Lizzie

My unpublished review was written in 1973 while I was studying the films of Hugo Haas, presented here in shortened form.

Of all the films he has directed, "Lizzie" is Hugo Haas's most Hollywood establishment-oriented, in that he was not writing and producing (thus reducing his usually clearly defined auteur status) and he was working with a star cast. Thus, "Lizzie" serves as a convenient "control" against which his more personal films can be judged.

Camera set-ups, compositions, camera movements, use of sets and decor, and direction of actors all reveal Hugo Haas's style, although the film's "3 Faces of Eve" , Shirley Jackson-novelized material is really only tangential to the mainstream of Haas's melodramatic conception. His natural talent for pouring on the sleaziness is kept within bounds here, for he is making a B- rather than a Z-budgeted film. Itis interesting to compare the film with Paul Newman's "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" (far inferior to Haas' modest effort), which stars an overacting Joanne Woodward a la her "3 Faces of Eve", but relies on simplicity of style and kitchen-sink sleaziness of which Haas is the master.

The first elaborate dolly shots and swivels in the Natural History Museum which open the film are clear indications of Haas' inspiration. They economically for some set-up a cold, dead milieu sans overstatement in addition to establishing the groundwork for some memorable nightmare fantasy shots later in the film. The lack of showy variety in the stagings reflects a limited budget. All the action takes place in: museum exhibit area, Eleanor Parker's office there, Joan Blondell's house, outside in the yard with neighbor Haas, a low-life bar, the roof of the museum, and flashbacks at the beach. Haas's exploitation of these stagings is magnificent, with the additional staging of Richard Boone's office taking a lion's share of screen time.

Eleanor Parker's tour-de-force as Elizabeth/Lizzie/Beth is of special note because it combines her own well-demonstrated acting range a la "Caged", while indicating the overlay of Haas's heightened intensity style. It proves the sad fact that Haas's own films as quadruple-threat man would have been more successful if he could have afforded top actresses instead of borderline amateurs like Cleo Moore and Beverly Michaels. Haas's understanding of cinematic problems is well demonstrated as he definitively contrasts Eleanor's personality with her makeup. Thus, after the requisite establishing scenes, Haas has a scene of Lizzie in Elizabeth's makeup "coming out", and a climactically powerful scene of Elzabeth seeing herself in the mirror as the gaish, uninhibited-looking Lizzie. His use of the 3-sided mirror is made memorable by Haas's complete elimination of distraction -there are no other objects or interesting bits of detailing save the four images of Eleanor in this medium shot in her bedroom.

It's interesting that The Three Faces of Eve (1957) and Lizzie (1957) were made the same year. Both of them introduce the subject of a woman with Multiple Personality Disorder. Although the story of Eve White--for which Joanne Woodward won a Best Actress Oscar--was based on a real-life woman, it would be hard to say that that movie was really any better than this one reviewed here, based on Shirley Jackson's novel, "The Bird's Nest."

Lizzie (1957) is the story of the mousy Elizabeth Richmond (Eleanor Parker) who lives with her constantly drunk aunt, Morgan James (Joan Blondell) and works as a secretary in a museum. Elizabeth seems to have no real social life and only one real true friend at work, Ruth Seaton (Marion Ross, who later played Ron Howard's mother on TV's Happy Days). Elizabeth is serious and scholarly but has no real self confidence during her daytime job, in spite of encouragement from her friend and co-worker, Ruth. She finds anonymous scribbled out death threats, in her purse or on her desk. These slips of paper, are always signed-- Lizzie. When she shows them to Ruth, Ruth just tells her they are not serious and should be forgotten.

When Elizabeth comes home each night, she is greeted by her lovable, but always soused, Aunt Morgan. Elizabeth goes to her room and transforms herself into a cheap-looking, but beautiful and seductive, alter ego. She becomes "Lizzie" and goes to a bar to beguile men into buying her drinks. (Johnny Mathis makes his first movie appearance, here, as the singer at the piano bar.) When Elizabeth awakes the next morning, she has strange unexplained headaches. At times her aunt notices that her gin bottles have been finished off by someone other than herself, but who can it be but Elizabeth? When Morgan confronts Elizabeth about this, she honestly has no memory or knowledge of drinking any alcohol.

Morgan and Elizabeth have an understanding neighbor, Walter (Hugo Hass--the movie's director), who works at home as a writer. When Morgan confronts Walter about Elizabeth, he suggests that she see a doctor. He knows a good doctor, Dr. Wright (Richard Boone), who he uses from time to time when he has writer's block.

Elizabeth finally goes to see Dr. Wright, complaining of headaches and troubled sleeping. He tells her that he would like to put her into deep hypnosis to explore her childhood background. During a series of sessions, Dr. Wright discovers that Elizabeth has two more personalities--Beth and Lizzie. However, to fully understand the "whys" of Elizabeth three personalities, he goes to her house on her birthday. Something had happened to her on her 13th birthday. But, what was it and how could it have caused her Multiple Personality Disorder?

As with The Three Faces of Eve (1957), the strong central personality, Beth, must understand the other two personalities in order to let go of them and become the one integrated person.

Lizzie is a magnificent study of multiple personality disorder, a far superior film to The Three Faces of Eve, which won the Acadamy Award that year. Eleanor Parker makes all her transformations between Lizzie's characters on screen, a far more challenging task that disappearing off camera as Joanne Woodward did! Her portrayal is subtle and wonderful. I highly recommend this movie.

1957 was apparently a year for muliptle personalities. Joanne Woodward got her Oscar for The Three Faces Of Eve and Eleanor Parker came out with this film Lizzie.

With the acclaim that Woodward's film got which made her a star, Lizzie seems to be lost in the shuffle. That's a pity because Parker's performance is noteworthy and may have been Oscar worthy.

The similarities between the films are really astonishing. Parker is a woman with three recognizable personalities, a mousy good girl, a tramp who writes nasty letters to her other selves and a relatively normal type. Both go through some therapy with a psychiatrist in this film Richard Boone to find a cure. As is usual with films on mental illness the cure is way too simplistic. But the moviegoing public wants easy answers to life's problems. It's why they go to the cinema.

Also note a good performance by Joan Blondell as Lizzie's frowsy drunk of an aunt whom she lives with

Lizzie is wortthwhile viewing.

I've seen this movie twice and it helped to make an Eleanor Parker fan out of me. The acting is a little over the top but in my opinion Parker was one of the best and most underated actresses of her time.

I never knew about Lizzie until a few years ago, but had seen The Three Faces of Eve several times. I want to respectfully correct my favorite reviewer here (we seem to have the same taste in movies and TV shows) on comments in his Sept 2021 review. In addition to seeing The Three Faces of Eve I've read "Eve's" (Chris Costner Sizemore) book several times and just finished it again. I'm from the DC area and actually worked at a hospital where Sizemore's doctor practiced. Her story was most DEFINITELY never refuted. Her books I'm Eve and A Mind of My Own are excellent and she did indeed have MPD, cured by Dr Tsitos. I think the reviewer is thinking of the patient behind Sybil, who HAS admitted that she faked MPD to please her therapist.

I do recommend both Lizzie and The Three Faces of Eve as well acted and fascinating moviews.