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

Thursday, May 07, 2026

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

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's Go To The Movies:

Face Time

Part XVII

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.

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.

--- ---

Angels Wash Their Faces

(1939)

A young man just released from a reformatory moves to a new neighborhood with his sister, intending to start a new life, but he gets mixed up with the local mob boss and corrupt politicians and soon finds himself being framed for an arson and murder he didn't commit.

This drama/comedy was directed by Ray Enright and stars Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, the Dead End Kids and Bonita Granville.

The Dead End Kids are: Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsly, Gabriel Dell, and Leo Gorcey.

Filmed under the title The Battle of the City Hall. The title was changed to cash in on the popularity of Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and although the boys and Ann Sheridan appear in both films, this is not a sequel.

The sixth of seven movies featuring the original six Dead End Kids and Ronald Reagan's second film with them, the other being Hell's Kitchen (1939).

Warner Bros. Studios had begun to tire of the Dead End Kids' antics during the production of this film. Among their pranks: throwing a lit firecracker in Humphrey Bogart's dressing room, painting obscene murals on the office walls, and setting off fire sprinklers in the wardrobe department. The studio hired a former football player, Russ Saunders to reign them in, in hopes of taming the unruly sextet. Sunders finally had to use a fire hose on them. Ultimately, the studio had the final prank - fed up, Warner Bros. dropped their contract.

Variety wrote that although Ray Enright sacrificed "plausibility for action," he had "directed with an eye for the spectacular, including a thrilling fire scene and a dramatic courtroom sequence" and never let "the swift pace ease" while the "screenplay holds no voids in the rapid-fire plot tempo."

--- ---

Love Has Many Faces

(1965)

Rich society girl Kit Jordan is in Acapulco vacationing with her current husband, Pete Jordan, a former American beach boy who used to work the Acapulco shores in search of rich women. When the body of one of Pete's fellow beach boys, Billy Andrews, washes to shore, the police investigate whether it was murder or suicide. The only clue: on his wrist, the deceased wore a bracelet engraved with "Love is thin ice." which was a gift from Kit! The stability of Kit and Peter's marriage is put to the test when Billy's old girlfriend, Carol, makes a play for Pete and beach boy Hank tries to score with Kit.

Filmed on location in Acapulco and Mexico City, this American drama was directed by Alexander Singer, and stars Lana Turner, Cliff Robertson, Ron Husmann, Hugh O'Brian, Virginia Grey,Ruth Roman and Stephanie Powers.

Edith Head designed all of Lana Turner's costumes, thirteen in all. Cost? One Million Dollars!

Nancy Wilson sings the title song, Love Has Many Faces, with music by David Raksin and lyrics by Mack David.

In this film, the men are the eye candy. When Cliff Robertson is first seen, he's bare-chested. When Ron Husmann is first seen, he's bare-chested. When Hugh O'Brian is first seen in this movie, he's bare-chested. In fact, O'Brian spends more time with his shirt off here than in any of his other movies.

The New York Times was unimpressed: “Everything has been done to make Lana Turner feel at home in Love Has Many Faces, starting geographically. The picture, shot in color in Acapulco and Mexico City, provides a radiant background of natural scenery and swanky interiors as befits a glamour queen. It’s all here - everything but a good picture. For this dramatic, Columbia round-up of some resort parasites is the glossiest kind of junk, even for Miss Turner. If ever baloney needed mustard, it was yesterday. There must have been some lying around Acapulco Beach, along with the cast. Miss Turner is finally done in by a bull. That’s right - a bull. There’s plenty of it in Love Has Many Faces.”

Hugh O'Brian and Lana Turner

--- ---

Face To Face

(1966)

AKA: Prosopo Me Prosopo, Πρόσωπο με πρόσωπο

English professor Dimitris has a brief affair with Varvara, daughter of a wealthy family, whom he tutors in order for her to marry an English businessman. His disappointment with life and all his lost dreams make him blame his employers for his personal failure, but his need to make a living forces him accept their offers. In his dreams, he identifies them with the Germans during the Occupation. Besides his love affair with Varvara, which stops abruptly after the English businessman arrives, the professor succumbs to an affair with her mother.

This Greek drama was directed by Roviros Manthoulis and stars Costas Messaris, Eleni Stavropoulou, Theano Ioannidou, and Labros Kotsiris.

The movie was screened during 1966-1967 and sold 89,569 tickets. It came 66th out of 117 movies.

It participated in a number of film festivals, winning several awards:

- Thessaloniki Film Festival 1966, Directing Award

- Film Festival of the newspaper Democratic Change, 1966 - Audience Award for Directing

- Locarno International Film Festival, 1967, Special Prize

- Moscow International Film Festival, participation

- Lausanne Film Festival, participation

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

--- ---

Faces Of Love

(1977)

AKA: Repérages

A director decides to bring Chekhov's play The Three Sisters to life on the silver screen. He summons his three actresses - one, his ex-wife, one, an actress foisted on him by the film's Italian producers, and one, a neophyte - to rehearse in a city near Lake Geneva. Esther, Cecilia, Julie. One serious. One delirious. One mysterious.

This 1977 Swiss/French drama was directed by Michel Soutte and stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Delphine Seyrig, Lea Massari, Valérie Mairesse, Roger Jendly, and François Rochaix.

The film received two 1978 César Award nominations: Delphine Seyrig for Best Actress, and Valérie Mairesse for Best Supporting Actress.

Clockwise from top:

Valérie Mairesse, Delphine Seyrig, Lea Massari

--- ---

The Face With Two Left Feet

(1979)

A goofy hotel cook, who happens to be the spitting image of John Travolta, takes over the dance floor at the local discotheques in order to woo the disco girl of his dreams.

This 1979 Italian comedy film directed by Neri Parenti and stars Giuseppe Spezia, Angelo Infanti, and Gloria Piedimonte

The movie is a spoof of Saturday Night Fever (1977). Instead of John Travolta, you get John Travolto. The French name for the film is similarly, John's Fever, which is also the name of the discotheque in the film. Throughout the world, the film is known by a wide array of English language titles such as Runaround, Travoltomania, John's Fever, John Travolto, The Face with Two Left Feet, and The Lonely Destiny of John Travolto. This picture has been labeled "the first and only Travoltasploitation movie".

Released only sixteen months after Saturday Night Fever (1977), this was Neri Parenti debut as both a screenwriter and director. It is also Giuseppe Spezia one and only film.