The Man with Two Faces

Edward G. Robinson always gives a solid performance, but in The Man with Two Faces, he's given the wonderful opportunity to play a double part and show off the French accent he could have used if he'd been cast in The Story of Louis Pasteur. He's really fantastic, and if you aren't looking for it, you might not even recognize that it's him!

Eddie G plays a theater director who also acts alongside his sister, Mary Astor. Mary used to be married and controlled by her evil husband, but after she died, she was able to enjoy freedom and a renewed career. Unfortunately, her husband isn't as dead as everyone thought, and Louis Calhern makes an entrance right before the Broadway debut. Louis is so incredibly creepy, it's a wonder he had any career after this film. Mary is literally hypnotized by him and turns into an obeying robot whenever in his presence. It's eerie, and you'll probably feel like you need a good scrubbing after watching the movie. I had a double feature handy for later in the evening, even though Eddie G's performance was very entertaining to watch.

Great acting from Robinson, and a little over the top, but enjoyably so, from Calhern and Astor. Very stagey, but good setups and moving camera. Beware the plot synopsis in the TV Guide movie database. It seems to describe the ending of the play, but the movie (a censored version?), which played on TCM, has a more ambiguous ending which works better and is more interesting (to me, at least). (Not that I'm for censorship, but sometimes...) Ironically, the play had a happy ending, and that is the one described by TV Guide and Maltin. It's amusing to see when the established references contain reviews that were written by people who had not seen the entire film, and in some cases not at all.

Edward G. Robinson turns in a pair of great performances as both an actor theatrical impresario and as a character he plays out in real life as a possible investor in his new show which stars his sister Mary Astor. Thus Robinson becomes The Man With Two Faces.

Things seem to be going well when Louis Calhern shows up. He was actually thought dead and had very few who mourned him. Calhern is a thorough going cad, in a few years his would have been a part that George Sanders would have relished. But he has a strange Svengali like influence over Astor and for her sake he's barely tolerated.

Robinson has had a scheme long in the making about Calhern. The problem is that Calhern is in need of money. That's where Robinson as the investor comes in.

Don't want to give too much away. The film is based on a George S. Kaufman-Alexander Woollcott play The Dark Tower. I thought it a strange product for Kaufman. None of the satirical wit is present or at least in this film version, it might have been drained antiseptic by the newly placed Code.

However Robinson is outstanding and his fans should The Man With Two Faces.

A play is about to have it's opening night when something awful happens....Stanley Vance (Louis Calhern) arrives. It seems that everyone thought he was dead...and hoped this was the case. But this malicious jerk is somehow alive and he's arrived for one reason....to destroy his wife's play until he is paid off to just go away again! It seems that Jessica (Mary Astor) is like a zombie around the Svengali-like Stanley...as if he is exerting some sort of mind control over her...and she seems helpless to stop him from ruining everything. Everyone hates Stanley...everybody. So you assume sooner or later Stanley is going to suffer some 'accident' which will permanently remove this vicious jerk from the picture. But who and how...that is what you'll have to find out when you watch the picture.

I really enjoyed watching Louis Calhern. He was delightfully awful...sort of like watching a cat toying with a mouse before ultimately snuffing it. He must have had a great time doing this...and he was excellent. I also loved that this is the sort of film where the audience is pulling for the murder to happen AND for the killer to get away with it...something which helped make "The Suspect" one of the best movies of its day. Overall, a very entertaining film...well acted, well written and very enjoyable.

It's one of those films where you can tell those involved really enjoyed making it. When else would they get such a chance to ham it up so gloriously! That enjoyment they exude and that fun just bubbles out of the screen at you.

You might not think that watching a load of luvvies pretending to be even bigger luvvies would be fun but darlings, you'll be surprised. It's a bit slow at the start but as soon as Mr Calhern appears it's all action. Both EGR's self satisfied yet loveable luvvie and Louis Calhern's brilliantly unpleasant cad both reminded me very much of Clifton Webb's marvellously sarcastic, pompous Waldo Lydecker in Preminger's 1944 classic LAURA. They make a magnificently entertaining sparing couple.

The real credit here goes to the snappy and witty script that's based on a play by the 'real life' Waldo Lydecker, Alexander Woollcott and George Kaufman. And let's not forget director Archie Mayo - he might have made an awful lot of trash but he also made some absolute classics too. This isn't one of his best - its pace is a little inconsistent at times and the ending is horribly rushed but it's still a pretty polished production.

One of the pitfalls pictures about acting have is that they try to be too thespian, too professional about everything. Characters making witty and cutting remarks about a fictional director's skill on the screen can fall flat if what the audience is actually watching what looks like it's directed by a chimpanzee. They have to be very careful. This overcomes this problem with its dark humour and sense of utter absurdity. It's both very clever and very silly. It doesn't take itself too seriously but still retains its edge. Not a film to watch over and over again but it certainly deserves at least one viewing.