The Many Faces of ‘Eve’ & ‘Lizzie’ 1957

"The Three Faces of Eve" & "Lizzie," that respectively starred Joanne Woodward &
 Eleanor Parker, were both 1957 films that depicted the topic of multiple personalities.

Hollywood had competing films about title characters with three conflicting personalities, both released in 1957. Very specific coincidences, right?! The Three Faces of Eve showcased rising star Joanne Woodward; Lizzie starred film veteran Eleanor Parker. The movies were made on small budgets, returned modest profits, and its stars were praised—with Woodward winning a Best Actress Oscar.

Of course, the studios promoted the more sensational aspects of their subjects
in 1957's  "The Three Faces of Eve" & "Lizzie."

Their Situations

The Three Faces of Eve was based on a true story, with Joanne Woodward as Eve White, Eve Black, and Jane. The first personality is a meek young housewife with a young child. Her behavior has become increasingly erratic, at one point endangering her little girl. It's not long before her doc meets Eve Black, a raucous gal who comes out occasionally to find fun and create chaos. Jane comes on later in the movie as the even-keeled personality, who is the best bet to take over this woman's body. David Wayne is her exasperated husband Ralph; Lee J. Cobb is the sympathetic, but no-nonsense Doctor Luthor.

In 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve," Lee J. Cobb is the psychiatrist,
Joanne Woodward the title character, and David Wayne her bewildered husband.

In Lizzie, Eleanor Parker plays a young woman, Elizabeth, who lives with her drunken Aunt Morgan (Joan Blondell) and works at a museum. Her character is plagued with headaches and insecurities, making her a co-worker to avoid. Her aunt is mostly oblivious to her but does notice her escalating odd behavior. Lizzie’s director, Hugo Haas, also plays the writer neighbor, Walter, who encourages alcoholic auntie to get her niece to kindly doctor Dr. Wright, played by Richard Boone. Once Doc has Elizabeth under hypnosis, he meets her alter ego, Lizzie. She is a vicious character, a female Mr. Hyde. Later in the movie, the doc discovers a third personality, Beth, who is balanced and normal.

In 1957's "Lizzie," Eleanor Parker is the title character with three personalities.
Joan Blondell is the aunt with an overbearing personality!

Their Stories

In The Three Faces of Eve, Eve White is hospitalized for treatment. While the symptoms are identified with her varying personalities, the doctors can not figure out what sets them off. Once home, Eve isn’t getting better. It doesn’t help that husband Ralph wants to drag Eve to another state. And the more Eve Black comes out, it’s more than the reactionary husband can handle. Once he leaves her, this leads Eve back to Dr. Luthor.

David Wayne's Ralph has an obedient wife in Eve, but not when she's Eve Black! Joanne Woodward plays three personalities in 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve."

Lizzie’s Aunt Morgan isn’t a deep thinker, but when auntie's bourbon bottles empty ever faster, her antennae go up. The writer neighbor notices and for some reason is empathetic to the harridan aunt. Yet, he urges her to be more patient to the niece. It all comes to a head when the woman's work life and her erratic nightlife collide. You see, there are nights when mousy Elizabeth is left behind and hellcat Lizzie springs out. She hangs out at local nightclubs on the prowl and one evening meets up with her office place Romeo.

Joan Blondell's Aunt Morgan knows where Eleanor Parker's "Lizzie" finds
the booze AND the boys! "Elizabeth" only gets the hangover! 

The Actors

The Three Faces of Eve got a lone Oscar nomination and win for Joanne Woodward; Lizzie received no nominations.

Joanne Woodward is excellent in all three roles in The Three Faces of Eve. Eve White is totally repressed, a type of role Woodward played well. Joanne played a more raucous sort like Eve Black as the beatnik in The Fugitive Kind. And the later personality to emerge is Jane, the most complete personality to emerge, that Joanne plays with great empathy. Woodward, an Actor's Studio product, is quite natural without going over the top, like Geraldine Page or Kim Stanley would have probably done.

