I'm having a hard time recalling a movie that sank itself so completely by the ending like "The Man with Two Faces" did. This movie was sailing along so smoothly then hit an iceberg that sank the ship and killed everyone onboard. It had everything to do with the way a detective solved the murder of Stanley Vance (Louis Calhern)--if you want to call it "solving" the murder.
The important characters were Damon Wells (Edward G. Robinson), Jessica Wells (Mary Astor), Ben Weston (Ricardo Cortez), and Stanley Vance (Louis Calhern). Ben was a play producer. His main actors were Damon and Jessica Wells, brother and sister. They all had big plans until Jessica's husband, Stanley Vance, showed up out of nowhere. When Stanley entered the home they were all congregated at, the proverbial record stopped playing. Everyone and everything came to a halt and everyone stared--or more accurately they glared at Stanley. It was clear that he was not welcome.
What was stranger was how Jessica, his wife, behaved when she saw him. She became impassive and blank. She started behaving like a robot awaiting specific instructions. From then on it was as if she was hypnotized. Hypnotized to obey none but her husband Stanley. As her brother Damon told Stanley, "Normally, my sister is the most promising young actress in America. But with you around, she turns into a colorless automaton that I wouldn't trust to carry a tray across the stage."
If it was just that Stanley had mind control over his wife, then that would be enough to make him an unlikeable figure, but beyond that he was a horrible person. If Jessica and the world were going to be free of Stanley, someone was going to have to buy him off or bump him off.
Damon opted to bump him off and his plan was ingenious.
Damon made himself up and pretended to be a Frenchman named Jules Chautard, someone interested in buying Jessica's stake in the theater production she was a part of. Stanley took over the negotiating with Chautard because his plan was to take the money and run, except Damon killed him.
Damon murdered Stanley in a hotel room, hid his body in a closet, wiped down everything, and left. The whole city was looking for Jules Chautard when he was just a fictional character.
Damon was totally in the clear except that he left behind a fake mustache. A fake mustache in reality wouldn't mean much of anything, but a detective named Curtis (David Landau) was able to piece together the entire murder from that one fake mustache.
First, he figured that an actor had to have been in that hotel room due to the fake mustache as if no one but actors could access fake mustaches. Second, he was able to recognize and remember that Damon Wells was an actor. Finally, and most improbably, Curtis recalled a role Damon Wells played fifteen years earlier in a small New York theater in which he played a Frenchman. Curtis put all of these tenuously connected things together and built a case on it.
His next move was to present this "evidence" and this theory to Damon. When I thought Damon would laugh in Curtis's face he did the opposite. He all but admitted his guilt. There was nothing to deny because Curtis hadn't made an accusation; all Damon had to do was scoff at the theory, or even brush it off like it was meaningless. Instead, he gave the theory credence by having an terribly worried look. It was a look of worry and surprise that he made such a simple mistake.
That was all Curtis needed. It was such a damper.
Here it is, Damon is supposed to be one of the finest actors in the country and he couldn't act innocent?!? A five-year-old could've acted more innocently than Damon did. What Curtis had was nothing more than a theory. In reality he didn't even have enough to get an arrest warrant. The only physical evidence he had was a fake mustache. Damon could EASILY deny it was his. After that, Curtis had NOTHING. So, for them to wrap up the movie with Curtis confirming his theory was juvenile and it totally ruined the movie.
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The important characters were Damon Wells (Edward G. Robinson), Jessica Wells (Mary Astor), Ben Weston (Ricardo Cortez), and Stanley Vance (Louis Calhern). Ben was a play producer. His main actors were Damon and Jessica Wells, brother and sister. They all had big plans until Jessica's husband, Stanley Vance, showed up out of nowhere. When Stanley entered the home they were all congregated at, the proverbial record stopped playing. Everyone and everything came to a halt and everyone stared--or more accurately they glared at Stanley. It was clear that he was not welcome.
What was stranger was how Jessica, his wife, behaved when she saw him. She became impassive and blank. She started behaving like a robot awaiting specific instructions. From then on it was as if she was hypnotized. Hypnotized to obey none but her husband Stanley. As her brother Damon told Stanley, "Normally, my sister is the most promising young actress in America. But with you around, she turns into a colorless automaton that I wouldn't trust to carry a tray across the stage."
If it was just that Stanley had mind control over his wife, then that would be enough to make him an unlikeable figure, but beyond that he was a horrible person. If Jessica and the world were going to be free of Stanley, someone was going to have to buy him off or bump him off.
Damon opted to bump him off and his plan was ingenious.
Damon made himself up and pretended to be a Frenchman named Jules Chautard, someone interested in buying Jessica's stake in the theater production she was a part of. Stanley took over the negotiating with Chautard because his plan was to take the money and run, except Damon killed him.
Damon murdered Stanley in a hotel room, hid his body in a closet, wiped down everything, and left. The whole city was looking for Jules Chautard when he was just a fictional character.
Damon was totally in the clear except that he left behind a fake mustache. A fake mustache in reality wouldn't mean much of anything, but a detective named Curtis (David Landau) was able to piece together the entire murder from that one fake mustache.
First, he figured that an actor had to have been in that hotel room due to the fake mustache as if no one but actors could access fake mustaches. Second, he was able to recognize and remember that Damon Wells was an actor. Finally, and most improbably, Curtis recalled a role Damon Wells played fifteen years earlier in a small New York theater in which he played a Frenchman. Curtis put all of these tenuously connected things together and built a case on it.
His next move was to present this "evidence" and this theory to Damon. When I thought Damon would laugh in Curtis's face he did the opposite. He all but admitted his guilt. There was nothing to deny because Curtis hadn't made an accusation; all Damon had to do was scoff at the theory, or even brush it off like it was meaningless. Instead, he gave the theory credence by having an terribly worried look. It was a look of worry and surprise that he made such a simple mistake.
That was all Curtis needed. It was such a damper.
Here it is, Damon is supposed to be one of the finest actors in the country and he couldn't act innocent?!? A five-year-old could've acted more innocently than Damon did. What Curtis had was nothing more than a theory. In reality he didn't even have enough to get an arrest warrant. The only physical evidence he had was a fake mustache. Damon could EASILY deny it was his. After that, Curtis had NOTHING. So, for them to wrap up the movie with Curtis confirming his theory was juvenile and it totally ruined the movie.
Free on Odnoklassniki.