A Woman's Face

Plot synopsis:
Set in Sweden, the film is shown in flashbacks in the course of a trial in which a young woman with a half-hidden face, Anna Holm, is charged with murder. The events, as described by the witnesses, begin years before when aristocrat Torsten Barring hosts a party at a tavern. The guests include Vera, the faithless wife of noted plastic surgeon Gustaf Segert. When the tavern refuses to extend his credit, Torsten meets the proprietress Anna — whose face is badly scarred from a fire 22 years ago caused by her father. Torsten treats Anna as if she is beautiful and charming rather than scarred and unpleasant. Anna is suspicious, and Torsten implies that he may need her help in the future.
Anna is leader of a gang of blackmailers. She obtains letters proving Vera is having an affair and demands money. Gustaf comes home unexpectedly and, thinking Anna a thief, wants to call the police, but Vera convinces him to let her go. Gustaf becomes intrigued by Anna's scars and offers to perform plastic surgery on her. Anna is subjected to twelve operations. Within two years, she turns into a beautiful woman no longer ridiculed by strangers. After leaving Gustav's Swiss clinic, she returns to Torsten, who is amazed by her new physical beauty. She assures him that she has not yet joined the side of the angels.
Torsten obliquely tells her that his uncle, Consul Magnus Barring, who is very old and very rich, is leaving everything to a four-year-old grandson. But, if something were to happen to the grandson, Torsten would inherit instead. Anna is horrified by what he is driving at, but is compelled through love for Torsten to agree. Using the name "Ingrid Paulson", Anna is hired as a governess on Torsten's recommendation and goes to live at the Barring chateau. She becomes fond of the kindly Consul and his sweet-natured grandson, Lars-Erik. Torsten soon joins them, but party guests include Gustaf, who recognizes "Ingrid" as Anna. Thinking that she has softened and changed her name to start a new life, Gustaf does not reveal her true identity.
The next day, Anna accidentally leaves Lars-Erik too long under a sun lamp. Her genuine distress makes Torsten suspicious of her resolve to kill the boy. He gives her an ultimatum that Lars-Erik must die before the next night and she reluctantly agrees. The incident, however, causes Gustaf to become suspicious, especially after seeing Anna with Torsten at the nearby waterfall. Anna takes Lars-Erik for an open aerial cable car ride across the falls. Halfway across, she loosens a bolt and the boy comes perilously close to falling to his death. Anna pulls him back to safety and hugs him, overcome with remorse. Seeing this, Gustaf decides she has changed for the better.
On the Consul's birthday, Anna gives him a miniature chess set. A multiple sleigh ride in the snow is organized. Anna suddenly sees Lars-Erik in the same sleigh as Torsten. Panicking for the boy's safety, she gets Gustaf to pursue them, confessing to the whole plot and how she now hates Torsten. When they reach the sleigh, Torsten won't stop so Anna takes out a gun and shoots him. They save the boy and Torsten's body slips into the falls. Anna stands trial for Torsten's murder, during which the whole story is made public.
Gustaf testifies under oath that he is in love with her. But the court is not fully satisfied that she killed in order to save the life of the boy. Anna reveals that she placed a suicide note confessing to the scheme inside the chess set that she gave to the Consul. His housekeeper, Emma Kristiansdotter, who resented the new governess, stole the note without reading it — she assumed it to be a love letter and part of a scheme by Anna to seduce and marry the Consul for his money. While the judges adjourn to consider their verdict, Vera tries to reconcile with her husband, but he has become aware of her numerous infidelities. He coaxes Anna into professing her love and he proposes marriage, after which the court attendant says that the judges are ready to give their decision, suggesting that Gustaf might want to come along as well.

Tags: flashback, suspenseful, murder, melodrama

Review:
In fact, Ana Holm, is one of the best things Ms. Crawford portrayed in the movies and she is seen without the excessive makeup.Conrad Veidt is also one of the assets of the film.
Osa Masser, and Reginald Owen are seen in supporting roles.The film is a must see for all Joan Crawford and George Cukor fans..
