In and out of the shadows - Joan Crawford and Conrad Veidt in "A Woman's Face", 1941

 

"A Woman's Face" is really rather a silly film. It can't decide what it wants to be. And there are unfortunate shifts in tone; told in flash-backs, the gritty - MGM's idea of gritty, anyway - melodramatics are frequently interrupted by jarring moments of flat-footed comedy. It's too bad, because the photography is often quite beautiful and there are moments of brilliance, mostly whenever Conrad Veidt is on screen. His Torsten Barring is first fascinated, even aroused, by Crawford's character's scarred face, disfigured soul, recognizing in the professional blackmailer a kindred spirit; “We are both proud, both wretched.” And later, her Anna Holm, face miraculously restored, once having longed for him, is now trapped by his will, unable to extricate herself from his evil plans. Their scenes together are fairly electric.

Conrad Veidt

Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (January 22, 1893, Berlin – April 3, 1943, Los Angeles), German actor best known for his roles in the films The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Thief of Bagdad, and Casablanca. He had a very successful career in German cinema, but after the Nazis came to power in 1933, he and his new, third wife, who was Jewish, emigrated to England and, later, to the United States.

Like the afore-blogged Peter Lorre, I find Veidt peculiarly beautiful.  And even more so in movement than in repose.  Of course, he's best remembered as the Nazi Major Strasser in Casablanca, but of the performances of his that I've seen, his Torsten Barring in A Woman's Face - a very uneven Joan Crawford picture - is probably my favorite; as he described his character, "I'm Lucifer in a tuxedo!"  He's the best thing about the film.

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