Doris Dowling plays an ambitious young woman named Charlotte, who has recently married a rich older aristocrat(played by Max Adrian) after they conspired to murder his wife. Strange things start happening when the wall space where the first wife's portrait once hanged now shows a growing stain that no amount of scrubbing can wash out. Soon, this stain becomes the face of the dead woman, which distorts into a sinister looking skull, which threatens to expose their crime, if they aren't driven mad first... Eerie entry has a surefire premise, though the cast of characters don't really grab the viewer like they should. Still, this is memorable.
6 Reviews
The Face on the Wall?
theowinthrop11 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This was another well acted episode of ONE STEP BEYOND, dealing with the slow undoing of a perfect crime committed by an aristocrat. In all my reading of criminal history I have not come across this particular story - so I tend to doubt it happened. But it was interesting in it's way, and Max Adrian gave a nice performance as the killer.
Briefly, the Marquis De La Roget has recently lost his wife to a sudden, fatal, and unexpected illness. There is no real reason for anyone to care, but the local Inspector (Guy De Vesal) is a little curious about this death. Still if there is nothing to base it on...
Well, the audience soon discovers that Adrian has been having an affair with his ambitious maid, Charlotte (Doris Dowling). She was the force pushing him to poison his wife, and her intention (of course) was to replace the wife. And it might have worked, except that Max Adrian has what seems to be a kind of conscience. He realizes he murdered his first wife, and although if he keeps quiet he and Charlotte can carry on without any problems, he keeps thinking about his great sin.
And he thinks about a peculiar stain on the wall. It only attracts his attention, but the stain (he is certain) looks odd. And each day it looks odder. Why, it looks like the dead woman. He's sure of it.
Charlotte is not too thrilled about this. If the Marquis says the wrong thing his is not the only neck that can end up under a guillotine blade. Soon she realizes that the Marquis is less and less a lover and more and more a grave danger (emphasis on grave).
SPOILER COMING UP: So Charlotte convinces the Marquis that he commit suicide, but leave her out of it. He agrees, leaving a note that he alone was responsible. She finds him ready to take the poison, but he is staring at that stain on the wall again. Very intently. "Don't you see it?", he asks..."Her face, when she died!" Charlotte, smugly smiling, turns to the wall and sees the face of the dead woman. She screams hideously several times.
And subsequently we see the Inspector with the Marquis. He is not dead, he has not drunk the poison. The sudden death of Charlotte (who has died of a heart attack from fright) leads the Marquis to call for the police. The Inspector asks why he confessed. Because of her image on the wall. The Inspector looks - and asks what image. The Marquis looks and is horrified to see only a vague stain on the wall again.
John Newland then comes out to explain that the Marquis died on the guillotine. Perhaps. Maybe, as Shakespeare wrote, conscience does make cowards of us all. For a relatively slight tale, Max Adrian made it a compelling story about an obsession. True story or not, did the Marquis actually see his murder victims's face?
Briefly, the Marquis De La Roget has recently lost his wife to a sudden, fatal, and unexpected illness. There is no real reason for anyone to care, but the local Inspector (Guy De Vesal) is a little curious about this death. Still if there is nothing to base it on...
Well, the audience soon discovers that Adrian has been having an affair with his ambitious maid, Charlotte (Doris Dowling). She was the force pushing him to poison his wife, and her intention (of course) was to replace the wife. And it might have worked, except that Max Adrian has what seems to be a kind of conscience. He realizes he murdered his first wife, and although if he keeps quiet he and Charlotte can carry on without any problems, he keeps thinking about his great sin.
And he thinks about a peculiar stain on the wall. It only attracts his attention, but the stain (he is certain) looks odd. And each day it looks odder. Why, it looks like the dead woman. He's sure of it.
Charlotte is not too thrilled about this. If the Marquis says the wrong thing his is not the only neck that can end up under a guillotine blade. Soon she realizes that the Marquis is less and less a lover and more and more a grave danger (emphasis on grave).
