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

Thursday, January 29, 2026

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

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's Go To The Movies:

Face Time

Part III

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 belongs to a woman.

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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A Woman's Face

(1938)

AKA: En kvinnas ansikte

As a child, Anna Holm burned her face. This destroyed her looks and she grew up to be a mean, bitter woman. She and her 'friends' are all blackmailers. One of her victims pays her by getting plastic surgeon Dr. Wegert to try to make her beautiful again. With her revitalized face, Anna becomes a new person, leaving her blackmailing cohorts to become the governess of a young boy who will inherit a fortune. The boy has an evil uncle who wants to see the boy dead so that he will inherit the fortune. He hires Anna's former colleagues as assassins.

Based on the play Il était une fois... by Francis de Croisset, this Swedish drama was directed by Gustaf Molander and stars Ingrid Berman, Tore Svennberg and Anders Henrikson.

Director Gustaf Molander had trouble with the ending. He stopped the filming for two days without getting any reasonable ideas. Finally, he asked Ingrid Bergman what she would think was the best. Bergman suggested that Anna Holm should face a murder charge but be acquitted by the court. This is far from the ending in the final film.

The film was awarded a Special Recommendation at the 1938 Venice Film Festival for its "overall artistic contribution".

Ingrid Bergman

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

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Two-Faced Woman

(1941)

Despite their differences, New York magazine editor Larry Blake and Ski Lodge, Idaho ski instructor Karin Borg fall in love and get married within hours of meeting. Those differences are Larry being urban to the core and having no desire to learn to ski until he sees Karin, an outdoors girl to the core. In the sober light of day, Karin learns that Larry's vow to lead a healthy outdoor life in Ski Lodge was just pillow talk. And not only has he no intention of giving up his life in New York, he also demands that she move to New York with him - i.e. his life is more important than hers. While this impasse appears to be the end of their marriage before it has even begun, they still love each other. So Larry vows to make it back to Ski Lodge to be with her after he returns to New York to resume his work. However, one issue after another postpones his return, so Karin decides to surprise him by flying out to New York where she adorns herself in the city's finery. But things hit a snag when Karin catches Larry back in the arms of a former girlfriend, playwright Griselda Vaughn, who knows Larry is married, but doesn't care, Larry's personal secretary Miss Ellis comes up with the idea that Karin should pose as her morally-depraved, urban-chic twin sister Katherine Borg, to allow Karin to keep an eye on Larry while in New York. Complications ensue.

Based on a 1925 Constance Talmadge silent film titled Her Sister from Paris, which in turn was based on a play by German playwright Ludwig Fulda, this American romantic comedy was directed by George Cukor and stars Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Constance Bennett, and Roland Young.

William Powell was to star in this film, replaced by Melvyn Douglas.

Garbo hated the script for and did not want to make the film. Her next film was supposed to be Madame Curie (1943), but it had been shelved due to the war and the fact that most of the money Garbo's films made were from European markets, now unavailable, again, because of the war. Madame Curie would be made in 1943 starring Greer Garson.

The film called for Garbo to appear in a bathing suit and swim, something she objected to strongly. Cukor, who shared her concerns, said it had to be in the film. In addition, she had to dance a rhumba. Garbo disliked dancing, so much so, she hid in a tree from her dance instructor in an attempt to get out of it.

By 1940, Constance Bennett's career was on the wane. Director Cukor fought to have her cast in a supporting role in this film to keep her before the public eye.

She later said that she was embarrassed by the film and that it "was not good and it could never be made good." Garbo recalled that Melvyn Douglas, her co-star, disliked the film as well and his distaste for it was obvious during the production.

The movie was originally condemned by the National Legion of Decency for its immoral attitude towards marriage, and its impudent suggestive scenes, dialogue and situations, and costumes. After the original print was revised, it was removed from the condemned list. The initial problem arose when the character played by Melvyn Douglas supposedly thought he was romancing his wife's twin sister, who he did not realize, in actual fact, was his wife herself simply impersonating her. In the revised version, Douglas makes a phone call and learns of the deception, so that now he knows it's really his own wife he's dallying with. This was sufficient for the Catholic Legion of Decency.

This film was a failure at the box office, resulting in a loss to MGM of $62,000 according to studio records. However, attendance at films released at this time had been hurt by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor three weeks previously, and the country's entry into WWII.

Later in 1942, Garbo and MGM mutually agreed to terminate her contract with the studio. Contrary to popular belief, Garbo did not retire from acting because of the poor reception to Two-Faced Woman; she fully intended to return to films following the end of World War II. Since she was no longer under a studio contract, she was able to be highly selective over any roles offered to her; for various reasons, several later film projects which interested her did not come to fruition, leaving Two-Faced Woman as her final film.

