Lady Scarface

B-movies like "Lady Scarface" from 1941 are all of a piece. The basic plot usually concerns an ambitious female reporter and the good- looking police detective in her way; they're in love but don't know it yet.

This film, starring Dennis O'Keefe as the detective and Frances Neal as the reporter, is no different with one exception. Dame Judith Anderson stars as Slade, the the scar-faced head of a robbery gang. This isn't the first time I've seen Anderson go off-type - in the film Blood Money, a precode, she plays a glamorous bejeweled nightclub owner. When you think about one of the great stars of the theater getting these kinds of roles, it's laughable, particularly after her performance in Rebecca as Mrs. Danvers.

Anyway, the film concerns robbery money mistakenly picked up by newlyweds (Mildred Coates and Rand Brooks) and detective O'Keefe following the money in an attempt to trace the crooks.

Rand Brooks of course was Charles Hamilton in "Gone with the Wind". A little bit of trivia - despite enjoying a long career in films and television, Rand owned a private ambulance service, recognized as one of the best in the country.

Entertaining film, worth seeing for Anderson.

Police lieutenant (Dennis O'Keefe) and a nosey reporter (Frances Neal) pursue bank robbers led by a scar-faced lady gangster (Judith Anderson) named Slade. Disappointing because it's less about Anderson's character than O'Keefe's. It's a nice change of pace for Judith Anderson, who is more well-known for her serious parts in films like Rebecca. She gets to sling some snappy gangster lingo, which I'm sure was fun for her. I just wish there was more of her. For their part, O'Keefe and Neal are okay if a little bland. The grumpy cop/lady reporter dynamic had become a cliché by this point, done best perhaps by the Torchy Blane series. The supporting cast is good, featuring the likes of Arthur Shields, Marc Lawrence, Eric Blore, and pretty blonde Marion Martin. Short runtime helps but focus on the boring cop/reporter plot rather than the gangster stuff is a major flaw.

`Always leave them wanting more' is one of the hoary axioms of show business, but why there isn't more of Lady Scarface in Lady Scarface is a better mystery than anything the movie has to offer. The title role, a tough Chicago mob boss, falls to Judith Anderson, who more often than not was the best thing in any movie where she happened to appear (e.g. her Mrs. Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca). Title character or no, she takes second billing to Dennis O'Keefe as a minion of the law pursuing her; the billing accurately reflects the screen time each is allotted.

It's a pity, since, apart from Anderson, Lady Scarface is just another print struck from the template of light crime programmers. The bulk of the movie has to do with O'Keefe's following money to New York in order to smoke out the gang. And, to cover all the bases, there's mistaken identity involving a newlywed couple; comic relief in the form of a beef-witted hotel detective and fussy Eric Blore; and a matey romance between O'Keefe and Frances Neal.

But Anderson took her assignments seriously; she brings the same steel to Lady Scarface as she would later to Lady Macbeth. (The movie could have settled for a lesser villain, and Anderson should have held out for a better movie.) The last scene, in which she steals into the Leonard Sheldon Hotel disguised as a chambermaid, looks very much like the final confrontation between James Bond and Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love. Was that an hommage, or just a steal?

The Film is Highlighted by Every Scene with the Dame known as Lady Scarface (Judith Anderson). There is Early Noir Inspiration in the Choice of Showing the Dark Character's Entrance in Striking Shadow. When the "Lady" is in Person the Flesh Crawls. Her Voice is a Siren from Hell.

But when She is Off Screen the Movie Sinks to Comedy Relief and Cartoonish Romantic Boredom. It is Gut-Wrenchingly Awful at Times and comes off as Less a Crime Thriller and more like Nancy Drew. Talk about a Misfire.

Worth a Watch for the Lady Scarface Scenes and Little Else. A Curiosity at Best and is Burdened Beyond Belief by All of the Rest of the Sickly, Smarmy, Sappiness.

Judith Anderson is lots of fun as the gangster of the title. She's a bad woman, all right. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark: Anderson. (References and allusions to "Hamlet," in which she played the Melancholy Dane on stage, abound here.) She is beautifully shot in shows by Nick Musaraca. But alas! The movie is for the most part a routine romantic faux thriller. It's kind of a riff on the Torchy Blane series: A police detective investigates a case. A female reporter is after the same story. Which of them will get it? Will they get each other? These concerns (never mysterious in any incarnation) are the primary concerns.

Alas poor Judith! She did so well.