Joanne Woodward as Eve Black comes on to a male nurse like Blanche Dubois
 chatting up the paper boy in 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve."

In Lizzie, Eleanor Parker's performance is quietly effective as the repressed Elizabeth and the serene Beth. Though flatteringly photographed, Parker is quite toned down from her studio era glamour, and is very expressive in Elizabeth’s anguish and Beth’s calm. However, as wildcat Lizzie, Parker goes big, either of her own volition or Haas’ direction. Either way, Eleanor as Lizzie is way over the top. From the way she makes herself up like a clown or vamps around the cocktail bar like Sadie Thompson, it’s funny, not fierce. Also, Elizabeth is 25 going on 26; Eleanor was a lovely 35. Very typical in its movie age math—thankfully, Parker can pass as a decade younger.

Eleanor Parker suffers in chenille as tormented Elizabeth in 1957's "Lizzie."

Lee J. Cobb is more three-dimensional as Eve’s Doctor Luthor than super-kind Richard Boone in Lizzie. David Wayne as Ralph is most realistic as the confused small town spouse of Eve White. 

Joan Blondell's acting as the alcoholic aunt in "Lizzie" is about as subtle as her hat!

Joan Blondell’s performance as the alcoholic aunt in Lizzie is about as subtle as slugging down a bottle of bourbon. Joan gave a handful of memorable dramatic performances in her career and should have been given more opportunities. But Blondell is a complete caricature here—partly the way the character is written, as well as performed. My guess is that came from director Hugo Haas, who made a number of dime store melodramas that were hilariously unsubtle. Blondell’s boozing and barking in her bathrobe gives off a Baby Jane Hudson vibe!

Joan Blondell w/ director Hugo Haas, who plays a kindly neighbor in 1957's "Lizzie."

The Films

Eve White has a traumatic childhood incident that’s subtly recalled. In Lizzie, Elizabeth recalls a vile incident on her birthday, not subtle at all, but still powerful. Both characters find resolution in facing their pasts. The Three Faces of Eve was written by doctors Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley, who treated the real Eve. Lizzie was a novel written by Shirley Jackson (The Lottery). 

The book versions of "The Three Faces of Eve" & "Lizzie."

Nunnally Johnson was more famed as a screenwriter than as director, but his intelligence was always a plus, and it shows in the sensitivity of The Three Faces of Eve. Hugo Haas, on the other hand, seemed to dwell on sensationalism in his B-movies. There is a lurid quality to Lizzie that screams Hugo Haas, especially with Joan Blondell’s role and Parker’s performance as the lowdown Lizzie.

Tears Mixed With Humor

The leavening humor in The Three Faces of Eve is in the small town world of the husband and doctors, faced with this strange woman, who’s a timid mouse one moment and then a purring cat on the prowl. There are some smiles with the perplexed classic '50s husband that can’t reconcile the two extreme behaviors of his wife. Eve Black reminded me of a cross between Shirley MacLaine's good-hearted bimbo in '58s Some Came Running and Lee Remick's good-humored trailer tart in Anatomy of a Murder in '59. 

In Lizzie, the humor is unintended camp. The intentional “comic relief” between the aunt and niece, and aunt and neighbor are heavy-handed to the point of hilarity. Lizzie and Aunt Morgan's domestic life reminded me of the dramatized story of Frances Farmer’s life with mother or the Hudson sisters without the wheelchair. I love it when meek Elizabeth walks upstairs to get away from boozing Blondell and randomly barks out an insult as Lizzie, worthy of Kathleen Turner's Serial Mom asking her neighbor if she likes pussy willows!

Lizzie getting herself up to go out reminds me of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest. She meets the sexy janitor in the bar, who has switched out from his work white tee-shirt for evening wear black tee-shirt with jacket, anticipating the Miami Vice look by 30 years. As Lizzie finds the booze and the boys, Aunt Morgan seems more concerned where the booze is going than what's going on with Elizabeth.