This film may surpass even Joan Crawford's Oscar-winning performance in `Mildred Pierce' as the best of her career.
Crawford plays Anna Holm, a facially scarred woman whose disfigurement has led her to an embittered life of crime.Melvyn Douglas is perfectly cast as the handsome and heroic Dr. Segert, and Conrad Veidt plays Torsten Barring, the despicable charmer.
There are no dazzling gowns or mascara-ed lashes to distract the viewer from Crawford's fabulous performance.With a brilliant supporting cast (including the adorable Richard Nichols as the 4 year-old Lars-Erik, and Marjorie Main as the suspicious housekeeper), `A Woman's Face' ranks among the best Crawford films of all time.
Exciting story, beautiful settings, good acting, incredible directing...it's a wonder this film isn't better known.
Joan Crawford has one of her first great roles in this 1941 remake of a Swedish film that starred Ingrid Bergman.
But she is ensnared with villainous Conrad Veidt who wants to kill his nephew so he can inherit the family fortune.Part thriller part courtroom drama, A Woman's Face gives Crawford the kind of role that showed off all her talents as an actress.
Joan Crawford has one of her more complex roles and plays it brilliantly in 'A Woman's Face'.
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 blackmail part of the deal is foiled when accomplice Crawford is befriended by Melvyn Douglas, the victim's husband (and plastic surgeon!); after restoring her beauty, Douglas must then stop Joan from carrying out the murder plot, targeting a child no less!
Joan Crawford is perfect as a malevolent blackmailer who has a change of heart after her facial disfigurement is repaired.The story progresses in an interesting way, with the plot unfolding during a murder trial.
The lead character, Anna (Crawford) is a potentially beautiful woman but for one thing: as a child, she was horribly disfigured by a burn scar which she received at the hands of her brutal, drunken father.
Cukor wisely leaves this a secret--we can read anything into Anns's final destiny.Interestingly, the most sexually charged moments in the film are between Crawford and her earlier lover, a manipulative, evil man played to perfection by Conrad Veidt.
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.
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..
Will I make this character so interesting that she's unbearable?One of the great things art can do is it can make the most horrible crime appear justifiable, logical, if you look at it a certain way.There is a scene in a spider-web-draped Swedish folk attic in this movie in which Conrad Veidt gives a twisted little speech that makes a heinous crime appear justifiable.
It has so much going for it: the full energy and finances of MGM (the film looks great and features many of MGM's best players), a wonderful plot (packed with lots of cynicism) and a decent acting job by Joan.
Although I was able to generally predict where this unusual movie would go, I was so impressed at how good a job was done with the film that I really didn't mind that the suspense elements weren't quite as surprising as they might have intended.Aside from Ms. Crawford, I really loved the horrid villain played by Conrad Veidt--he was absolutely slimy and easy to hate.
Joan Crawford got a plum role in A Woman's Face and George Cukor got a very good performance out of her.
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.
Joan Crawford is wonderful as a bitter woman with a scarred face.
(In spite of her character's horrendous disfigurement, she remains tremendously beautiful.) Seeing the scene in which her disfigured face is shown for the first time when she takes her hat off, as if she were expecting a reaction of horror from Veidt, and absorbing the true sorrow in her eyes and lips which, pertaining to her character, shows accidentally her cynical notions, the real actress owes the reality of her portrayal's nuances to her own chaotic personality.There is a share of comparatively sluggish conformity that Cukor occasionally allows to peek around the corner, such as the oft-used device of telling the story through flashbacks from a courtroom of assorted caricatures, lending to its stock usage of Melvin Douglas, as per his usual, delivering a likable performance as a dashing good guy.
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.
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.
A Woman's Face is a trashy, pseudo-horror movie like film but one presented as an A-picture melodrama.
I've now decided, screw it, this is my favourite Joan Crawford film and considering there's tough competition from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Mildred Pierce and The Women, that's saying a lot.Every major cast member in A Woman's Face is superb.
