Wonderland Burlesque

Thursday, February 05, 2026

Wonderland Burlesque's Let's Go To The Movies: Face Time - Part IV

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's Go To The Movies:

Face Time

Part IV

That look, that face...

It's all in the face. It can be read like a book. Or so these films would have us believe.

And sometimes... that face is the face of danger and suspense!

The silver screen has been home to so many beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) faces, lighting up the dark, showing us the way, sharing celluloid dreams. It seems only fitting that we take them at their word and look a these films one face at a time.

Yes, these faces may belong to a bygone era, but in the movies?

A face lives forever.

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The Face In The Dark

(1918)

Jane Ridgeway, the daughter of retired Secret Service man Charles Ridgeway, has inherited her father's knack for solving crimes and puts her talent to work when her sweetheart, Richard Grant, is accused of robbing a bank. Her father, now a bank examiner, works in collusion with two thieves who are acquainted with a master criminal known only as "the Face in the Dark." When the evidence implicates her father in the robbery, Jane confronts him, and although Richard is released from jail, Ridgeway escapes. The two crooks lead him to the Face in the Dark, but as the two men are shaking hands, the place is raided by Secret Service agents who arrest the mysterious criminal and congratulate Ridgeway for his fine detective work. Jane is happily reunited with her sweetheart and her father.

This American silent mystery was directed by Hobart Henley and stars Mae Marsh, Niles Welch and Alec B. Francis.

This is considered a lost film.

Mae Marsh

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Another Face

(1935)

AKA: It Happened In Hollywood

On the run from the New York police for a murder charge, gangster Broken Nose Dawson undergoes plastic surgery to change his appearance. After killing the surgeon and nurse who performed the operation, he then goes to Hollywood. Posing as millionaire playboy Spencer Dutro III, he manages to snag a part as a gangster in a movie from Zenith Studios. The studio's ambitious publicity director decides to make a star out of Spencer. Complications arise when the up and coming star learns there was a second nurse present who witnessed the murders!

This crime thriller was directed by Christy Cabanne and stars Wallace Ford, Brian Donlevy and Phyllis Brooks.

Phyllis Brooks

Known as the 'Ipana Toothpaste Girl', due to her work for that product, Phyllis Brooks was a model for two years before progressing to a career in film. She stated, "I started posing for photographers as a lark, and it was a lot of fun." Brooks appeared in over 30 films and was a B-movie leading lady during the 1930s and 1940s, with roles in such films as In Old Chicago (1937), Little Miss Broadway (1938) and The Shanghai Gesture (1941). She was once engaged to Cary Grant, but eventually married John F. Kennedy's Harvard roommate, Torbert MacDonald, who went on to be an 11-term Massachusetts Congressman.

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The Face Behind The Scar

(1937)

AKA: Return Of A Stranger

James Martin and Carol Wall have plans to elope, but a fight with her father's solicitor ends in murder committed by an unknown third-party. Martin is hunted for the crime, though he knows the solicitor was alive when he left him. Carol refuses to speak to him, and he escapes on a ship to South Africa. There, he is the victim of an accident that disfigures his face. He returns to England to clear his name, believing he won't be recognized. But people have long memories...

Rosalyn Boulter

Based on a play by Rudolph Lothar.this British crime drama was directed by Victor Hanbury and stars Griffith Jones, Rosalyn Boulter, Ellis Jeffries and Athole Stewart.

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Stolen Face

(1952)

A plastic surgeon has a brief fling with a concert pianist, then she leaves him to go back to her previous boyfriend. In order to "keep" her, he operates on a patient--a female criminal on the run--and changes her face to duplicate his former lovers. Trouble ensues when the pianist returns to him.

A Hammer Film, this British suspense drama was directed by Terence Fisher and stars Paul Henreid, Lizabeth Scott and André Morell.

Lizabeth Scott plays two roles, that of pianist Alice Brent and the post-surgery Lily Conover. When playing Lily Conover, Lizabeth Scott's voice is dubbed by Mary Mackenzie, the actress who portrays pre-surgery Lily Conover.

Variety said: "Pacing is laborious though Henreid and Scott provide some substance. Picture’s chances are mild." While Boxoffice wrote: "What started out as an admirably original and highly engrossing idea to background a dual-role performance was virtually ruined through mallet-handed scripting and direction, resulting in over-dramatic delineations and situations."

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on Youtube.

Lizabeth Scott

Of her 22 films, she was the lead in all but three. The vivacious Lizabeth Scott was "the most beautiful face of film noir during the 1940s and 1950s", rivaling Lauren Bacall and bringing to mind Tallulah Bankhead in her heyday. Her smoky voice and sumptuous pout earned her a place among Hollywood's royalty. She had a bad habit of stealing lead roles away from leading ladies (including Lucille Ball, Jane Geer, etc.), had a torrid affair with Burt Lancaster - who broke with his studio so he no longer had to work with her - and held her own opposite male stars like Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Robert Mitchum and the like. Through it all, she suffered from stage fright so severe it kept her from the public eye. She couldn't even bring herself to attend the openings of her own films. But it all came flying apart when gossip rag Confidential printed an expose' linking Scott to a prostitution ring. She sued, but the damage was done. In the wake of the sensational 1957 trial, Scott was forgotten by the media and her career went dormant.

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The Spy With My Face

(1965)

Thrush captures Napoleon Solo and replaces him with a look-alike to infiltrate U.N.C.L.E. and an operation called The August Affair. While Solo is being held prisoner, Illya Kuryakin becomes suspicious by the unusual behavior of his friend, and slowly starts to realize what has happened. The real Solo must escape and stop his Thrush double before it's too late.

Based on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. television series, this American spy-fi spy film was directed by John Newland with Robert Vaughn and David McCallum reprising their roles as secret agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin respectively.

Filming for both the episode and the movie was begun in August 1964. All the scenes were filmed in color, although the television version was broadcast in black-and-white

This film is made up from The Double Affair (11/17/64) and The Four Steps Affair (02/22/65) from the first season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. The movie premiered in London in August 1965. It was released in theatres in the US in 1966 on a double bill with the previous The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie, To Trap A Spy (1964)