Eleanor Parker getting dolled up as "Lizzie" gives me a Faye Dunaway vibe as
 "Mommie Dearest!"

Near the showdown between the two women, Blondell’s aunt snaps, “You look like a slut!”

Parker’s Lizzie gives a Patty Duke/Neely O’Hara snarling delivery, “Drop dead, Auntie, drop dead!”

Future TV Stars

In The Three Faces of Eve, Vince Edwards aka Ben Casey, plays the horny young soldier who wants his due with Eve Black—after all, he spent 8 dollars on her! Near the end of the film, Nancy Culp of The Beverly Hillbillies appears in a flashback as Eve’s mother. In Lizzie, Marion Ross of Happy Days plays a kind co-worker of Parker’s lonely Elizabeth.

Vince Edwards plays a soldier who expects Eve Black to put out in
1957's "The Three Faces of Eve.

Needless Guest Appearances

Alastair Cook's introduction and narration in The Three Faces of Eve is highly unnecessary. It feels very condescending, as if he's a professor lecturing students about a very serious subject! With Lizzie, there is a very distracting piano bar player/singer named Johnny Mathis. He sings two tunes; one is his big hit, It’s Not for Me to Say. At least it wasn’t wailing Johnny Ray! All the while, Parker’s personality-plus Lizzie is working the joint with her hoochie mama antics.

Final Analysis

The Three Faces of Eve and Lizzie have very similar stories, likewise the female characters’ multiple personalities. The difference is in tone. The Three Faces of Eve plays like a pseudo-documentary mixed with a William Inge slice of life drama. Lizzie comes across like a campy “woman’s picture,” to use an old Hollywood term. Here, with the two women at odds in their dreary home, “suffering in chenille” might be more apt!

Why Cinemascope? To fit all those personalities?

"Lizzie" & "The Three Faces of Eve," both from 1957.

By today’s standards, both are very simplistic in the telling of multiple personalities. The one thing Eve and Lizzie have in common is strong lead performances by its stars, Joanne Woodward and Eleanor Parker. Both are worth a look, if only for the attitudes of the era on this controversial subject.

"Jane" is the most balanced personality played by Joanne Woodward in
1957's "The Three Faces of Eve."

"Beth" is the winning personality between meek "Elizabeth" & monstrous "Lizzie."
Eleanor Parker played the triple role.

Bonus Material

Here’s my look at when Joanne Woodward teamed with husband Paul Newman for the first time, 1958’s The Long, Hot Summer: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-long-hot-summer-long-but-not-so-hot.html

My take on one of Eleanor Parker’s best performances, from 1950 as “cute little trick” who is Caged: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2019/02/caged-never-classic-but-still-packs.html

Joanne Woodward as tarted up Eve Black in 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve."

Eleanor Parker goes big as demented "Lizzie."

Robert Wagner’s Killer Charm: ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ 1956

Joanne Woodward falls for Robert Wagner in a BIG way in 'A Kiss Before Dying!'

Ira Levin’s first novel, A Kiss Before Dying, boldly had a charismatic but killer sociopath as its protagonist. Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, got Kiss published in 1953, a year and half before The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith’s classic charming villain. Boyishly handsome, clever, devious, and desperate in his desire to join ranks of the rich, Levin’s Bud Corliss and Highsmith’s Tom Ripley are practically twins.

Mom had A Kiss Before Dying recorded and we watched out of curiosity, because as a teen, she worked at Manistique’s Oak Theater when this 1956 version came out. This was the first time for me, plus I never saw the ’91 remake.

*A slew of spoilers ahead, needed to write about Kiss’ story and characters.

Love how Wagner's Bud comforts Woodward's pregnant Dorie with cigarettes!

