Maybe because of the French writing connection which other reviewers have touched on, what should have been explained to the viewer was how John Gregson was stumbling to a local Cornish village to summon help one minute, then in the next scene he is suddenly in France in a French hospital still driving the his Mark 1X Jaguar.Did "Talking Pictures" on channel 81, cut out a vital scene for commercial break reasons, or did we see this movie in its entirety? Its always a pleasure to see Mai Zetterling on screen.Talking Pictures recently aired "Only Two Can Play" with her & Peter Sellers.I find myself watching channel 81 frequently to see the old movies from the 40s 50s & 60s in preference to the garbage often shown on more mainstream channels.The subject film was made in 1960 and I always check the date from the listing of movies of this vintage, particularly one like this I saw for the first time.Unusually, the producer leaves a lot of unanswered questions to the viewer at the end leaving them to make their own minds up as to the denoument of the characters.

"Faces in the Dark" was based on a novel by Boileau and Narcejac, the same guys who gave us "Vertigo" and "Les Diaboliques". This certainly isn't in the same class but it's still a watchable thriller. John Gregson is the thoroughly unpleasant industrialist blinded in a factory accident on the same day his wife is planning to divorce him. She's Mai Zetterling and she's somewhat better than the material. Others involved include Michael Denison, John Ireland and Tony Wright. It's a good looking picture, (Ken Hodges photographed in widescreen and future director Desmond Davis was a camera operator), and Mikis Theodorakis did the score but the director, David Eady, doesn't muster any real suspense and it is fairly predictable.

FACES IN THE DARK is a rather forgotten film in the British noir genre. The movie is a bit slow but totally worth hanging in there - the TWIST is quite staggering & very well done (no surprise it is based on a book by the writing team that also wrote the novels that VERTIGO, LES DIABOLIQUES and EYES WITHOUT A FACE were based on). John Gregson is very good as the rich successful man who is blinded in an industry accident. He is angry at the world with his fate and slowly begins to worry that he is losing his mind. Is he just paranoid or is his "loving" wife too good to be true? I watched this with a few friends and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Actually felt the frustration of John Gregson's character and didn't have an idea of the end until the last 10 minutes and still it surprised. A lot of "darlings" and "proper" English, being that age, and meaningful looks between the characters. Being in black & white only adds to the "depressed" feeling that nobody can help the main character and his attempts to help himself are excruciating. It's difficult to write 10 lines without containing a spoiler, so I might waffle a bit, but the characters played by Mai Zatterling and dear old Michael Denison are despicable. I'm surprised I've never seen this film before and will probably watch it again in the future. If it were in French with subtitles it would probably be labelled a masterpiece!