If anything the moment in which Anna returns from a shopping trip and is wearing a very excessive blouse to take attention away from her face is the one moment in the film in which her character comes off to me as pathetic sight.A Woman's Face is one of the few thrillers George Cukor directed with echoes of Hitchcock throughout, such as the shots of the smelter plant and a waterfall in the background (similar to the scenery in films such as Foreign Correspondent), to the film's suspenseful scenes such as that atop the cable car.
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.
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.
Joan Crawford plays a woman who had her face disfigured as a child and has grown up hating the world.
Veidt is delighted with her new eligibility to be received in polite society, and lands her a post as governess to his rich young nephew in the countryside; he means for her to knock the kid off so the family money will devolve to him.The story's told entirely in flashback from Crawford's trial for murder, but in the shrewd script directed by George Cukor, we don't know until the end who was murdered, or if she's guilty.
A WOMAN'S FACE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1941), directed by George Cukor, (not to be confused with Cukor's 1941 similar titled TWO-FACED WOMAN (MGM) featuring Greta Garbo), stars Joan Crawford in possibly her most superior role, and definitely her last great motion picture for her home studio of MGM.
You're too pretty." Crawford's "Weaving Dance" with the evil Veidt is another film highlight.Produced very much in European-style of dark lighting, super-imposing from one scene to another; low to mid-angle camera shots, Director Cukor refrains from having his players, especially the rowdy hill-billy type Marjorie Main, unrecognizable in pulled-back hair, glasses and flat hat, from speaking with Swedish accents.
Also seen in minor support are George Zucco (Defense Attorney); Henry Daniell (The Public Prosecutor); Gwili Andre (Gusta); and William Farnum (The Court Attendant).Not as well known as Crawford's Academy Award winning performance of MILDRED PIERCE (Warners, 1945), A WOMAN'S FACE, as good as Crawford is as Anna Holm, and not to take away from her credibility, it makes one wonder of how good, bad or indifferent it might have become had Greta Garbo assumed the title role instead.
Released in 1941 - In the fine tradition of a classic, Hollywood, glamor film, this Joan Crawford vehicle from MGM delivers a fairly entertaining bit of melodrama that builds quite nicely into its high-speed climax (on horse-driven sleighs, no less).Joan Crawford plays Anna Holm, a conniving member of a ruthless blackmailing ring who are operating very successfully within the fair city of Stockholm, Sweden.Featuring some very good make-up effects, Anna, whose face (on its right side) has been badly disfigured by a burning accident many years ago, has her own ax to grind as she cold-heartedly dishes out a very special brand of criminal treachery.With its story told mainly through flashbacks, Anna is accused of cold-blooded murder and witnesses to Anna's activities are individually called into the courtroom in order to give testimony that points decidedly against Anna's innocence to this crime.As our story gets underway, Anna meets, by chance, a skilled plastic surgeon who offers his surgical expertise in order to help repair her badly-scarred face.
Seeing this as her hope for starting a new life, Anna agrees to undergo cosmetic surgery, but with her new transformation she finds that the ties to her dark past are so much stronger than she had realized.Filmed in glossy b&w, A Woman's Face was competently directed by George Cukor whose other notable films from the 1940s and 50s include Gaslight, Adam's Rib, The Philadelphia Story, and A Star Is Born..
However, when a kind surgeon (Melvyn Douglas in a thankless role) suggests she have it fixed, perhaps her life will change along with her looks.As I said before, to see Joan Crawford is to see only a small part of her.
Almost at the end of her MGM career, Joan Crawford plays a disfigured thief who attains partial reform at the hands of Melvyn Douglas in this trashy plot.
In this picture, Joan Crawford,(Anna Holm)," Autumn Leaves",'56, plays the role of a scared woman inside and outside and plays a very dark character who is a big con-artist working along with a few other great veteran actors.
A very famous director of this film, George Cukor, had many movie greats to his credit, "Lust for Life",'56, starring Kirk Douglas, made this another great classic and a very different plot with great veteran actors..
That is the central theme of A WOMAN'S FACE, George Cukor's 1941 film that starred Joan Crawford in what could be the best role of her entire career.
