Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

mark.waltz Rosa Rey is exactly here like the old woman who turns Raymond Burr into a creature of the jungle in "The Bride of the Gorilla". She's obsessed with her master's wife (Claudia Drake) and when she finds out that Ms. Drake is enamored of her husband's partner (Robert Shayne), she is determined to make sure that what her mistress wants, her mistress gets. Along comes Maris Wrixon, Shayne's lady friend, and the nasty Rosa utilizes her own voodoo spells to get the rival lady out of the way-as a corpse! It adds to her convenience that boss John Carradine is experimenting with bringing humans back from the dead and they quickly die a horrible death, their faces literally turning into marble, although it looks more like they swallowed fluorescent light-bulbs and somebody plugged them in. When Drake's beloved pooch becomes one of the victims, it is very clear that the doggie isn't dead, only translucent and dangerously violent to anybody other than her. Rey arranges a potion to kill Wrixon but by coincidence, somebody else gets it, and now thanks to doctor Carradine's determination to bring them back from the dead, there are two violent creatures running around.Silly but fun, this fast moving Monogram horror film is the class-room example of what "camp" is on film. Over the top performances literally shine, although the lack of a catfight between Drake and Wrixon is sorely missing as it is obvious when Wrixon arrives that the two women both love Shayne. You know you've seen this done over and over again, especially in several earlier Boris Karloff films with titles such as "Before I Hang" and "The Man They Could Not Hang" where mad scientist Karloff played mad doctors obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. There's an actual haunting ending, almost ghost-like, which adds to the spookiness of the film. As directed by "one-shot" William Beaudine, this is a little forgotten thriller that deserves to be re-discovered and show that the minor poverty row studios could do magnificent things (at least technically) on a shoe-string budget.

Scott LeBrun Horror legend John Carradine remains a delight to watch, as always, in this mostly routine but reasonably atmospheric tale from Monogram and director William Beaudine; he raises the rating by a point. The rest of the cast is adequate at best. The special effects are actually not bad. The script by Michael Jacoby (based on a story by Edmund L. Hartmann and Wilhelm Thiele) is awfully talky, a clear sign of a very low budget. Still, this is the kind of thing people could still easily enjoy watching in those wee hours of the morning.Carradine portrays Dr. Charles Randolph, a fairly typical mad scientist (actually, he's not THAT mad) who wants more than anything to conquer death and bring the dead back to life. Alas, his experiments are not working out. Sometimes they even have weird side effects, such as his wife's rejuvenated dog developing a taste for blood and the ability to walk through things. Yes, this movie features a "vampire dog" 32 years before "Zoltan Hound of Dracula". Adding another wrinkle to the plot is the conniving housekeeper on the premises, Maria (Rosa Rey).Some plot twists are mildly amusing and help to keep the film somewhat entertaining. At least it has the typically short running time (73 minutes all told) for a genre picture from this era. Female cast members Claudia Drake as Elaine (Randolphs' wife) and Maris Wrixon are easy enough on the eyes. Robert Shayne ('Adventures of Superman') has some likability as Randolphs' colleague and Willie Best adds un-p.c. comedy relief as a pop eyed butler. Rey is a hoot in her role.All in all, this is diverting enough while it lasts.Six out of 10.

gavin6942 Totally engrossed in his project to bring the dead back to life, Dr. Charles Randolph (John Carradine) fails to notice his wife Elaine's interest in Randolph's young lab partner, Dr. Cochran.The sound and picture of this film need serious clean up, if possible. And there is some strange, latent racism here. But beyond those issues, there is a lot of horror potential -- reviving the dead, voodoo and a lab with electricity going everywhere. Randolph fits the idea of a "mad scientist" perfectly (but with less wild hair).Some scenes are hard to follow because of how dark the picture is, but the story is decent, and if there was a way to fix this up, I would increase my rating.

bensonmum2 While The Face of Marble will never be confused with a great horror film, it is a decent little movie from the infamously cheap Monogram Pictures and director William Beaudine. John Carradine plays a doctor intent on discovering the secret to bringing the dead back to life. In most scenes, he rises above the material given and delivers a first class performance. The less said about the rest of the cast the better. They can generously be described as wooden and unemotional.The movie begins with Carradine and his assistant attempting to bring a dead man back to life. After this fails, he tries the procedure on his wife's dog (Carradine's character kills the dog with little or no remorse or care for his wife's feelings). And finally, his wife gets the opportunity to experience the whizzing and sparking machines in his lab. There's also a housekeeper who practices voodoo and has some sort of control over the dog and wife. The housekeeper uses her power to have the dog and wife do her bidding. Under the housekeeper's control, the wife kills Carradine and attempts to kill everyone else in the cast.For the limited budget, there are actually some good special effects. Some of the scenes where the dog walks through the walls are especially effective. Also, much of the budget appears to have been spent on fancy lab equipment. Carradine has a room full of electronic gadgets similar to those in Frankenstein. The marble effect (from which the movies title comes) is, however, not especially good or memorable.If you can get past the lackluster supporting performances and the obvious budget constraints, The Face of Marble can be a somewhat fun little film. Not the best, but watchable.