Still image from the 1941 film A Woman's Face.

A Woman's Face

Directed by George Cukor

Plastic surgery gives a scarred female criminal a new outlook on life.

1941 1h 45m Drama TV-PG

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CAST
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George Cukor, Director
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George Cukor
Director

1

Joan Crawford, Anna Holm [also known as Ingrid Paulson]
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Joan Crawford
Anna Holm [also known..

2

Melvyn Douglas, Dr. Gustav Segert
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Melvyn Douglas
Dr. Gustav Segert

3

Conrad Veidt, Torsten Barring
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Conrad Veidt
Torsten Barring

4

Osa Massen, Vera Segert
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Osa Massen
Vera Segert

5

Reginald Owen, Bernard Dalvik
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Reginald Owen
Bernard Dalvik

FULL SYNOPSIS

In Stockholm, Sweden, as Anna Holm enters a courtroom waiting for her murder trial to begin, witnesses are sworn in. The first witness, Herman Rundvik, relates the following testimony: Late one night, at a rural tavern, aristocrat Torsten Barring hosts a party that includes Vera, the faithless wife of noted plastic surgeon Gustav Segert. When the tavern will no longer extend Torsten credit, he charms Anna Holm, the badly scarred proprietress, into signing his check. Bernard Dalvik then testifies that he, Anna and Rundvik made most of their money from blackmail: One day, just after Torsten visits Anna, who has fallen in love with him, Vera arrives, begging Dalvik to help her retrieve letters that she has written to a lover. Vera then testifies: Anna takes the letters to Vera but hatefully demands more money because Vera is beautiful. Vera is at first frightened by Anna, but when Anna becomes lost in thought talking about love, Vera cruelly shines a light on her face. While Vera is getting her jewels to pay for the letters, Gustav comes home unexpectedly and Anna falls as she tries to elude him. Thinking that Anna is a thief, Gustav wants to call the police, but Vera pretends to take pity on her and convinces him to let her go. Gustav becomes intrigued by Anna's scars and caustic manner, and offers to perform plastic surgery on her. Anna is sworn in next. After briefly relating that her childhood scars were caused when her drunken father accidentally started a fire, she...


VIDEOS
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This Lady Is Interested In Lo...
Movie Clip
A Most Generous Gesture...
Movie Clip
Original Trailer
Trailer
Royal Swedish Court...
Movie Clip

ARTICLES
By the early 1940s, an aging Joan Crawford was finding good roles few and far between. Thanks to the success of her performance in The Women (1939), she was no longer "box office poison," but she knew that if she was to continue to thrive at MGM, she had to find better material than the glossy melodramas she'd been doing. Crawford had seen a Swedish film, A Woman's Face (1938), starring David O. Selznick's new discovery Ingrid Bergman as a horribly scarred woman whose bitterness leads her into a life of crime. Her life changes when plastic surgery restores her beauty, but she finds it more difficult to change inside. Crawford decided that her next film would be a remake of A Woman's Face (1941), and George Cukor, who had directed both The Women and Susan and God (1940), would direct. MGM head Louis B. Mayer was certain it would ruin her career. "Are you crazy? Do you want the public to see you looking ugly?" But Crawford was adamant, and Mayer grudgingly agreed. Working with Cukor to create her character, Crawford trusted her director completely. Cukor stood on the sidelines, watching her carefully for any sign of what he called "the touches of the movie queen sneaking in," and would contort his face and body to remind her that she had to be the deformed, defeated woman. In a scene where the character tells the story of the accident that scarred her face, Cukor recalled that he wanted Crawford to speak the lines in a flat, matter-of-fact way, with no emotion. ...

ARCHIVES
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 Joan Crawford Publicity Stills from the movie 'A Woman's Face'
A Woman's Face
Joan Crawford Publici..

NOTES

According to news items in Hollywood Reporter, Anita Louise was tested for the role of "Vera," and snow scenes were shot on location in Sun Valley, ID. Charles Quigley was borrowed RKO for the film. A Hollywood Citizen-News article noted that A Woman's Face was part of a recent "avalanche of flashback movies" and had a "European" appearance to it. Francis de Croisset's play was previously filmed in Sweden in 1938 under the title En kvinnas ansikte. Ingrid Bergman starred in that version, which was directed by Gustaf Molander.

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