Another Face

... that being a gangster film and a satire of the film industry in this odd little film from director Christy Cabanne and RKO.

Brian Donlevy plays Broken Nose Dawson, a desperate criminal on the run. He goes to a plastic surgeon to get his appearance altered so that he can quit the rackets and retire with his ill gotten gains. After he recovers, he sends his associate to kill the plastic surgeon and his nurse and then kills the associate afterwards. Thus nobody alive can tie his new face to his old identity - BUT. The nurse who actually assisted the doctor quit when she learned who Broken Nose was and left town. Because he didn't actually kill the doctor and nurse himself Dawson doesn't know that this witness is floating around out there.

Thinking he is in the clear, Dawson takes the identity of Spencer Dutro III, goes to Hollywood, and claims to be a wealthy guy who is interested in breaking into acting. This actually gets him a job since the studio heads thinks that a rich playboy such as Dutro in the cast will drum up interest in the film.

But then some bad luck for Dutro/Dawson. The nurse he thought he had murdered is in Hollywood too, the girlfriend of a western star, and she recognizes him on the set. Her error is telling the studio PR man (Wallace Ford as Joe Haynes) rather than the police. Joe locks her in his office closet to keep her quiet, and arranges to have Dawson arrested on the set later that evening as part of a big PR stunt.

The part of the film between Joe finding out who Dutro really is and the arrival of the police that night rather sags, but where it succeeds is in establishing PR guy Joe Haynes and his girlfriend/actress as hideous self-involved human beings. Think about it - Joe is completely OK with leaving his girlfriend close to danger all day in the person of Broken Nose Dawson if it will help his career. So when the big finale comes and these two end up being taken hostage by Dawson, I really don't care or not if they make it out alive.

I mainly watched this for Wallace Ford, because Eddie Muller has always praised the guy's talent and this was the biggest part I've seen him have, with him normally playing supporting roles.

Some giagantic plot holes in this one, but it's still kind of fun to watch it all unfold. And of course, the awesome Alan Hale (Gilligan's dad) is in it, and his films are guaranteed fun. Thug "Broken Nose" Dawson (Donlevy) gets a face lift so he can make a clean get-away, but there's still the problem of the surgeon and the nurse who did the surgery. Molly Lamont is "Mary", who tries to get away from it all as well, but fate steps in and she's back in the soup. It's a show within a show premise, with Hale as the studio boss, and Erik Rhodes as his assistant. Rhodes was always "the foreigner with the accent" in the Fred Astair and Ginger Roger films. Some pretty in-consequential roles for Jack Randall, Wallace Ford, and Phyllis Brooks. They are just along for the ride, while we see if Mary can tip off the cops before Dawson recognizes her. It's a typical caper... more complicated than it has to be, running around, getting locked in closets, but it's light hearted and fun. Directed by W.C. Cabanne, in his prime. He had started in silents and made the switch to talkies. Pretty good, but you really have to buy into it all and not look too closely.

In Another Face, a wanted gangster gets plastic surgery to start a new life. The plot has been done before (Humphrey Bogart and Paul Henreid had their own versions), but if you like these types of movies, check out Brian Donlevy's take on it. At the start of the film, he has a face nose, fake teeth, blonde hair, and a ruddy complexion. His new handsome mug is the one we all know and love, and it's quite fun to see him admiring himself in the mirror at every opportunity.

The rest of the plot is quite stupid, but anyone who chooses a profession in either the mafia or Hollywood isn't known for his intelligence. Brian, in his new life, decides he wants to be a movie star. The funniest scene of the movie is his screen test, in which he says and does everything wrong. But the vast majority of the movie isn't that funny. It's full of characters who make stupid decisions, and there's a plot hole that's quite shocking: anyone who assisted on a full facial plastic surgery operation wouldn't know what the man would look like after he was healed up and ready for the public. Brian's face would have been bloody, bruised, and swollen, but maybe 1932 audiences didn't know that.

Some people get this movie, some don't -- just look at the IMDb ratings -- but count me among those who enjoyed it. Brian Donlevy stars as a hood with a notoriously large proboscis who goes under the knife of a plastic surgeon. Not only is his nose whittled away but having taken off for California, he now believes he's ready for a new career as a movie star. Just a few small problems intervene. He has no acting talent. And he hasn't quite escaped his shady past. Donlevy plays comedy better than most people might suspect, ably supported by Alan Hale as a studio mogul and Wallace Ford as a quick-on-the-trigger press agent. If it pops up on TCM again, give it a shot. As a satire on movie-making, it's surprisingly good.

This film may very well have been Brian Donlevy's worst film. Had it been done at Warner Brothers, Jack Warner would have punished Humphrey Bogart by casting him in Donlevy's unbelievable role.

The problem is that this film can't make its mind up. Donlevy is a stone killer like he was in the film that launched him, Barbary Coast and then he acts like the lovable mug he was in The Great McGinty. If RKO was going to play it for laughs they should have stuck to it being a satire.

Brian Donlevy, notorious gangster from New York, gets a facelift and goes to Hollywood after murdering the physician and nurse who did the job and ratting out a colleague who the police do in. Unfortunately there's another nurse on the premises he doesn't know about who witnesses the double homicide.

So with his new found freedom, what does our fugitive on the run do? Why he decides to live out a dream and he goes to Hollywood saying he's a rich playboy who wants to get in the movies. v

Donlevy's naturalness with gangster roles intrigues studio boss Alan Hale and publicity man Wallace Ford. For the rest of this film you have to see it to believe it.

This has some of the same plot situations as James Cagney's far better film at Warner Brothers, Lady Killer. But Lady Killer was light years better than this.

Brian Donlevy must have shuddered when somebody mentioned this one to him later on.