Kiss gets right down to it: Wagner’s Bud consoles girl friend ‘Dorie,’ Dorothy Kingsmith, who just found out she’s pregnant. Bud seems solicitous, but unduly concerned as to who knows. The situation of the upwardly mobile boy and the hapless, pregnant girl is reminiscent of A Place in the Sun, which came out five years prior to Kiss. The difference here is that the girl is not poor, but from a wealthy family. Bud wants to marry into money, but knows that her stern father is all about propriety. Bud wants his entrée into the Kingsmith clan to be smooth.

Bud's reaction when he sees Dorie walk into class the next day, after giving her special 'vitamins' to take!

So, instead of offering to pay for an abortion, Bud decides to kill Dorie. First, Bud decides to poison her and goes to great lengths to procure the chemicals, and tries to pass it off as vitamins for the mother-to-be. Then, after tricking her into writing what could pass as a suicide note, he mails it—but Dorie decides not to take Bud’s little helper. Since he’s already sent the letter—he then proposes to her—when he sees that the municipal building is very tall, with a handy roof. Inspiration from desperation! Bud deliberately times their trip during the lunch hour, and then suggests they check out the view while they wait…

Bud wants Dorie to do her imitation of 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof!" 

After Bud dispatches with Dorie, he moves on to her sister, Ellen. From here, the movie loses momentum, as it becomes a matter of Bud constantly trying to cover his tracks. Also, Joanne Woodward gives the film’s only performance as someone who resembles a real person. Otherwise, the film is a cast of cardboard cutouts: Jeffrey Hunter, as an assistant college professor who just happens to work part time for his chief of police uncle. You can tell that Hunter’s character is smart because he wears thick glasses and smokes a pipe! With his dark, slicked back hair and black horn rims, Hunter’s Gordon Grant reminds me of Clark Kent. And Hunter works the horn rims and pipe like a community theater newcomer clinging to his props. Fox starlet Virginia Leith gives a robotic ‘50s starlet performance as the second sister.

Doesn't Jeffrey Hunter look smart with his horn rims and pipe, solving murder mysteries?

George Macready, who will always be Gilda’s suavely sinister husband, has little to do except offer rote reactions. The same goes for Mary Astor as Bud’s working class, doting mother. Mary and Joanne’s characters sport two-fer poodle cuts, a trend Joan Crawford once noted only looked good on teenage girls and real poodles, but Mary’s hair has been dyed Lucy Ricardo red, to boot!

Mary Astor, as Robert Wagner's mother, refuses to open her eyes until her hair grows out!

The redeeming character is Dorie, played by Joanne Woodward. If you can get past her hideous curls, Joanne’s rich girl is gentle and almost child-like. Dorie seems far too trusting of Bud’s line of bull, but Woodward’s character is empathetic and likeable. Still, Dorie almost seems like a cartoon doormat, with Bud tricking her into all kinds of traps that seem obvious. One that he doesn’t plan is when she takes a header down the sports bleachers and comes up smiling! Joanne’s natural, modern acting style is a sign of cinema things to come, compared to Virginia Leith’s studio charm school of acting.

Joanne Woodward as Dorie, pregnant and with a poodle cut!

Joanne kept reminding me of "Christina Crawford!"

It’s also fascinating to watch Robert Wagner at his heartthrob peak, melding his smooth, slightly smarmy style with the play-acting psycho, Bud Corliss. Robert Wagner was one of those ‘50s actors who really didn’t progress beyond his heart throb build up. By the ‘60s, the feature film parts became few and far between. Like fellow film lightweights George Hamilton and Roger Moore, television saved the day, with TV series or appearances that allowed the former pretty boys to maintain their maturely handsome looks, while lightly spoofing their image. For Wagner, it was first with It Takes a Thief, and later Hart to Hart.

Joanne Woodward as the slightly air-headed heiress and Robert Wagner as the cool killer.

