Arrow Video, with
domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group,
will be bringing a new 2K restoration of director John Grissmer’s 1977 (and
1978) gothic tale, Scalpel (aka: False Face) to market as a Blu-ray
product offering on Feb. 20.
The film’s backstory is
fascinating in that it was shot in and around Atlanta, Georgia in October of
1975, disappeared for all of 1976 and then surfaced as a regional indie release
from United International Pictures in January of 1977 … and then disappeared again. It was titled False Face.
Somewhere along the line
Embassy Pictures acquired the film and retitled it Scalpel and gave it a
wide theatrical release in September of 1978.
The new title moved the
film into the “horror” category, but it’s more akin to a demented murder
mystery with Robert Lansing (4D Man, The Grissom Gang, Empire
of the Ants, etc.) starring as plastic surgeon Dr. Phillip “Phil”
Reynolds. It seems that when he takes a
dislike to people around him they die mysterious deaths … his wife drowned in
the backyard pool and his daughter’s “boyfriend” met a similar fate.
Which brings us to the
film itself, which opens with Dr. Reynolds and his brother-in-law, Bradley
(played by long-time character actor Arlen Dean Snyder), sharing drinks over
the death of Robert Thorndike — Bradley’s father and Phil’s former
father-in-law. Both, it seems, were on
the outs with the old man, who left his entire fortune to his grand daughter,
Heather (played by veteran soap and TV series player Judith Chapman) … who
mysteriously vanished after her boyfriend’s death.
In no time the pair
almost mow-down a stripper, who has been beaten to a pulp, and was left dazed
to wander the streets bleeding and in shock.
As good samaritans, they rush her to the nearby hospital, where as luck
would have it, Phil just happens to work.
In one of those “light
bulbs” going on moments, Phil stops the routine call to the police — to report
the beating — and takes the dear girl under his personal care. After all, he is a plastic surgeon and her
broken jaw and mangled face — beaten beyond recognition — can be repaired under
his skillful “scalpel” and care.
This is where the film
gets creepy. Phil molds the girl’s
face, “Jane Doe” (also played by Chapman), to that of his daughter, Heather …
and begins training her to be his daughter, with the deal that they split the
money. He also takes to sleeping with
her …
Eventually Bradley gets
suspicious of what Phil is up to and that means that he too will have to have
an “accident.” So where is the real
Heather and will “Jane” and Phil get away with this multi-million dollar
deception? To find out, pick up this
new Blu-ray edition of Scalpel from Arrow Video on Feb. 20.
As to bonus goodies, there’s
a newly-minted commentary option from film historian Richard Harland Smith and
new video sessions with unspecified members of the film’s production crew.
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