Rarely included in inventories of film noir, Georges Franju’s disturbing and spectacular Les yeux sans visage (US: Eyes Without a Face) is generally classified in the horror genre because of its macabre premise: a “mad scientist” takes women hostage in his country mansion to slice off their faces. While the film certainly contains elements that are both creepy (a mysterious woman in a blank, white mask practically floating through the house) and gruesome (squeamish viewers may want to look away during the face transplant scene), at its core Les yeux sans visage is about a man whose love for his disfigured daughter Christiane (Édith Scob) drives him to criminal acts of desperation. Feeling responsible for her miserable state, the renowned Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur) and his devoted assistant Louise (Alida Valli) have been kidnapping girls who resemble Christiane and attempting to steal their faces through skin grafting surgery. Once the Paris police connect the deaths and disappearances of local girls, they launch an investigation led by Inspector Parot (Alexandre Rignault) and assisted by Jacques Vernon (François Guérin), the former fiancé of Christiane who assumed her dead until one day receiving a mysterious phone call. Removed from society and treated like a laboratory animal, Christiane most relates to her father’s dozen or more caged German Shepherds who bark into the night; indeed, her own coming emancipation will mean theirs too. Aside from the compelling story and the bounty of thrills, the main reason to seek out the film is its glorious cinematography and breathtaking mise-en-scene, one shot after another painted with a master’s brush, Gothic drama colliding with a surreal haze, all leading up to a final scene in which the door is opened to a perverse paradise. For similar themes with less gore, take a look at earlier noirs like The Body Snatcher (1945) or The Face Behind the Mask (1941).