In one of Edward G Robinson's most entertaining films, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, he has the appearance of an old man trying to cure a dangerous disease. This movie is similar because Robinson making himself look old is one of the core parts of the story, but he only pretends to be in order to achieve deception. The Man With Two Faces isn't an especially memorable or excellent movie, but it does have one of my favorite actors in it so I decided to see it. In this movie, Mary Astor (who would later find fame for her role in Maltese Falcon) plays Jessica, a stage actress returning after a long hiatus. Right before getting back to work, Jessica is surprised at home by the visit of Stanley Vance (Louis Calhern), who used to be married to her and also committed some terrible crimes in the past. Jessica's brother Damon (Robinson) wants to get Vance out of the way so that Jessica's comeback will be a definite success, so he dresses up as an elderly Frenchman named Jules Chautard. Damon poses as Chautard and invites Stanley to his office, offering to pay him for Jessica's play. However, Damon drugs and murders him in a closet. Shortly after, the police seemingly know that the old french guy was responsible, but Damon is able to simply take off his costume and get rid of any suspicion. Unfortunately for Damon, his cover is blown when a cop discovers the fake mustache he used as Chautard looks suspiciously similar to something an actor would use (and he's right). Damon is not arrested right away because the police knew all about Stanley's bad behavior, and Damon is given the chance to act his way out of a murder charge. This is one of several 1930s movies that are so unknown today that I wasn't really able to find anything on how contemporary audiences reacted to the film. I'm estimating that they probably had the same reaction that I did, as Robinson gives a good performance, but he's only truly great if the movie is great. The plot in this isn't really that interesting so his efforts feel kind of wasted. It was nice just to see him at all, because I enjoy discovering footage of him I never knew existed.
Review of The Man with Two Faces