SPOILER COMING UP: So Charlotte convinces the Marquis that he commit suicide, but leave her out of it. He agrees, leaving a note that he alone was responsible. She finds him ready to take the poison, but he is staring at that stain on the wall again. Very intently. "Don't you see it?", he asks..."Her face, when she died!" Charlotte, smugly smiling, turns to the wall and sees the face of the dead woman. She screams hideously several times.
And subsequently we see the Inspector with the Marquis. He is not dead, he has not drunk the poison. The sudden death of Charlotte (who has died of a heart attack from fright) leads the Marquis to call for the police. The Inspector asks why he confessed. Because of her image on the wall. The Inspector looks - and asks what image. The Marquis looks and is horrified to see only a vague stain on the wall again.
John Newland then comes out to explain that the Marquis died on the guillotine. Perhaps. Maybe, as Shakespeare wrote, conscience does make cowards of us all. For a relatively slight tale, Max Adrian made it a compelling story about an obsession. True story or not, did the Marquis actually see his murder victims's face?
The Haunting face of guilty!!!!
elo-equipamentos7 October 2019
What a fabulous episode, an ambitious maid Charlotte poisoned her own Marquise whose supposedly should be care, actually she has been Marquis's lover for a long time, after Marquise's death, four months were enough for Charlotte's marriage, aftermath The Marquis wasn't too comfy with the fast happenings, the jealous Charlotte order removes of the large portrait painting of the hall of the late Marquise, after few days a strange picture appears on the wall, they tried removed by any means, however it' will increase every day becoming in a human face, more precisely the Marquise's face, the hosted John Newland suggest to the audience if someone are passing through, feel free to a take a look at this fancy Chateau to see this remarkable wall's picture which is just visible at brief period of time!!
Resume:
First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7
Resume:
First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7
Image of Death
Prismark1020 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Several months after the death of his wife. Marquis Jacques De La Roget has remarried, this time to Charlotte, a lowly servant girl.
Now with heirs and graces, she takes the French aristocracy by the scruff of the neck. First thing she does is to take down the picture of the Marquis's previous wife.
Soon a stain appears where the picture once stood that haunts the Marquis and later his wife. It shows the the face of an agonising death.
Of course the elderly Marquis and the young Charlotte were long time lovers who conspired to slowly poison the first wife.
Maybe this was her revenge from beyond the grave.
An effective suspense especially as others looking at it cannot make much out of the stain. I guess it was their guilt speaking.
Now with heirs and graces, she takes the French aristocracy by the scruff of the neck. First thing she does is to take down the picture of the Marquis's previous wife.
Soon a stain appears where the picture once stood that haunts the Marquis and later his wife. It shows the the face of an agonising death.
Of course the elderly Marquis and the young Charlotte were long time lovers who conspired to slowly poison the first wife.
Maybe this was her revenge from beyond the grave.
An effective suspense especially as others looking at it cannot make much out of the stain. I guess it was their guilt speaking.
Murdered first wife will not let her husband or the second wife who killed her have any peace
snicewanger24 August 2015
This is my favorite One Step Beyond episode.Doris Dowling could play ruthless, calculating, and sarcastic women perfectly and she was possessed of a cool and even cruel beauty that made her a natural for film noir roles.She portrays Charlotte, the nurse who poisons the first marquise for whom she was hired to care for. She desires the position of marquise and all the privilege that goes with it for herself but she holds her new husband in contempt and has no affection for him at all. Classically trained Max Adrian plays the weak willed marquis who is so dominated by Charlotte that he becomes her accomplice in the murder of his first wife.A police detective suspicious of the first wife's death, starts dogging the couple. The village priest who presided at the funeral and then married the pair is also convinced of their guilt.
Charlotte has a a portrait of the first wife removed from a prominent spot but a stain appears on the wall where it hung and seems to be growing into something much more eerie and vengeful. Could it be a physical manifestation of the marquis's guilt? Charlotte watches her husband become more and more unstable and erratic. When the marquis claims that the stain on the wall is actually becoming his dead wife's haunting image appearing to accuse and torment him, she believes him to have become insane and she decides to take action that keep him from making a public confession of the crime and will save her from imprisonment and perhaps even the guillotine.She doesn't reckon with meeting a justice from beyond the grave.
