ZTRACENA TVAR (1965)
aka The Lost Face
Article 5159 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-16-2016
Directed by Pavel Habl
Featuring Jana Brejchova, Jana Brezkova, Vlastimil Brodsky
Country: Czechoslovakia
What it is: Comic medical science fiction

A doctor researching face transplants can’t get funding for his research, so he agrees to transplant a gangster’s face with that of one of his victims for a lot of money. However, complications arise and the doctor discovers he’s going to have to change his own face as well.

I was able to find a copy of this, but not one with English subtitles. This is a pity, as I’m quite fond of Czech science fiction, and though the existence of a few plot descriptions did help me have some idea of what was going on in this movie, the subtleties escaped me. Therefore, I can’t really give an adequate review of the movie as such, but it does seem quite amusing and appears to be very well acted. One element that does come through is that after the doctor’s own change of face, he finds himself reliving various elements of his life in the previous face, only with noticeable changes in the way the action pans out. This one looks quite interesting, though I’m told it gets a bit preachy before all is through. Nevertheless, I’m glad for the chance to see it.