A Woman's Face (1941)

A bitter young woman (Joan Crawford) with a disfigured face due to a fire when she was a child despises everyone around her. When a plastic surgeon (Melvyn Douglas) corrects the disfigurement, she is torn between her loathsome criminal lover (Conrad Veidt) and starting a new life. Based on the play IL ETAIT UNE FOIS by Francis De Croisset which was previously filmed in Sweden in 1938 with Ingrid Bergman. Directed by George Cukor, this MGM remake keeps the Swedish setting. This is one of Joan Crawford's very best performances. It's a restrained and nuanced performance without the mannerisms that would infect her acting when she went to Warner Brothers. George Cukor had a reputation of being a "woman's director" because he brought out the best in his actresses including Garbo in CAMILLE, Ingrid Bergman in GASLIGHT, Katharine Hepburn in PHILADELPHIA STORY and Judy Garland in A STAR IS BORN to name but a handful so I suspect he might have had a lot to do with Crawford's superior work here. The film itself is a solid melodrama incorporating a flashback structure as Crawford is on trial for murder. With Marjorie Main, Osa Massen, Albert Bassermann, Reginald Owen, Connie Gilchrist, George Zucco, Donald Meek and Henry Daniell.