A Woman's Face (1941) Joan Crawford, Osa Massen *HD* Clip 3

I agree with reviewer Alice Liddell that this film, directed by 'women's director' George Cukor (I felt this was his work, even before I saw the credits) slyly points up the limitations of women's experience. The lead character, Anna (Crawford) is a potentially beautiful woman but for one thing: as a child, she was horribly disfigured by a burn scar which she received at the hands of her brutal, drunken father. Cukor is the perfect director for this type of woman's film, this is his element. This is not merely a noirish, humid romance/murder saga, the director gives us a sensitive essay on the effects of beauty in a woman's life. This isn't a simple parable of "beauty is as beauty does". After Anna's restoration, people react differently to her. The unfairness of this is made obvious. All of a sudden the ugly ducking, mean and ignored by others is fawned over by the very same men who passed her over in years past. Ignore the plot and the surface gloss; this is a master director's essay on the tragedy of beauty and its possibilities. Once ugliness is behind her, Anna is still intent on bettering her own status at the expense of others. The story hints that all this loveliness mellows and sweetens our dark heroine. Don't believe it; she does, in fact, walk off with the man of her dreams, in true movie star fashion. But what sort of life is she walking into? Years of domestic boredom? Cukor wisely leaves this a secret--we can read anything into Anns's final destiny.