A Woman’s Face (1941)

A Woman’s Face
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Donald Ogden Stewart and Elliot Paul from a play by Francis de Croisset
1941/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Lars-Erik Barring: You couldn’t be mean. You’re too pretty![/box]

This film was much different than I expected and I truly enjoyed it.

The story is a remake of the 1938 film A Woman’s Face (“En kvinnas ansikte”) with Ingrid Bergman and takes place in contemporary Sweden.  It is told as a number of flashbacks based on witness testimony at Anna’s murder trial.

When she was a child, Anna Holm (Joan Crawford) was caught in a fire started by her drunken father and her face was badly disfigured.  She has lived as a bitter, hard, and ruthless blackmailer who runs a country inn as a front for her operation.  One night, handsome ne’er-do-well Thorsten Barring (Conrad Veidt) comes into her office to ask for credit to cover a meal he has ordered. They recognize each other as kindred spirits and he is the first man who has looked her in the eyes without flinching. They start seeing each other and Anna is in love for the first time.

She meets plastic surgeon Dr. Gusaf Segert (Melvyn Douglas) by chance when she is at his house blackmailing his wife about some incriminating love letters.  He too looks at her without flinching and announces that he can fix her face.  She goes through several painful operations and emerges a beautiful woman.

Barring finally reveals that there is only one four-year-old grandchild standing between him and a large inheritance from his uncle.  The couple hatch a scheme to send Anna as a governess to the county estate of uncle Consul Magnus Barring (Albert Bassermann).  Anna, still madly in love with Barring, is to murder the boy there.  This proves to be easier said than done.  With Marjorie Main as the Consul’s long-time housekeeper and Donald Meek as a criminal associate of Anna’s.

I thought the story was very well told as the plot elements were ever so gradually revealed. I was so engaged that I never saw some probably predictable developments coming.  The snowy setting is beautiful as well.  Joan Crawford is a sometime thing for me but Cukor gets a wonderfully subdued “unglamorous” performance out of her both before and after her surgery. Veidt is suitably charming and villainous.  I’m surprised that this one didn’t get quite a few Oscar nominations but 1941 is turning out to be a year packed with gems. Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bLoXg_2dGw

Trailer