The Three Faces Of Eve
Picture: C+
Sound: C Extras: C+ Film: B-
Joanne Woodward is a very respected actress, who has been
celebrated as recently as James Ivory’s Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990),
but she does not work as often as she used to.
One of the roles that has stood out for decades has been her famed
performance in producer/writer/director Nunnally Johnson’s The Three Faces
Of Eve, roughly based on a book two real life doctors (Corbett H. Thigpen
& Harvey M. Cleckley) wrote.
Considering the film is from 1957 and nearly a half-century old,
Woodward’s performance endures quite well.
The film is sometimes another story.
Though the circumstances that are revealed in her
character becoming that way have weight, a big problem is that her husband (the
great David Wayne) is such a bastard that the film lets him off the hook as if
it was fine for him to be so mean to her just because she is sick. He is like this because he “just does not
understand” the situation, which might be feasible when he is ignorant once,
but that collapses when his selfishness and hatefulness happens over and over
again. Old Hollywood films pass this
dysfunctional behavior off as “something that happens” and it is simply
inexcusable and any film that lets it slide this much is perpetuating his
illness at the expense of us all; especially problematic in a film about
multiple personality. “That’s reality
man” does not cut it either.
Part of the problem is that the film still wants to be
somewhat of a melodrama and “women’s film” at a time when TV soap operas had
not overtaken their radio drama equivalents and Hollywood wanted to keep it
that way. This contradicts the sound
medical and dramatic segments of the film that dominate enough to keep it as
good as it is. Woodward is just so
compelling, though feminist critics may argue some virgin/whore complex on the
part of Nunnally for the way two of the characters split, and they would be
right when you throw in the problem with Wayne’s husband character in the first
place. Add the problems with the odd
Hollywood kind of ending and it is amazing the film holds up as it does. It still needs some analysis of its own,
having as many personalities as Eve herself.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 x 1 image was originally
shot in CinemaScope by Stanley Cortez, A.S.C., on black and white film. The transfer is good enough for this DVD,
but not the best we have seen for a monochrome scope film to date. Maybe this is a professional analog NTSC
transfer, but it should be said that the CinemaScope system does tend to
distort the image a bit to begin with.
Though not filled with any fancy form, it is a very competent job and
use of scope, with a few straightforward flashback sequences. The Dolby Digital is available in volume
problematic 2.0 Stereo and original monophonic sound. In the Stereo mix, the music is often louder than the dialogue,
which is not good. You should be
careful about playing that version too loudly, even if you have something like
Pro Logic II. Regular Pro Logic did not
help the situation either. Extras
include Fox Movietone footage of Woodward getting The Oscar for Best Actress,
trailers for this and a few other DVDs form their classic library and an audio
commentary by Aubrey Solomon that is informative and fact filled. It just misses some points.
- Nicholas Sheffo
