False Faces
Cast & Crew
Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman
Peggy Shannon
Lila Lee
Berton Churchill
David Landau
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Dr. Silas Brenton extorts money from patients at a free clinic, but when he is caught, the superintendent allows him to go free as long as he leaves New York. Brenton abandons his girl friend, Georgia Rand, and sets up practice as a plastic surgeon in Chicago with his partner, Dr. J. B. Parker, who had been involved in earlier graft schemes. With his receptionist, Elsie Fryer, who becomes his girl friend, Brenton has Con McCullough, head of a disreputable detective agency, spread the word that Brenton is in business. Brenton reaps publicity from the face lift of actress June Deering, and makes the Nation sisters, Dottie and Lottie, look as if they were beaten by the police, getting them off a charge that they assaulted an officer. Soon Brenton is a celebrated surgeon, but some of his clients suffer because of his surgery, including a banker's wife with whom he is having an affair, whose face lift has caused paralysis. In addition, Brenton promises to straighten the legs of Mrs. Finn, who now appears to be dying as a result of the surgery. Parker sends for Georgia, who arrives after the Medical Association inspects Brenton's hospital. When a warrant is issued for Brenton's arrest, Georgia reluctantly tips the police as to his whereabouts and Brenton is arrested trying to leave the city. Using his persuasive powers during the court trial, Brenton gets himself acquitted, but is unable to ease the furor of Mrs. Finn, whose legs had to be removed as a result of his surgery. Mrs. Finn shoots Brenton, and he dies while Georgia cries.
Director
Lowell Sherman
Cast
Lowell Sherman
Peggy Shannon
Lila Lee
Berton Churchill
David Landau
Harold Waldridge
Geneva Mitchell
Oscar Apfel
Miriam Seegar
Joyce Compton
Nance O'neil
Edward Martindel
Purnell Pratt
Olive Tell
Barbara Bedford
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Correspondence in the MPAA/PCA files at the AMPAS Library dated August-September 1932, reveals that Jason S. Joy, director of Studio Relations at the AMPP, advised Sam Bischoff of Tiffany Studios that the AMPP was concerned over the representation of plastic surgeons in the film, due to the fact that the only plastic surgeon in the film is considered a "quack." In his letter, Joy stated that "the net result, I fear, will be a distaste in the minds of the average moviegoer toward everything having to do with plastic surgery; and it is unlikely that this matter will be overlooked by those whose livelihood and reputations depend upon plastic surgery." Further information on the matter was not found. According to a contemporary article in Film Daily, this is one of the first releases of World Wide's Opportunity Group. A news item in Hollywood Reporter indicates that Lowell Sherman originally intended to appear in the film; however, dental difficulties kept him behind the camera.
