JohnHowardReid Copyright 6 May 1941 by Loew's Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 15 May 1941. U.S. release: 23 May 1941. U.K. release: 30 August 1941. Australian release: 9 October 1941. Length: 9,565 feet. 106 minutes. (The Warner DVD rates ten out of ten).NOTES: Cukor told me that the wonderful snowstorm climax was shot by a second unit under the direction of producer Victor Saville.COMMENT: After a most impressive opening, this film is undermined by some tedious and banal dialogue scenes, all shot in extremely long and boring takes. Fortunately, it ends with a bang — a sleigh chase so dramatically inter-cut, and filmed by Victor Saville from such a diverse variety of angles, it cannot fail to move the spectator to the edge of his chair. Sad to say, Melvyn Douglas is a liability who does nothing for the film, and even such a stalwart trouper as Marjorie Main remains disappointingly lackluster in a role she should have relished. But the rest of the cast, particularly Donald Meek and Osa Massen, have a royal time with this melodrama. Crawford and Veidt have their moments too, though they fail to sustain their portrayals at a high pitch of intensity; while Henry Daniell and George Zucco strive valiantly to make their presence felt in small roles. Planck's photography, particularly his outre lighting of the earlier scenes, is superb. The art direction is similarly impressive.A SECOND VIEW: As I inferred above, the first half-hour or so is marvelous — despite some remarkably fatuous dialogue of the "Do you like music: symphonies, concertos?" caliber. Fortunately, the best witnesses are brought on right at the start, with Donald Meek absolutely delightful as a rascally waiter, while boring old windbags like Bassermann bring up the rear. Alas, once the operation is over, the film's interest nosedives. We can see the denouement coming a mile off, but the characters take their own nice time getting there. Even the climax on the cable car over the dam and the night chase in the sleighs with lots of speeded-up action and obvious meanwhile-back-in-the-studio inserts, fail to generate much excitement. Cukor's direction is at its stylish best in the initial segments, the tone set by such opening masterstrokes as the rapidly cut tracking shots of Crawford and her guards. Crawford, of course, is great, but Douglas rates as a pain (fortunately he's not in the film all that much). Veidt makes a charming villain. And there's a terrific music score by Kaper.

Alex da Silva Joan Crawford (Anna) is on trial for the murder of her boyfriend Conrad Veidt (Torsten). We follow her story in flashback as told by selected witnesses before the judge makes his decision.This is an entertaining film with many memorable scenes, eg, Anna contemplating killing the child Richard Nichols (Lars-Erik) by unlocking the safety gate as he leans against it while travelling on a cable car. You just know that she's capable and the scene is very tense. Another is the scene where Crawford has gone round to blackmail Osa Massen (Vera) about having an affair and a situation unfolds where Crawford slaps Massen. She does it several times and she really means it! The main characters all do well with Crawford stealing the show as the bitter woman with a scarred face who has reconciled herself to a life of blackmailing others. Crawford's performance allows the audience to sympathize with this rather nasty character as the film evolves. The minor characters are OK but the film does contain an extremely annoying Donald Meek who plays 'Herman' the barman. He plays for comedy. He's not funny.It's an engaging film - far-fetched but go along with it and it will entertain you.

Michael_Elliott A Woman's Face (1941) *** (out of 4) Interesting thriller has Joan Crawford playing criminal Anna Holm who takes her partially deformed face out on others by living a life of crime. She meets a kind plastic surgeon (Melvyn Douglas) who agrees to fix her face but before doing so she ends up with the evil Torsten Barring (Conrad Veidt) who plans to make her carry out a murder. A WOMAN'S FACE basically asks if a heartless ugly woman can become beautiful and then grow a heart. Shallow? I'm sure in lesser hands it could have been but director George Cukor and star Crawford do a terrific job at building up the story, the characters and end with an incredibly intense sequence that's very memorable. Apparently everyone in the world tries to talk Crawford out of doing this picture because a "beautiful" woman should never "ugly" herself up. It's easy to see why the legend would want to do this part because it was certainly one of the best of her career. It allows her to play an incredibly cold character that goes through a certain development and turns into something special. I thought Crawford was flawless early in the film when it was time for her to play evil but she was also very believable during the transformation. It certainly doesn't hurt that she's surrounded by a terrific group of character actors. Douglas is his usual wonderful self as the married doctor who finds himself falling for the woman. Veidt plays a cold-blooded snake like no other and makes for a great villain. Osa Massen Albert Bassermann, Reginald Owen, Donald Meek and Marjorie Main are all very good as well. Henry Daniell and George Zucco also have brief roles during the court room sequence. The film moves along at a very good pace but there's no question that the highlight comes towards the end during a thrilling and extremely intense chase sequence. I'm not going to spoil what happens but it's certainly a very memorable sequence that will have you on the edge of your seat. Fans of Crawford are certainly going to enjoy getting to see two sides of the actress.

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.