Joan Crawford and Melvyn Douglas lead the cast in “A Woman’s Face”

A Woman’s Face (1941) is an American drama film directed by George Cukor and starring Joan Crawford and Melvin Douglas. The strong supporting cast includes Conrad Veidt, Osa Massen, Reginald Owen, Albert Basserman, Marjorie Main, Donald Meek, Connie Gilchrist, George Zucco, and Henry Kolker.

As a teenager, Anna Holm (Crawford) was disfigured in a fire. The fire scarred the right side of her face. Imbittered because of this, she engaged in a life of crime. Her life changes when by chance, she meets Dr, Gustaf Segert (Douglas), a famous plastic surgeon. He successfully restores her face giving Anna a chance to live her life out of the shadows.

But old habits are hard to break and Anna finds it difficult to leave behind her past life.

Will Anna be able to start a new life with her new face or will her old life and associates drag her to her doom?

 

George Cukor (1899 – 1983) was an American director. He was famous for directing comedies and literary adaptations of classics like Little Women (1933) and David Copperfield (1935). He was famously fired from directing Gone with the Wind (1939), but that incident didn’t mar an impressive directorial career that included The Philadelphia Story (1940), Gaslight (1944), and Born Yesterday (1950). Cukor won an Academy Award as Best Director for My Fair Lady (1964).

Joan Crawford (190? – 1977) was an American actress. A former dancer, Crawford was signed to a movie contract by M-G-M in 1925. She started out in small parts in silent films, sometimes doubling for established star Norma Shearer. Crawford was an amazing self-promoter and by the 1930s, her popularity rivaled Shearer and Greta Garbo. She was famous for playing shop girls who somehow made it big. During the height of the Depression, women flocked to her films. But by the late 1930s, her popularity was beginning to wane. She left M-G-M and was absent from the screen for almost two years. She signed with Warner Bros. and made a successful comeback in Mildred Pierce (1945). The film was a hit with audiences and critics alike and won Crawford her one-and-only Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on the star in Humoresque (1946) with John Garfield, Possessed (1947) with Van Heflin, and Flamingo Road (1949).

Melvyn Douglas (1901 – 1981) was an American actor. Douglas was a popular leading man during the 1930s working with some of Hollywood’s most famous leading ladies including Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Myrna Loy, and Merle Oberon. He won two Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards late in his career for Hud (1963) and Being There (1979). Douglas’s last film role was in Ghost Story (1981) co-starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Fred Astaire.

A Woman’s Face trivia

• The role was planned for Greta Garbo but she had retired from film giving the role to Joan Crawford.
• A Woman’s Face was originally filmed in 1938 in Sweden starring Ingrid Bergman.
• Crawford was disappointed that her performance wasn’t nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award.
• Bette Davis said that she would have liked to have played the role of Anna Holm.
• M-G-M studio head, Louis B. Mayer thought that the role was a risk for the glamorous Crawford.

 

Click HERE to watch the film at the Movie Internet Archive.

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Discussion questions

1. How did you feel about the character of Anna Holm? Did you have any sympathy for her?
2. What did you think of Crawford’s performance? Was she believable as a woman scared physically and emotionally?
3. Was her relationship with Melvyn Douglas realistic? Did they have good screen chemistry?
4. The film has an amazing supporting cast. Did any one of them stand out to you?
5. Some critics consider A Woman’s Face a film noir. Do you think this is an accurate classification? How would you classify it?