Tres caras tiene Eva

'The Three Faces of Eve' tells the true story of a housewife who suffers from the condition recognized as dissociative identity disorder today. Nunnally Johnson's movie entirely focuses on the experience of Eve White, Eve Black and Jane during a period of a couple of years beginning from the time she started visiting her psychologist. This is unlike many of the 50s movies I've seen because it deals with several adult themes such as divorce, spousal abuse, sex and childhood trauma unlike the comparatively melodramatic films that were so popular at the time. Nunnally proves to be a fine storyteller as the meticulous writing is rich, tight and full of depth and the direction is great. I liked how he showed the 'treatment process'. It was cleverly downplayed in the story. The execution is done with skill. 'The Three Faces of Eve' has some outstanding nuanced performances. Lee J. Cobb is restrained as Eve's psychologist but it is Joanne Woodward who carries the film. She is simply sublime. Since then there have been numerous movies on dissociative identity disorder but 'The Three Faces of Eve' is the pioneer but that's not the reason why the movie ought to be watched because even as a stand alone, it works very well as a captivating character study.

In 1951, in Georgia, the submissive housewife and mother Eve White (Joanne Woodward) is brought by her husband Ralph White (David Wayne) to a consultation with Doctor Curtis Luther (Lee J. Cobb) since she has painful headaches followed by blackouts with no recollections of what she did. The rude Ralph tells that she bought expensive clothing and hurt their daughter Bonnie during one of these blackouts. Dr. Luther begins her therapy and soon Eve shows a new personality, the reckless and wild Eve Black that hates Ralph and loves to drink and dance with other men, and Dr. Luther diagnoses a case of multiple personality to his colleague Doctor Francis Day (Edwin Jerome).

Ralph moves with Bonnie to Jacksonville and Eve continues her treatment. She tells that she is hearing voices, and Dr. Luther uses hypnosis to disclose more about her trauma. Out of the blue, a third personality emerges and tells that she is Jane that shows that is a balanced personality. Dr. Luther questions which personality should be the predominant.

"The Three Faces of Eve" is based on a true story and based on a book written by two medical doctors about a case of multiple personality in Georgia. I do not know the impact of Nunnally Johnson's movie in 1957 since it is dated in the present days. But it is still a good docudrama, especially because of the magnificent performance of Joanne Woodward in the role of three different women. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "As Três Máscaras de Eva" ("The Three Masks of Eve")

Joanne Woodward was wonderful in this movie. She really showed the confusion and hardship surrounding multiple personality disorder. Years later, however, I found a book called, "I'm Eve". It was the autobiography of Chris Sizemore, the person the movie is based on. If you would like the continuation of this story, and there is a lot more, then this book is a must read.

Joanne Woodward is simply amazing as a woman who suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. She is very believable, and is fantastic in all three personalities, Eve White/Eve Black/Jane. Lee J Cobb is also great as the doctor who treats her. In my opinion one of the greatest "Best Actress Academy Award" winning performances that I have watched. She deserves all the critical acclaim and awards that she won. 10 out of 10.

For dramatic effect movies about mental illness always have the psychiatrist coming up with a miracle cure of the patient. You saw that in Spellbound with Gregory Peck and in The Snake Pit with Olivia DeHavilland. It's not that easy, but it does make for good cinema. To give credit where it is do, The Three Faces of Eve is about a real case of multiple personality disorder and Alistair Cooke's narration does give it a proper time frame, the cure is a matter of years here.

In only her third feature film Joanne Woodward became the Best Actress for 1957, ironically beating out Elizabeth Taylor who was descending into madness in Raintree County instead of being cured. I read somewhere that the Southern born Ms. Woodward remarked ironically that it took years of training for her to lose her southern accent and then she has to find it all over again to win her Oscar. I guess the Academy voters that year were as impressed as I was how she was able to flip into three different characters in many scenes. She's drab homemaker Eve White, a Tennessee Williams sexpot as Eve Black, and as Jane who's trying to leave both behind.

As good as Woodward is, my favorite scene in The Three Faces of Eve is when psychiatrist Lee J. Cobb tries to explain to Woodward's working class husband David Wayne about multiple personality disorder. The patient looks on Cobb's face and the blank expression on Wayne's face say more than ten pages of dialog. Another performance to look for is that of future TV physician Ben Casey, Vincent Edwards as a soldier trying to pick up Woodward in her sex kitten self.

Nunnally Johnson gets some real good performances out of his cast and a once in a lifetime role for Joanne Woodward.