As Bud Corliss, Wagner’s shortcomings as an actor actually work in favor of his character. Bud oozes charm and always has a corny line for the woman in his life. Wagner’s cultivated voice always sounded slightly phony, mocked hilariously by RJ’s own mini-me, Rob Lowe, in the Austin Powers movies. RJ’s studio-taught mannerisms all make his sociopath pretender especially believable. While Kiss is a far-fetched noir drama, but compare Wagner’s Bud to Monty Clift’s climber in A Place in the Sun, and the difference in the talent level is obvious. Wagner was not an accomplished dramatic actor, but a studio star that got by on good looks and charm, for awhile—just like Bud Corliss. Lucky for Wagner that TV success was down the road.

Here's a candid of very young and handsome Robert Wagner, without the greasy kid's stuff.

Though Bud’s military service is noted, it’s a shame that the film version of A Kiss Before Dying doesn’t recreate the novel’s defining incident with a Japanese soldier, which shows Bud’s thrill of power over someone. This explained how Bud became a ruthless killer.

A Kiss Before Dying is truly a mixed bag of treats. On the goodies side, the use of Cinemascope, Lucien Ballard’s imaginative camera work, lots of Arizona location shooting, and an evocative look at mid-50s USA, all makes Kiss look like the perfect postcard of the past.

Robert Wagner's horseback riding apparel--love it or hate it?

Robert Wagner goes side saddle with the film's other sister, played lethally by Virginia Leith.

On the yucky Kiss side is the strange opening credits, with lots of illustrated magenta lips and baby blue font, accompanied by a peppy theme song. All fit for a romantic romp, but not a suspense flick about a cold-blooded murderer! The song is later played on the restaurant jukebox, and Wagner even hums the cheesy tune to himself several times. Plus, there are a number of amusingly odd moments: when Bud pitches Dorie off the business building roof and holds his arms out in a maestro pose just a bit too long; whenever Bud offers pregnant Dorie a puff of his cigarette when she doesn’t feel good; or RJ’s hipster horseback riding outfit and girly poses; and most especially, when a matronly woman in a see-through blouse and white bra saunters past Bud, and plops down in a chair, during an especially dramatic moment.

This nasty little film noir, in eye-popping color and Cinemascope, is worth a watch, especially since A Kiss Before Dying came out in the wholesome ‘50s.

Robert Wagner "photo-bombing" co-star Jeffery Hunter!

'The Long, Hot Summer' 1958

Paul Newman is hot, Joanne Woodward is the heart of this 'Summer.'

FYI: I put all the movie overflow on my public FB  movie page. 

Check it out & join!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/178488909366865/

I love sexy Southern melodramas, so it’s amazing that I somehow missed 1958’s The Long, Hot Summer. Based on several William Faulkner stories, the film features an all-star cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles, Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, and Tony Franciosa. I guess when I wanted to watch Paul Newman sneer and swelter Southern-style, I put Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on instead.

Paul Newman provides the sizzle as barn burner Ben Quick.

Legendary wheeler dealer Jerry Wald was always ahead of the curve in Hollywood. When everyone thought Joan Crawford was washed up, Wald actually hyped that she was making a comeback with Mildred Pierce. Wald repeated the same feat with Lana Turner a dozen years later, with Peyton Place—see Lana as a mother for the first time! Wald saw that MGM snapped up screen rights for Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer-prize winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for a record sum. So, the wily Wald bought several stories by Faulkner, played up similarities to Cat, and called it The Long, Hot Summer.

Like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, there’s a crude, fearsome Big Daddy type, Will Varner (Welles.) Ditto Cat’s Brick, there’s a man-child son, Jody (Franciosa.) Jody’s wife is a sexy Maggie the Cat type, Eula (Remick.) Will is a widower, so he doesn’t have a Big Mama to mistreat, but he does have goodhearted town whore to selectively ignore, Minnie Littlejohn (Lansbury.)

Paul and Joanne made beautiful music together--on camera and off!

