A Woman's Face

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.

Joan Crawford has one of her more complex roles and plays it brilliantly in 'A Woman's Face'. It ranks with her work in 'Mildred Pierce' and 'Possessed'. Matching her is Conrad Veidt, always the suave villain (who also specialized in playing Nazi types). Crawford excels as a scarred woman who undergoes plastic surgery to change her life. The situations become more melodramatic as the plot gets thicker and there are a few too many flashbacks--but overall, the effect is a stunning film that makes you think about how one's appearance shapes one's life--for better or worse.

Certain sequences have a stark, no holds barred manner of storytelling, grim and suspenseful--as when Anna Holm considers pushing a child to his death from a cable car. The wintry landscapes and glittering interiors are all handsomely photographed. Melvyn Douglas doesn't register too strongly at all. It's strictly Crawford's picture with some superb help from Conrad Veidt.

The pace is rather leisurely under George Cukor's direction but quickens midway to a smashing climax. By all means, see it. A strong melodrama with some unexpected twists.

This is a shaded Crawford performance, showing her dramatic range better than most. As the conflicted Anna, she goes through a number of emotional changes in subtle fashion. Defaced by a facial scar, Anna strikes back at the world by heading up a blackmail ring. Then, by chance, she meets up with cosmetic surgeon Dr, Segert (Douglas), who restores her underlying beauty. Too bad he's married.

With the operation, Anna can now lead a normal life, except her cruel boyfriend Torsten (Veidt) has a hold on her, and dispatches Anna to kill his toddler nephew who stands to inherit the fortune Torsten would otherwise inherit. So what's she going to do now that she has a chance to lead a normal life. Will Torsten's hold cause a relapse into her former criminal life.

The sleigh chase and roaring cataract below may be the most exciting sequence in any of Joan's many dramatic films. It's certainly the high point here. Douglas and Veidt are excellent in their roles; however, Massen's over the top as Douglas's unfaithful wife. On the whole, the MGM production is excellent, especially the ballroom scenes. However, some of the outdoor process shots and miniatures are sometimes apparent. Director Cukor's a little out of his usual sophisticated element, but keeps things moving seamlessly.

Too bad the film has drifted around in the Crawford canon because it's one of Joan's best, both for her and for the audience.

Thanks to "A Woman's Face," Joan Crawford's slumped career had a badly needed revival, and Greta Garbo's career ended. Garbo had a choice of "A Woman's Face" or "Two-Faced Woman," but she refused to play a character with a deformity. So she made the disastrous "Two-Faced Woman" instead and retired, her face free of scars and her life free of films.

Ingrid Bergman made the original movie in Sweden, and in the hands of MGM, it translated quite well with a superb performance from Joan Crawford, perhaps the best of her career, as a scarred, bitter woman who makes her living from blackmail. Her story is told in a series of flashbacks, as each character testifies at the woman's trial.

The performances, from MGM's able stable, are very good - Melvyn Douglas as a doctor, Conrad Veidt as an evil man who wants to use Crawford for his own ends (he described himself in this film as "Lucifer in a tuxedo"), Osa Massen, Albert Basserman, Donald Meek, Henry Daniell, George Zucco, and Marjorie Main. Richard Nichols, as the little boy Lars-Erik, sports the same southern accent in Sweden as he did in France in "All This and Heaven, Too."

Crawford is excellent, and one wonders if the role of Anna didn't strike a chord with her given her difficult childhood. Under Cukor's direction, she handles the role beautifully.

A very good movie, and an exciting sleigh ride at the end that you won't want to miss.

The fact that Joan Crawford failed to win an Oscar nomination for her magnificent performance in this film is a travesty! Her talents as an actress were never more evident in her portrayal of a bitter woman who hates the world because of her disfigurement.