I love this movie so much

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The naked face is a remarkable film experience. It's not a good film but I recommend it anyway. It's worth seeing the way you see Dracula for Bela Lugosi a performance so filled with conviction that questions of good and bad become meaningless. Saying that Bela Lugosi is campy and over the top is making the assumption that he was trying for something else and landed where he did by accident. No one else in the film other than Dwight Frye as Renfield can even keep up with him. Frye's performance seems far more calculated but he seems to understand that this film is meant to be spooky and fun and that no one is going to stop him from doing exactly what he chooses. He's like the guy in the summer stock theater whose a little bit better than everyone else and inspires the other actors with admiration and envy. Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye know that you've paid money to see them and they are determined to give you what you paid for. Lugosi/Dracula's victims could be moving or charming, the heroes could be dashing and silly, van helsing might be sage and warm and kind but they're not. The brides are creepy and the servants are ridiculous but the rest the living dead of actors. The crazy energy of Lugosi and Dwight Frye seem to sap the rest of the cast of theirs. The Naked Face is like that. It could have been directed by Tod Browning of Dracula fame. It's outdoors but stagey. The incidents in the film are outrageous and unconvincing but no more so than the everyday details. And every actor in the film walks through it like they're on Quaaludes except one. It isn't Roger Moore whose famous for not bringing much energy to wheat he does on screen. He fits into this film as if it were his home. The 007 films are so busy so full of incident and energy this film is like a fish bowl or a gerbil cage everyone is asleep or wandering aimlessly. It isn't Elliot Gould who also fits into the dullness of this film so well he's like a stripe on a dull pattern of wall paper. Why was he put into a film like MASH or it's hard to think of another film of his with much going for it when this is where he has always belonged. Art Carney, Anne Archer, David Hedison all like fish circling around a fish bowl or blobs in a lava lamp we watch them in a stupor. There is one performance that stands out one Lugosi, one Dwight Frye in a crowd David Manners and Everett Van Sloans. It's no surprise who it is, it's Rod Steiger. I want to be clear his performance is not good. He yells and whispers through the whole film like proto Nicholas Cage. He screams at the other actors, bullies them and worries over the turns in the plot as if they mattered to him personally. At times it seems like he's trying to wake the other actors up, trying to rouse them after they fallen asleep or lost interest. There is a crazy wonderful integrity to his performance that goes beyond questions of good or bad. He knows we're out there watching and he wants to give us something. His performance is a critique of dull bad acting. He seems to be seeing if you're going to be bad, if there is no way to be good than go big, don't go down without a fight, struggle against the awfulness. Laurence Olivier and some other highly skilled actors used to get through films like this by underplaying intentionally and quietly kidding and burlesquing the whole enterprise. Steigers performance critiques their approach and calls them cowards. He keeps laying on the energy cowing the other actors until it is not their characters that appeared embarrassed and intimidated but the actors themselves. Rod Steiger shows a crazed integrity. It's possibly the same integrity that allowed him to give so many fine even great performances. Cut loose from quality, artistry even competence, what else could he do?.

In fact the only reason to view this is for the fact that the cast, most of them, drag this tepid melodrama above water.Roger Moore, I asked myself, what's he doing in this? It must be for the fact that he had a chance to play a role out of type for him. He does a good turn as the psychiatrist who is over his head in attempts on his life.Elliot Gould is wonderful as the easygoing detective, until he is shown to be a mob sycophant. Then his portrayal becomes routine and hammy. This is typical for Gould, as he always plays serious and laconic characters well, and "yes-men" poorly. It isn't in his nature.Art Carney is memorable as the private detective. Anne Archer and David Hedison do good work if pretty standard for each.However, Rod Steiger is a shame. Where was the director when he needed toning down? He is just too overblown and intense to be believable. The fact is that Rod Steiger is a director's actor, he is able to take direction and create nuances when he is given that direction, and when he is let loose, he is not. Point in case, In the Heat of the Night, a similar character for him, alternating appropriately between outrage and understanding, well-done and well-directed role wins him an Oscar. Or how about his role of the Mexican bandit in Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dynamite? Again, directed well, he turns in a stellar performance.In this movie, it is embarrassing to see, for he's much better than what results are here. Other than the performances, this is a routine cop-mob-murder mystery.

The Naked Face is an enjoyable movie with great performances from a brilliant cast. It is amazingly powerful and has a deep and realized screenplay. Though it has the fell of being very low budget and the poor and slow editing does not help here.Roger Moore delivers a driving performance as Dr. Judd Stevens. Along with Eliot Gould and Art Carney, The Naked Face Co-Stars the likes of Anne Archer (Clear And Present Danger) and David Hedison (Live And Let Die). It has great suspense sequences and a thrilling final battle. It is well directed and filmed but some areas need some major polish. It's good to see more human role unlike his parody of awful Bond films. There is also less campy moments than in your average Moore film. Although I am not sure if its available on VHS/DVD. 7/10

Roger Moore is in uncharacteristic surroundings here, in a very adult thriller. He plays a Chicago psychiatrist who tops the polic's suspect list when a number of people start getting bumped off in the city. You see, all those that are dead are patients at his clinic. As suspicion mounts, Moore does the only thing he can and takes the investigation into his own hands, hoping to clear his name by catching the real killer(s) himself.Also involved in the film are Rod Steiger and Elliot Gould, both giving enjoyable performances as cops investigating the crimes. The story takes its inspiration from a Sidney Sheldon bestseller, and unfolds fairly intriguingly with various red herrings and killings tossed into the mix at regular intervals. However, the film isn't perfect by a long stretch of the imagination. For a start, the peculiar assassination at the end is supposed to be a twist of some sort, but it makes little sense. Also, the solution to the murders isn't that great (in fact, it's been six years since I saw the film and I can't remember exactly how it all gets resolved). Nonetheless, the film is probably worth a look, especially if you've never seen Moore in one of his more unstereotypical roles.