A Woman's Face (Cukor, 1941) #DTC 1407

A criminal woman with a disfigured face is restored to beauty and (some sort of) innocence.

Not too many details stick to the mind from this one. There are a lot of interesting close-up shots of Crawford, hiding the disfigured side of her face under a hat. The story seems to be concerned with the new magic of the times of applied psychology and restoration surgery.

There is one fantastic scene where Crawford rides on a cable car, with a little boy she is supposed to kill. Her back and forth, until she decides that she cannot do it, are quite remarkable. Another memorable moment was the horse sled chase. Nothing compared to modern chase sequences, but the idea struck me as very original.

The film might have been quite enjoyable at the time, but has not aged too well in my opinion. It might be a good example of a highly structured screenplay, I think:

Setting up the blackmail and the operation
At the new home

A new life at the farmhouse
She has to kill the boy and will get arrested at one point

Hunting down the real killer and showdown in court

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