Mayer did not want to see her play "more cripples or maimed women." It's because of this that A WOMAN'S FACE was her last quality film at MGM; she'd do three more films of much lesser quality before leaving MGM for good and going into a two year hiatus before making her great "comeback" in MILDRED PIERCE.Joan Crawford herself was quoted as saying that her Oscar win for MILDRED PIERCE was more a tribute to her career as a whole up until then and credited A WOMAN'S FACE for her 1946 win.
Nonetheless, it is a film that can still be enjoyed by a 21st century audience.The storyline is well paced, and extremely well told, with some surprises, and great acting by the cast, especially Ms. Crawford.In this film, Joan Crawford plays a woman whose face was damaged in a fire when she was a child, this has caused her to feel like an outcast, and she has grown up to be a hard, bitter woman.She has few scruples, nor do the people who work for her at the restaurant she owns.
I was impressed by Joan Crawford's skillful depiction of a highly intelligent woman whose face had been disfigured when she was as child.
The supporting cast in 'A Woman's Face' is good, especially Conrad Veidt as the evil man who has her in his power because he finds her attractive.
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.
When Joan Crawford's best films are the subject of any discussion, the list always includes the film she won the Oscar for - "Mildred Pierce" and for good reason - its a fine film with an outstanding cast and even today, holds up pretty well.But what seems to get lost in the shuffle is a film she made four years earlier, which in many ways equals and in some ways surpasses "Mildred Pierce" -- the 1941 film "A Woman's Face" is a much underrated film which showcases one of Crawford's best roles.An intriguing story of a woman who has lived as an outcast because of facial scars suffered in a fire since childhood and now lives among unscrupulous scheming blackmailers, herself becoming the most skilled of their group - when a plastic surgeon decides to fix the deformity that has made her a bitter and distrustful woman, she is introduced to the possibility of living a normal life, one where she can as she says in the film - when the world looks at her - "she can look back" without hiding.The film is a well-blended mix of dark characters and and some very quirky humorous ones too, directed by one of MGM's A-team directors George Cukor.
However two parts are weak - Melvyn Douglas, who can usually be depended on for an admirable performance, comes across as very bland and predictable and Osa Massen - her scenes are painful to watch, overacted to the point that it makes you wince - but these parts are fortunately overshadowed by the other supporting roles that are made up of a quirky assortment of characters that include Reginald Owen, Marjorie Main and Donald Meek that bring an off-the-wall humor but in a subtle way - Meek is particularly good in his part.The photography and the sets are beautifully done.
The film offers a good use of close-ups and shadows that in some ways resembles the techniques heavily used in the "film noir" films of the late 40's and early 50's - and in a time when films were rarely shot on location "A Woman's Face" has some of the most beautifully crafted sets that remind me a little of the "Magnificent Ambersons" they really stand out.But the star of the movie is without a doubt - Joan Crawford - her performance draws you in even more so than her role in "Mildred Pierce" and she has probably never looked more naturally beautiful.If you're a Joan Crawford fan or not - check this one out - its good.
Joan Crawford's third film directed by George Cukor, "A Woman's Face" (1941), was something of a risky proposition for the queen of the MGM lot.
A new and beautiful puss softens Anna's outlook on the world, although she still agrees to Torsten's current scheme: to become the governess of his 4-year-old cousin and then murder the cute little moppet so as to come into an inheritance....A fascinating story, told via multiple flashback POVs during Anna's trial for murder, "A Woman's Face" is surely much more than a "woman's picture." The film has been lavishly produced and features gorgeous sets and excellent special FX (most notably seen during that cable car sequence).
He is simply brilliant, and easily steals the film, despite Crawford's and Douglas' fine portrayals, and those of such wonderful character actors as Albert Basserman, Osa Massen, Reginald Owen, Marjorie Main, Donald Meek, George Zucco, Robert Warwick and Henry Daniell.
She also meets up with Conrad Veidt who wants his uncle's 4 year old grandson dead so that he can inherit the old man's money.This goes on and on, but Joan Crawford, as the maimed woman, pulls it off in typical Crawford fashion.The film was a remake of a movie made by Ingrid Bergman in Sweden 3 years before.
Anna Holm (Joan Crawford) is a blackmailer with a disfiguring scar on her face.