A Woman's Face (1941)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

George Cukor

Writers:

Francis de Croisset (play)
Donald Ogden Stewart (writer) ...

Release Date:

23 May 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Drama

Tagline:

They called her a scar-faced she-devil.

Plot:

A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.

Plot Keywords:

Blackmailer | Facial Scar | Scar | Blackmail | Disfigurement

Cast

Joan Crawford	...	Anna Holm
Melvyn Douglas	...	Dr. Gustaf Segert
Conrad Veidt	...	Torsten Barring
Osa Massen	...	Vera Segert
Reginald Owen	...	Bernard Dalvik
Albert Bassermann	...	Consul Magnus Barring
Marjorie Main	...	Emma Kristiansdotter
Donald Meek	...	Herman Rundvik
Connie Gilchrist	...	Christina Dalvik
Richard Nichols	...	Lars-Erik Barring
Charles Quigley	...	Eric
Gwili Andre	...	Gusta
Clifford Brooke	...	Wickman
George Zucco	...	Defense Attorney
Henry Kolker	...	Judge

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #7126)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Quotes:

[first lines]
Police Matron: That's a fine trick. You know the prisoner's afraid of fire.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Youngest Profession (1943)

Garbo's loss - Crawford's gain

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.