A minor character in the Faulkner pieces is Ben Quick, elevated to every insolent stud that Paul Newman played. And Joanne Woodward is Clara Varner, Will’s daughter, considered an old maid at 23. Yes, there will be chemistry between the two!

Like Big Daddy Pollitt in Cat, Will Varner comes home from the hospital, but arrives one better—by ambulance, sirens blaring. Unlike Cat’s patriarch, Will Varner gets a clean bill of health. As with Big Daddy, Will wants to pick the perfect offspring to run the family business, and a favored child to produce some grandchildren.

This is where comparisons to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Long, Hot Summer end.  And there are two big reasons why Summer doesn’t sizzle like Cat.

First, The Long, Hot Summer’s story is a warmed-over mishmash that doesn’t go anywhere. Cat’s plot structure isn’t perfect, either.  Yet, Williams’ themes of family, love, mortality, greed, and sexuality are woven well in the Pollitt family’s fighting over their fortune. In The Long, Hot Summer, Jody keeps disappointing daddy Will with his juvenile behavior, Clara refuses to marry just to produce an heir, and Minnie wants Will to marry her. That’s it. There are no overriding themes as with Cat, to elevate Summer above a southern soap opera. Summer’s ending is so ridiculous and rushed, that I hooted in disbelief at the climactic scene which brings about Will and Jody’s reconciliation. And the finale, with all three couples laughing merrily, felt like a southern sitcom.

Welles may be big, but he's no Big Daddy!

Orson and Paul, only a decade a part in age.

The second strike that really sinks The Long, Hot Summer is Orson Welles as Will Varner. Burl Ives created an indelible portrait as Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, first on Broadway, then in the 1958 film version. Welles feared being upstaged by the young Actors Studio cast members—so he decided to upstage them. Welles wears such heavy tan makeup that his co-star Angela Lansbury compared it to Orson’s famed Othello. Welles wore a false nose, at times obvious onscreen, plus an unruly, grey wig. With his Halloween film costume and already pumpkin-like physique, I was shocked that Welles was only 42 when making of The Long, Hot Summer. Consider this when watching Summer: Orson Welles was only ten years older than Paul Newman!

Orson Welles certainly set himself apart from the rest of the cast--in every way! With Franciosa, Remick, & Woodward.

Mocking Method actors and their alleged “mumbling,” Welles mush-mouthed southern delivery sounds like he’s recovering from a stroke. The great Orson Welles gives such a gawdawful performance that he pretty much stinks up this Summer. Will Varner is a character who all the others’ fates depend upon—and Welles plays him as such a cartoon villain. Who cares if he approves of them?

Joanne Woodward and Lee Remick as Southern sister-in-laws.

On the plus side, the young cast is capable. After a few years of getting called a second-rate Brando, Newman gives audiences their first taste of the cool hand Paul persona. Joanne Woodward, often cast as the old maid, is spirited and smart, the hallmark of her screen work. This was Paul and Joanne’s first collaboration together, and with director Martin Ritt, as well. Lee Remick, a year before her breakthrough in Anatomy of a Murder, is mostly decorative—but has moments that show she should have played Maggie the Cat sometime in her career. Tony Franciosa is intense in the thankless son role. Angela Lansbury is fun as good-time girl Minnie, who for some reason loves Will Varner. Richard Anderson, later famous for The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, plays Alan, Clara’s suitor—until Newman’s own Ben Quick comes along. Alan is referred to as a “sissy” and “mama’s boy,” and much is made of the fact that he has dated Clara for six years without proposing—what do you suppose that means?!

Richard Anderson: the suitor who's "courted" Woodward for six years. Hmm!

Jerry Wald got the jump on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by about six months, The Long, Hot Summer only did modestly well at the box office. The main reason I’d recommend The Long, Hot Summer is for the scenery: both the Louisiana locations, (subbing for Mississippi,) and the up-and-coming cast, especially Paul Newman, in their youthful prime.

Paul Newman, when he was cool and fresh as a slice of watermelon!