Another Face

Broken Nose Dawson is a brutal gangster on the run from NY police. Crooked Dr. Buler does a facial reconstruction surgery with reluctant nurse Mary McCall (Molly Lamont). With a new face fit for the movies, he (Brian Donlevy) sets off for Hollywood posing as playboy Spencer Dutro. He sends his underling Muggsie Brown to take out the doctor and sets up Muggsie with the cops. He thinks that he's free and clear. Unbeknownst to him, nurse McCall knows his secret and quits her job before the hit.

I love this concept for a thriller drama. Dawson trying to break into Hollywood is a little funny, but there is no tension in it. This is trying to be a screwball comedy. With an unlikely turn, Mary gets back into the story which does finally has some tension. It's a lot of silly comedic turns and unreasonable characters. A more compelling story would center on McCall trying to convince anybody about Broken Nose Dawson. If it's years later and Dawson became a big star, nobody would believe her.

This film may very well have been Brian Donlevy's worst film. Had it been done at Warner Brothers, Jack Warner would have punished Humphrey Bogart by casting him in Donlevy's unbelievable role.

The problem is that this film can't make its mind up. Donlevy is a stone killer like he was in the film that launched him, Barbary Coast and then he acts like the lovable mug he was in The Great McGinty. If RKO was going to play it for laughs they should have stuck to it being a satire.

Brian Donlevy, notorious gangster from New York, gets a facelift and goes to Hollywood after murdering the physician and nurse who did the job and ratting out a colleague who the police do in. Unfortunately there's another nurse on the premises he doesn't know about who witnesses the double homicide.

So with his new found freedom, what does our fugitive on the run do? Why he decides to live out a dream and he goes to Hollywood saying he's a rich playboy who wants to get in the movies. v

Donlevy's naturalness with gangster roles intrigues studio boss Alan Hale and publicity man Wallace Ford. For the rest of this film you have to see it to believe it.

This has some of the same plot situations as James Cagney's far better film at Warner Brothers, Lady Killer. But Lady Killer was light years better than this.

Brian Donlevy must have shuddered when somebody mentioned this one to him later on.

This was a pretty low budget film from Warners considering it starred Wallace Ford and Brian Donlevy (Warners had lots of bigger name gangster actors at this time). However, despite this being a very slight movie and one that has some stupid moments (mostly involving Wallace Ford's character), it is still worth seeing--even if it loses steam towards the end of the film.

The first half of the film is great. Donlevy is a gangster wanted by the cops. He is a hideous man that is easy to recognize. However, he finds an evil plastic surgeon and afterwards he is kind of handsome. But, Donlevy thinks he is incredibly handsome and goes to Hollywood where, due to his HUGE ego, he knows he'll be a star. Well, his acting actually stinks and the only reason he is put in a gangster film is because the studio PR man thinks Donlevy is a rich playboy--and putting him in a film would drum up interest in the movie. Later, though, they find out who he really is and the very interesting movie then essentially becomes a 2nd-rate comedy of errors--and loses steam.

I think the film would have been better with more Donlevy and less Ford--his character was really annoying and stupid. However, the general plot idea isn't bad. To see a better but similar film, see Jimmy Cagney's film, LADY KILLER (1933).

In Another Face, a wanted gangster gets plastic surgery to start a new life. The plot has been done before (Humphrey Bogart and Paul Henreid had their own versions), but if you like these types of movies, check out Brian Donlevy's take on it. At the start of the film, he has a face nose, fake teeth, blonde hair, and a ruddy complexion. His new handsome mug is the one we all know and love, and it's quite fun to see him admiring himself in the mirror at every opportunity.

The rest of the plot is quite stupid, but anyone who chooses a profession in either the mafia or Hollywood isn't known for his intelligence. Brian, in his new life, decides he wants to be a movie star. The funniest scene of the movie is his screen test, in which he says and does everything wrong. But the vast majority of the movie isn't that funny. It's full of characters who make stupid decisions, and there's a plot hole that's quite shocking: anyone who assisted on a full facial plastic surgery operation wouldn't know what the man would look like after he was healed up and ready for the public. Brian's face would have been bloody, bruised, and swollen, but maybe 1932 audiences didn't know that.

Another two bit police drama. A psychotic crook with a broken nose gets it fixed so he won't be recognized. Once he gets his new face he heads off to Hollywood to become a matinee idol. He manages to act a little, but the nurse who aided in his plastic surgery recognizes him (the doctor had been killed earlier). So things play out with the guy trying to work but there is danger all around him. There is little to this thing. If you watch too many of these things they are so formulaic that they're barely worth the time. You have a male and female lead who are about as boring as you can get. Then you have a ditzy woman and her idiotic boyfriend. Don't bother.