Another Face

Dir. Christy Cabanne

69 Minutes

USA

1935

Starring: Wallace Ford, Brian Donlevy, Phyllis Brooks, Erik Rhodes, Molly Lamont, Alan Hale

***/*****

Combining the gangster drama with a backstage Hollywood story, Another Face is entertaining while being somewhat perplexing in what it wants to say about its subject. Brian Donlevy plays Broken Nose Dawson, a criminal who has the distinguishing facial feature of a busted nose. At the start he visits a plastic surgeon who gives him a new face (which is basically just Donlevy without the prosthetic). And he looks good. So good, that he ends up becoming a movie star. First as a gangster, but then wanting to stop being typecast and do some REAL acting, until the doctor's nurse shows up and blows the entire charade. Wallace Ford plays an agent alongside Phyllis Brooks as the movie-within-a-movie lead actress (with a pre-Gone with the Wind Hattie McDaniel as her maid!)

While mostly unremarkable (with very little style to speak up), there are certain pleasures to be had here. The tonal shift after the opening surgery scene to more Hollywood farce comedy is intriguing, and it is great fun watching Donlevy "correct" the filmmakers about "gangster things", such as the correct way to hold a gun. And watching him become more delusional as a performer is quite funny (part of me could not shake scenes from Ramis' misguided (but not awful) Analyze That, which has a tone mildly similar to what is on hand here). And the whole affair is quite short, not overstaying its welcome at about an hour ten. But the narrative does lose steam, especially at the (re)introduction of the nurse, which may simply come too early as the movie somewhat stalls and goes on autopilot up to its climax (and I thought the ending was going into territory akin to something like Shadow of the Vampire, where the movie being filmed is given precedence over the survival of the actors, but it goes for a more routine finish).

August 17th, 2019