“Unfortunately, most maniacs are clever in their madness.”
Vance Pierson (Barry Sullivan) is an American engineer with a wife, Verna (Sherry Moreland), and a young daughter, Sally (Pilarin Gomez). Vance and his associate, Julio (Fernando Hilbeck) are working on a project in Spain installing a power generator. His revolutionary generator is based on the principal of how a Ferris wheel works.
Vance goes to Spain ahead of his family to find a house. After weeks of looking, he finally finds one that he likes. The house is owned by Laura Blanco (Martha Hyer). It has been on the market for a long time and Laura has given up trying to sell it. She decides to burn it down for the insurance money. Vance sees what she is up to but buys the house anyway.
Soon after that Vance and Laura begin an affair. The affair goes on for months. Julio and Verna are both aware that Vance is cheating. Julio tries to intervene, but Vance is in too deep. Eventually Vance decides to end the affair. Laura believes that Vance would marry her if his wife and daughter were out of the way. Laura burns down the house with Verna and Sally inside.
Vance returns home in time to find the place on fire. He rushes in to try to save his family but ends up with severe burns. The doctors are amazed that Vance lived through the fire even though his hands and face are burnt to a crisp. While still in the hospital Laura goes to visit Vance to apologize. Vance, now mentally unstable, vows to her that he will spend his life hunting her and her daughter down. The only thing he lives for now is revenge.
“Pyro... The Thing Without a Face” AKA “Phantom of the Ferris Wheel” AKA “Wheel of Fire” was released in 1964 and was directed by Julio Coll. It is a Spanish American horror thriller film.
The movie wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be. The first half is a little slow and is about the affair that Vance has with Laura. The fire that kills his wife and daughter doesn’t happen until around the midpoint. After that is slows down again. I also would have liked to have seen Vance’s deformed appearance more, but it was only shown at the end and only for a few minutes. The ending was OK but not worth the wait.
One nugget of information that gets missed a lot is the fact that Laura’s daughter, Isabella (Marisenka), is the product of an incestuous relationship with her father. Like in “Chinatown” 1974, Laura’s daughter is also her sister.
The film also has a “Fatal Attraction” 1987 vibe to it as well. Laura is definitely unstable. Instead of cooking the family rabbit she cooks the whole family. There is something about a woman scorned that makes them candidates for scorched Earth policies.