As with many of the One Step Beyond episode's, The Image of Death is a morality play condemning greed, betrayal, and murder. Whether or not this story actually happened in the way it was portrayed is not as important as the ideas that it expresses. In the end it is a very taught thirty minute ghost story that makes it's point with a few delightful chills.
Charlotte has a a portrait of the first wife removed from a prominent spot but a stain appears on the wall where it hung and seems to be growing into something much more eerie and vengeful. Could it be a physical manifestation of the marquis's guilt? Charlotte watches her husband become more and more unstable and erratic. When the marquis claims that the stain on the wall is actually becoming his dead wife's haunting image appearing to accuse and torment him, she believes him to have become insane and she decides to take action that keep him from making a public confession of the crime and will save her from imprisonment and perhaps even the guillotine.She doesn't reckon with meeting a justice from beyond the grave.
As with many of the One Step Beyond episode's, The Image of Death is a morality play condemning greed, betrayal, and murder. Whether or not this story actually happened in the way it was portrayed is not as important as the ideas that it expresses. In the end it is a very taught thirty minute ghost story that makes it's point with a few delightful chills.
Strongest acting, weakest plot
Goingbegging21 October 2021
In all the episodes of this series, you will find no more inspired performances than Max Adrian as the French Marquis and Doris Dowling as the servant-girl at the chateau, who has helped him murder his first wife, so that she can become his second.
By contrast, the plot is even weaker than usual, resting on a dubious device about the blank space where the dead wife's portrait used to hang, and a mysterious stain that keeps appearing and reappearing, to haunt the conscience of the Marquis, but apparently not his new bride.
This brisk operator carries total conviction as the determined social climber, no longer just Charlotte, but Madame la Marquise if you don't mind, making changes to the house in line with her new status. "Some of this furniture is rather old" - "Not old, my dear. Antique." We immediately detect an uncomfortable culture-clash, as well as a personality-clash between the odd couple.
As for Max Adrian, he brings a lifetime of classical training to the role, as well as something of his native Kilkenny, in Ireland's deep south, where the ghosts and the goblins have not quite disappeared. His emotive speech, confessing all to the priest, is thoroughly Irish, despite the French-accented English in which the lines are meant to be spoken.
At the mid-point of the episode, there is a formal party, where the Marquise is playing the grand hostess for the first time, but this is only referenced, not shown, which upsets the flow. Two other weaknesses in the production seem to be perennials, recognisable from several other episodes. Both characters are seen at the piano, clearly faking it, when this is a standard piece of theatrical business: conceal the hands and move the arms in rhythm. And your host John Newland talks about strange things happening on the anniversary of the murder, which spoils the effect of his usually quite plausible commentary.
By contrast, the plot is even weaker than usual, resting on a dubious device about the blank space where the dead wife's portrait used to hang, and a mysterious stain that keeps appearing and reappearing, to haunt the conscience of the Marquis, but apparently not his new bride.
This brisk operator carries total conviction as the determined social climber, no longer just Charlotte, but Madame la Marquise if you don't mind, making changes to the house in line with her new status. "Some of this furniture is rather old" - "Not old, my dear. Antique." We immediately detect an uncomfortable culture-clash, as well as a personality-clash between the odd couple.
As for Max Adrian, he brings a lifetime of classical training to the role, as well as something of his native Kilkenny, in Ireland's deep south, where the ghosts and the goblins have not quite disappeared. His emotive speech, confessing all to the priest, is thoroughly Irish, despite the French-accented English in which the lines are meant to be spoken.
At the mid-point of the episode, there is a formal party, where the Marquise is playing the grand hostess for the first time, but this is only referenced, not shown, which upsets the flow. Two other weaknesses in the production seem to be perennials, recognisable from several other episodes. Both characters are seen at the piano, clearly faking it, when this is a standard piece of theatrical business: conceal the hands and move the arms in rhythm. And your host John Newland talks about strange things happening on the anniversary of the murder, which spoils the effect of his usually quite plausible commentary.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
