Jean Redon was a French writer, screenwriter, and press agent for the French office of Warner Bros. He is best known for his 1959 novel Les Yeux sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face), which was adapted as a film in 1960 by Georges Franju.

Works +In FilmYearTitleCreditNotes1952A Dog in the BluesScreenplay, DialogueShort film directed by Marcel Aboulker1956Fernand Cow-boyWriter1957Immediate ActionDialogue1957Like a Hair in the SoupScenario, Adaptation, Dialogue1958Back to the WallAdaptation1959The Beast is UnleashedWriter1959The Tiger AttacksScenario, Dialogue1960Eyes Without a FaceNovel, AdaptationBased on his 1959 novel of the same name.1962Conduite à gaucheScreenplay +In LiteratureTitleYearVersionNotesLes Yeux sans Visage (Français) / Eyes Without a Face (English)19591st Edition (Flueve Noir Angoisse)Comics Pocket published a comic adaptation in December 1979, and later a paperback edition was published by Fleuve Noir on April 1, 1989, but no translations or further reprints have been made.December 1979Comic Adaptation (Comics Pocket)April 1, 19892nd Edition (Flueve Noir Polar 50)

Personal life Jean Redon kept his family and personal life very private. Not much is known about him other than his transition from journalism to working in French cinema.Tatara, Paul; Stafford, Jeff. “Eyes Without a Face.” TCM Movie Database, Turner Classic Movies. He died on December 26, 1984.

Eyes Without a Face Jean Redon's most notable work is his 1959 novel, Les Yeux sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face), which was the source material for the landmark 1960 French horror film of the same name directed by Georges Franju. The plot follows a plastic surgeon, Dr. Génessier, who kidnaps and murders young girls for their face, which he attempts to surgically transplant onto his daughter's disfigured face after a car crash.

Redon's novel was first published in 1959 by Fleuve Noir as part of their "Angoisse" collection, which specialized in fantasy and horror. The novel was Pulp fiction, meaning it was cheaply printed and wasn't meant to stay in print for long. The novel received the publication of a comic strip adaptation, Hallucinations No. 54, in the "Comics Pocket" collection in 1975.

A paperback edition was reissued in April 1989 by Flueve Noir, in the Polar 50 Collection under No. 18, featuring a front cover illustrated by Michel Gourdon. No translations or further reprints have been made, making the different versions a rare find available only through private collections or sales.Shulgasser, Barbara (1996). “Classic chiller reissued: ‘Eyes Without a Face’.” San Francisco Examiner.

Possible pen name The back cover of Redon's novel features a highly laudatory blurb by the prolific French author Frédéric Dard, which reads:

This created speculation about whether or not Dard had ghost-written or wrote it under Redon's name, which he had done before, congratulating himself on previous works like En même défense, published under the pseudonym André Berthomieu, and again for 4:30 chez Belzébuth, published under the name Marcel-G. Prêtre.

Content Changes Georges Franju reportedly found the original novel "too dumb for words," describing it as a pulpy narrative where the doctor was a drunkard, and his assistant a necrophiliac who raped corpses. To elevate the story, the film's producers brought in the renowned writing team Boileau-Narcejac to rewrite the script, making drastic changes, adding psychological depth, and removing the more "controversial" elements present in the original.

The film's US Release on March 28, 1962 was edited and dubbed into English, and retitled The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, despite not having any character of that name. The edit was marketed as an exploitation film as part of a double bill alongside the monster flick The Manster, removing scenes showing Doctor Génessier in a more sympathetic light, as well as parts of violent scenes."The Manster". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Los Angeles, California: American Film Institute. Retrieved November 9, 2016.

Legacy The film adaptation of Redon's novel influenced modern horror and gothic cinema, as well as inspiring John Carpenter for his 1978 horror film Halloween; a 1984 single by Billy Idol, who described in his memoir that he had been fascinated with old black and white horror films, one being Eyes Without a Face, in which he saw some parallel between the film and the moral decay he had experienced living in New York City in the 1980s; and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In (2011), which follows a similar plot of a plastic surgeon and a woman he performs operations on.

Sources

Ashby, Justine; Higson, Andrew (2000). British Cinema: Past and Present. Routledge. Ince, Kate (2005). Georges Franju. Manchester University Press. Idol, Billy (2014). Dancing with Myself. New York: Touchstone. .

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