scene there.

[CalMeacham]

Quote:

I learn something new everyday, I guess. The Internet Movie Database listed a number of movies that were referenced by Batman. One of them was Les Yeux san Visage, a 1959 French horror film. The plot summary:



quote:
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A brilliant surgeon, Professor Genessier, helped by his assistant Louise, kidnaps nice young girls. He removes their faces and tries to graft them onto the head on his beloved daughter Christiane, who has been entirely spoiled in a car crash. All the experiments fail, and the victims die, but Genessier keeps trying...
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My WAG would be that this is the movie that you are looking for, but I haven't seen the movie (although I probably will try to find it now after reading the user reviews; sounds creepy), so I can't say for sure.


I saw this film as a kid (Somebody at the TV station obviously didn't know what it was about). I don't recall a "smashed mirror" scene.

[Miller]

Unlikely as it may be in this post-modern world, but couldn't the scene be original to Batman?

[Cartooniverse]

Originally posted by samclem
Fear It's not from *Dark Passage* .

I got it out of library today and scanned it quickly. Bacall takes the bandages off of Bogie at her apartment. No such scene there.

Oh my god, I was ALL set to name this film. Shit, I even "remember" the scene- Bogey removes the bandages, and kills the surgeon- JOHN CARRADINE !. Yes, Bacall does some of this too, but....wow. I have such a firm memory of this. Damn !

As for that film, it's a landmark bit of hand-held work. Film cameras that heavy were a bitch to move around, and the introductory scenes of his Point Of View as he runs in and out of ditches, and across fields is bravuro work. It's not "Dark Passage"???? Hmmmm.

Cartooniverse

[samclem]

Well, what a year-and-a-half between friends?

I finally found a DVD of Mr. Sardonicus this week at library. Scanned it tonight . The black/white photography and the use of shadows in the beginning of the film had me excited.

But, for nothing. It ain't in that movie, either.

(Possibly one of the worst movies I ever watched. Thank goodness I ran it at 4x).

[Wumpus]

FWIW, the incident with Lisa on the Simpsons was probably meant to be a direct reference to the then-current Batman movie, and not as a meta-reference to something older.

[sundog66]

Yes, Wumpus is right about the Simpsons referring only to Batman. I checked the Simpsons archives at snpp.com for that episode and it credits Batman as the movie reference for that scene.

Could it be the Batman itself is the "classic movie"?

[grendel72]

It is definitely not Les Yeux san Visage, known in the US as The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. The daughter's mask in that film has been referenced many times, though.

[jb_farley]

it's definitely spoofing Batman. i mean, i guess batman could have had an out-of-character shot-for-shot-and-line-for-line 'homage' stuck in the very beginning, and then forgone the use of direct reference to other films for the rest of the movie, but i doubt it.

that, coupled with the fact that the Simpsons does in fact have a very characteristic shot-for-shot-and-line-for-line version of the Batman scene, leads me to say that the Simpson's episode was spoofing Batman, and nothing more.

oh, and Krusty never did the whole laughing and smashing thing.

i believe it goes

SURGEON: Here you are, Krusty. Now, don't be surprised by the complete stranger looking back at you.

Krusty: What the? You idiot! I look exactly the same!

S: Nonsense- you look at least 20 years younger. Plus, I did you breasts.

K: D'you see me complaining about the breasts? ... Look, I gotta get back to Springfield. Could you give me some bus fare? (doctor puts fare in cleavage) Hey HEY!

jb

p.s.- is the past of "forgo" "forwent"?

[Gartog]

forgone

[bibliophage]

Now that we have the Cafe Society forum to fob o--er, I mean, move such threads to, I'll do that.

[Myrnalene]

Something very similar happened in The Raven, an 1935 horror picture starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. In this case, the surgeon (Lugosi) is the madman. Karloff is a wanted criminal, a murderer, who comes to Lugosi to disguise his face. Instead, Bela disfigures him horribly. There is a creepy scene when Karloff's new face is revealed. He is nervous but excited, expecting to be handsome (or at least normal looking). When he sees what Bela has done he freaks out, smashing every mirror in the room (of which there are several) while the doctor laughs manically.

[Equipoise]

Originally posted by grendel72
It is definitely not Les Yeux san Visage, known in the US as The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. The daughter's mask in that film has been referenced many times, though.

It's also known as Eyes Without A Face.

A good and creepy movie, that one. I wish it were on DVD. I have a horrible VHS with the worst, hard-to-read subtitles in the world.

[cacti]

I remember seeing an old movie called "The Invisible Man" that seems to fit your discription.