Vengeance d'artiste

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.

This movie is a nice little gem, mainly for the witty dialog and impressive rank of actors who clearly enjoyed their work. No surprise there -- just look at the writers, source material and cast. Even the supporting players had great lines that they delivered with gusto. None of it is very realistic, but the set-up is great, much of the acting is over-the-top fun, and there is a great deal of humor. The finale is interesting -- it won't please everyone, but it is even-handed -- both pre-code and code aspects. See it and you will know what I mean. Incidentally, as another reviewer here noted, the TV Guide review (you have to go to the TV Guide website to see it) is WRONG about important parts of the plot and especially the ending. It is as though their reviewer did not see the movie!

If this film has a weak spot it's the story's details. Without giving anything away the whole idea of Vance's (Calhern) Svengali-like hypnotic effect on his wife (Astor) is a bit far-fetched, even for 1934. And quite frankly Robinson's disguise left a lot to be desired. And let's not forget the clue that clinched the policeman's case. I can't imagine building a case of such flimsy evidence. There's other areas of concern but I digress. Now for the good part: where the film shines is in the performances. This bevy of fine actors does a most excellent job at presenting complex characters driven by events not of their own choosing. It's a pretty talky film but I didn't mind in the least. The dialog is spirited, lively, expressive. And the performers tended to make me forget the plot's weak points. They were captivating, all of them, Robinson, Astor, Calhern, Cortez (in a rare good guy part), and last but not least, Mae Clarke, in my opinion a most underrated actor.

George S. Kaufman was one of the towering figures of 20th Century American theater. He occasionally lent his enormous talent to Hollywood as in the Marx Brothers'"A Night at the Opera," but he is best known for adaptations of his theater work. Kaufman frequently worked with collaborators as varied as Moss Hart and Edna Ferber and here combined his prodigious talent with a fellow member of the renowned Algonquin Round Table, acerbic critic Alexander Woollcott. The resultant thriller with comic overtones, "The Dark Tower," reminds the viewer of "Sleuth," a great showcase for actors with a flair for theatrics and makeup.

Like "Sleuth" its impact comes from the revelation rather late in the play that one actor has been playing dual roles, but "The Man with Two Faces" telegraphs that surprise because of the very nature of the film medium. Even the most casual viewer will realize quite quickly that Damon Wells and Jules Chautard are both played by Edward G. Robinson after the first close-up of the bearded Frenchman. The film's producers seem to have conceded that point with the changeover to the title "The Man with Two Faces" in order to promote contract player Robinson as a deserving successor to Lon Chaney. So what is the movie's great appeal?

Although the storyline comes out of 19th Century melodramatic tradition, the actors tackle their roles with such enthusiasm, the film becomes a guilty pleasure.

Mary Astor is Jessica Wells, a beautiful and talented actress returning to the stage after a three year absence due to an undisclosed mental breakdown. Although her triumphal comeback seems certain, family and friends are shocked when Vance, her long-lost husband, shows up at the family home. Louis Calhern plays this slimy character with flamboyant relish as Vance immediately exerts his influence on the usually vivacious Jessica. She is Trilby to his Svengali as she immediately reverts to a sleepwalking automaton blindly obeying his every wish.

The authors never make clear what the hold Vance has on her is, but hints of a Caliostro-like hypnotic power are suggested. The avaricious and opportunistic Vance has heard that his estranged wife holds half the rights to the current play, a prospective mega-hit with her in the cast, but a sure flop with Jessica in her current somnambulist state. Calhern plays the vain, larcenous conman with obvious over-the-top élan. He feeds cheese to the pet mice he carries with him in a cage, threatens to kick in the head of an elderly housekeeper, punches his wife in the face with a pinkie ring, and orders garishly gaudy silk ties on the family's dime.

Robinson plays Jessica's loyal but alcoholic brother, who goes on the wagon to lend his theatrical prestige and expertise to his sister's comeback while helping her to reclaim her talent as her on-stage acting coach. He quickly realizes that the viperous Vance must be dealt with once and for all (crunched "underfoot on the sidewalk" according to Jessica's manager, Ricardo Cortez), so he enters into an elaborate sting that will get rid of the vermin-like Vance permanently.

The bravura of Calhern's enjoyably shameless overplaying is balanced by Robinson's subtle underplaying, and several of the supporting roles are extremely well done -- especially Arthur Landau as an homicide detective, Emily Fitzroy as a crusty housekeeper, and Warner favorite Mae Clarke as Robinson's low-rent girlfriend.

In order to substitute for the loss of the play's original surprise revelation of the dual role, the authors have substituted a wryly ironic denouement, surprisingly satisfying for this highly enjoyable Pre-Code black comedy.

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.