bkoganbing
Joan Crawford got a plum role in A Woman's Face and George Cukor got a very good performance out of her. Especially when you consider this role was originally intended for Greta Garbo. If Garbo had done it this film would have ranked among her best.A Woman's Face casts Crawford as the scarred and cynical leader of a gang of blackmailers and thieves who use a roadhouse cafe that she owns as the place to lure rich suckers and trim them. She was scarred shortly after her birth and on her right side looks like Gloria Grahame after Lee Marvin scalded her in The Big Heat. Among a crowd she has one night are plastic surgeon Melvyn Douglas and no account count Conrad Veidt. Douglas is interested in her professionally, thinking he can work his plastic surgical magic. The problem is that people scorning her all her life has given Crawford a really cynical and rotten outlook on the human race.That outlook however is just what Veidt wants. He wants to rope her into a plan to kill his young nephew so that he inherits the vast estate. On his recommendation Crawford is sent to Uncle Albert Basserman's estate to be Richard Nichols's governess. The better to gain access to the kid.Still Crawford sees a chance for a new life and she's conflicted.Considering this role looks tailor made for Garbo, Crawford delivers a very good performance running the gamut of emotions on screen. I also have to say that Veidt was one cunning devil of a villain. His scene with Crawford where he declares what he intends to do with the money from the estate is both chilling and timely for 1941. Definitely one of Veidt's best English language performances.This one is a must for Joan Crawford fans.
Hot 888 Mama
. . . then A WOMAN'S FACE argues that a woman is "made" by her face. When orphaned, Anna Holm's face is badly scarred by burns. The grown-up Anna is a heartless Sociopathic racketeer. As soon as a pioneering plastic surgeon slaps Joan Crawford's looks on BOTH sides of Anna's visage, she quickly transforms into super-governess Ingrid Paulson, gun-wielding protector of endangered young boys. This is one of Crawford's better film efforts. You can almost swear that you are watching Ingrid Bergman from time to time (not so shocking, when you know this is a remake of a Bergman picture which Crawford no doubt viewed before reprising Ingrid's role). The plot of A WOMAN'S FACE has about as many twists as that of THE MALTESE FALCON, and tough Scandanavian bad girl-turned-Crimefighter Anna seems somewhat of a beta version for THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. There are no "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" during her climactic Christmas-time sleigh ride: she opens fire more like Annie Oakley. The earlier cable car scene is something Hitchcock should have envied. Telling this story in courtroom flashbacks totally works like source material for ROSHOMON, as Anna feeds her face with just desserts.
mark.waltz
Exterior or interior, how is a woman's beauty judged? For Joan Crawford in "A Woman's Face", she knows that her scars make her ugly, so like Boris Karloff in 1935's "The Raven", ugliness makes her do ugly things. The evil Conrad Veidt discovers this and plots to utilize her for his own evil gains. She uses the facade of running a country inn for her pick-pocketing and blackmail ring, and while confronting one of her victims (Osa Massen), gets the opportunity to rid herself of the scars on her face. Melvyn Douglas as Massen's surgeon husband arranges to perform plastic surgery on Crawford, but realizes all he is creating is a gorgeous monster, something worse than Frankenstein's monster, a woman with no heart. But the moment she is out in public, Crawford's bitterness slowly begins to dwindle, as evidenced by a child smiling at her after she instinctively tries to hide her face.Giving her greatest performance while at MGM, Crawford is not a creature of the night, nor is she the view of what a woman should have been at that time. But she is still a monster. What will change her? That is what this melodrama is about, seen through the eyes of the various people who must testify for or against her when she is put on trial for Veidt's murder. While views of what beauty is has changed, this is still an excellent film, a psychological portrayal of a woman filled with self-hatred that turns to evil deeds as a way of survival, and found it difficult to escape from that self-hatred when her physical looks were restored to her."You're too pretty to be mean", her ward says when she is hired as his nanny. Crawford melts only briefly at this comment, sent to be the governess as part of an evil scheme arranged by Veidt, uncle of the adorable child. Each of the people testifying have a reason for hating her, and in some ways, they were justified in their dislike of her. Her old gang members (Donald Meek, Reginald Owen, Connie Gilchrist), co-workers at the estate where she works as a governess (Marjorie Main), and most venomously, the whiny Ona Massen, whom Crawford discovered love letters for from a man not her husband. When Massen started whining in her pathetic efforts to make husband Melvyn Douglas feel sorry for her, I wanted to whack her over and over just like Crawford did. Main's dour housekeeper isn't quite a Mrs. Danvers ("Rebecca") type, but she's still cold none the less, and Main gives a brilliant performance. As much as I like Connie Gilchrist, I had a hard time with her obviously American dialect in this Eastern European set role.As for Conrad Veidt, his performance is filled with innuendos that border on the occult. He openly talks about working for Satan and how great things come to people who do great evil. That is very chilling considering what was going on in Europe at the time as well as the fact that Veidt had defected from his native Germany to escape Hitler's regime. It makes his performance all the more frightening. There are some great photographic moments, particularly a carriage chase and a scene on a mountain tram. Under the hands of George Cukor, this film (based upon a Swedish film that starred Ingrid Bergman) is a must see, whether you are a Crawford fan or not.
edwagreen
Marjorie Main was quite a gal in her day. She really had the ability to move freely from comedy to tragedy. This film is no exception.The only thing questionable here is that the plot is extremely overdone. A disfigured woman has a road house where she and the others rip off people. She breaks into the home of a surgeon whose wife has been totally unfaithful to him. She also meets up with Conrad Veidt who wants his uncle's 4 year old grandson dead so that he can inherit the old man's money.This goes on and on, but Joan Crawford, as the maimed woman, pulls it off in typical Crawford fashion.The film was a remake of a movie made by Ingrid Bergman in Sweden 3 years before. The Crawford version takes place there as well.With a Hitchcock like middle and ending, the film is definitely worthwhile to view.Note the presence of Albert Basserman and Conrad Veidt in the film. They were both forced out of Nazi Germany as was the case with many other European stars during this period.