Upon the film's release in January of 1942, Garbo received some of the worst reviews of her career. Despite the negative notices, Garbo was awarded The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Best Acting Award. Time magazine said, "It is almost almost as shocking as seeing your mother drunk."

The New York Times wrote: "It is hardly necessary to sit in judgment upon such delicate matters of public interest, inasmuch as the film decisively condemns itself by shoddy workmanship. Miss Garbo's current attempt to trip the light fantastic is one of the awkward exhibitions of the season, George Cukor's direction is static and labored, and the script is a stale joke, repeated at length. Considering the several talents that have combined to create this dismal jape, put down Two-Faced Woman as one of the more costly disappointments of the year."

The New Yorker wrote of Garbo that "one can feel only that the archbishop who opposed the showing of the film was her one true friend. Of Garbo's folly there is little really to say. Just condolences might be enough."

Greta Garbo

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A Woman's Face

(1941)

Anna Holm is a blackmailer, who, because of a facial scar, despises everyone she encounters. When a plastic surgeon performs an operation to correct this disfigurement, Anna becomes torn between the hope of starting a new life and a return to her dark past.

Based on the play Il était une fois... by Francis de Croisset, and related to the 1938 film of the same name starring Ingrid Bergman, this American film noir drama was directed by George Cukor and stars Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas and Conrad Veidt.

This was originally an MGM project lined up for Greta Garbo, but she retired from films, and MGM rushed Joan Crawford into the role.

Louis B. Mayer, among others, tried to dissuade Crawford from doing this film, for fear that it could be costly for the glamorous actress in the future. Instead it turned out to be one of her more acclaimed roles and helped promote her career further as a serious dramatic actress.

Director George Cukor wanted Anna's recital of her life story to be done in a tired, mechanical fashion, so he had Joan Crawford repeat the multiplication tables over and over until he got the monotonous tone he was looking for. Then, he rolled the cameras.

Crawford's facial disfigurement in this film was credited to Jack Dawn, who created makeup for such films as The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941).

According to MGM records the film earned $1,077,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $830,000 elsewhere.

Variety wrote "Miss Crawford takes a radical step as a screen glamour girl to allow the makeup necessary for facial disfiguration in the first half. (She) has a strongly dramatic and sympathetic role...which she handles in top-notch fashion."

One of two Joan Crawford films that Bette Davis wished she had done. The other: Humoresque (1946).

Joan Crawford and Conrad Veidt

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Woman Without A Face

(1947)

AKA: Kvinna utan ansikte

Martin and Frida married solely because she was pregnant. Later, Martin has a passionate side-affair with Rut, whose sexual feelings are highly neurotic because she'd been sexually abused by her stepfather. When a chimney sweep enters the family home, she seduced him and afterwards felt dirty and desperate, so she found and seduced Martin. Her behavior is erratic; loving one minute, sexually-charged, the next, with intermittent personal attacks. During the war Martin had been drafted, but deserted. He and Rut rent a room by the chimney sweep. Soon after, Rut seriously stabs Martin's hand with a fork and they are thrown out. Eventually they live in the loft of an empty storehouse. On New Year's Eve, Rut goes to her stepfather and demands money. He gives her what little he has to make her go away. However, Martin believes she had got the money via prostitution. He leaves her and surrenders himself to the police. Rut promises to avenge herself. Miraculously, Martin is acquitted - because a friend testifies that he was mentally ill at the time he deserted. He and Rut reconcile, but only so she can walk out on him when it would hurt most. Martin tries to kill himself, but is saved.

Written by Ingmar Bergman, this Swedish drama was directed by Gustaf Molander and stars Alf Kjellin. Anita Björk, and Gunn Wållgren.

Ingmar Bergman's text Puzzlet som var Eros, was inspired by a story of a woman who was admitted to a mental hospital for her own safety and the safety of others. The screenplay for this film was developed with a number of Bergman's dialogues and treated by director Gustaf Molander.

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

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The Second Face

(1950)

From her hospital bed a woman recounts her life as a 'plain Jane' while awaiting plastic surgeries for the injuries she has sustained in an automobile accident.

This American romantic drama was directed by Jack Bernhard and stars Ella Raines, Bruce Bennett, Rita Johnson, John Sutton, Patricia Knight, and Jane Darwell.

The film was released in 1950 during a time that was seminal in the development of plastic surgery, partly due to WWII injuries. The topic of plastic surgery was of interest to the public, but not well understood. The Plastic Surgery Foundation had just been created and there were important advances in cleft lip and rhinoplasty techniques. Board certification had integrated plastic surgery into the medical establishment and breakthrough training in microvascular techniques was in its infancy. In addition, The Flammable Fabrics Act had been introduced at the urging of plastic surgeons.

Jane Darwell is perhaps best remembered for her poignant portrayal of the matriarch and leader of the Joad family in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1940), for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.