This film begins as a court case, with multiple witnesses called to testify. The first witness tells a story of a small rural cafe in a pine forest in Sweden in which he was a waiter. He describes an evening in June after midnight in which a gentleman, Torsten Barring, who is living beyond his means is given his bill in front of his dinner party. Torsten, played by Conrad Veit, asks to speak to the management...their he meets the proprietor, a lovely but facially disfigured woman named Anna Holm (played by the indomitable Joan Crawford). He compliments her eyes...and she excuses his bill. This story was to establish who was working together and that something was stolen out of one of the dinner guest's pockets that evening.
"I do feel it to be the duty of every wife to have breakfast with her husband."-Vera Siegert
"To our host, may he reach heaven before the final check arrives."-dinner guest
The next witness sets up that Anna and Mr. Torsten end up having a romantic relationship.
"The softer emotions had never entered her life and then suddenly, like the unfortunate journeyman in Deuteronomy verse 17, she was hoist by her own petard. In her words, She fell for the gentleman, bustle over tea kettle."..."we laughed at first, but it soon became no joke."-witness #2 aka "innocent tool"
At one of the gang's other legal establishments, Anna and Torsten carry out their affair. With the blush of love on her, Anna buys a new spring hat and some new lace blouses. Meanwhile the gang, of which It appears Anna is the mastermind, seems to be setting up Dr. Siegert's wife Vera. Then we find what was stolen from Eric's coat at the rural cafe...love letters from wife to lover. Now the group is blackmailing Vera.
Anna, angry with Vera's beauty and Parisian gown...increases the blackmail price to 10 thousand Kroner for Vera's love letters to Eric. Vera makes a further mistake of laughing at the thought of disfigured Anna knowing what love is...and Anna wants her jewelry too! While waiting for the money and jewelry...the good husband Dr. Gustaf Siegert (played by Melvyn Douglas) arrives home stopping Anna from escaping. In her escape attempt Anna hurts her ankle...which the doctor is seeing to when he sees her disfigured face. What Anna doesn't know is that our good doctor is a plastic surgeon...he tells her he can fix it with weeks of pain and agony.
Anna is asked to testify. We learned how she was accidentally burned by a fire her father set when she was three...he saved her, but not himself and it turns out that Torsten stole the love letters. She does agree to the plastic surgery and twelve surgeries later...
"Don't spoil it...my dear Miss Holms since the first day I met you, you have presented a perfect picture of the most ruthless, terrifying, cold blooded creature I have ever met. It has been a picture that has fascinated me."-Dr. Gustaf Siegert.
Worried that he may have created a beautiful woman with no heart, a monster. He likens himself to Frankenstein.
"Well, I hadn't expected that my partner would be quiet such a silent one."-Torsten Barring.
Torsten presents a story in which he shares that he will inherit his family's money if his four-year old relative is killed....changing this to a much darker story.
Wonderful film noir, filled with several dark lines and even darker twists. I can not imagine Joan Crawford as a governess! There are a couple of the cutest kids in this film who disarm Anna with smiles and compliments of her beauty.
"I do feel it to be the duty of every wife to have breakfast with her husband."-Vera Siegert
"To our host, may he reach heaven before the final check arrives."-dinner guest
The next witness sets up that Anna and Mr. Torsten end up having a romantic relationship.
"The softer emotions had never entered her life and then suddenly, like the unfortunate journeyman in Deuteronomy verse 17, she was hoist by her own petard. In her words, She fell for the gentleman, bustle over tea kettle."..."we laughed at first, but it soon became no joke."-witness #2 aka "innocent tool"
At one of the gang's other legal establishments, Anna and Torsten carry out their affair. With the blush of love on her, Anna buys a new spring hat and some new lace blouses. Meanwhile the gang, of which It appears Anna is the mastermind, seems to be setting up Dr. Siegert's wife Vera. Then we find what was stolen from Eric's coat at the rural cafe...love letters from wife to lover. Now the group is blackmailing Vera.
Anna, angry with Vera's beauty and Parisian gown...increases the blackmail price to 10 thousand Kroner for Vera's love letters to Eric. Vera makes a further mistake of laughing at the thought of disfigured Anna knowing what love is...and Anna wants her jewelry too! While waiting for the money and jewelry...the good husband Dr. Gustaf Siegert (played by Melvyn Douglas) arrives home stopping Anna from escaping. In her escape attempt Anna hurts her ankle...which the doctor is seeing to when he sees her disfigured face. What Anna doesn't know is that our good doctor is a plastic surgeon...he tells her he can fix it with weeks of pain and agony.
Anna is asked to testify. We learned how she was accidentally burned by a fire her father set when she was three...he saved her, but not himself and it turns out that Torsten stole the love letters. She does agree to the plastic surgery and twelve surgeries later...
"Don't spoil it...my dear Miss Holms since the first day I met you, you have presented a perfect picture of the most ruthless, terrifying, cold blooded creature I have ever met. It has been a picture that has fascinated me."-Dr. Gustaf Siegert.
Worried that he may have created a beautiful woman with no heart, a monster. He likens himself to Frankenstein.
"Well, I hadn't expected that my partner would be quiet such a silent one."-Torsten Barring.
Torsten presents a story in which he shares that he will inherit his family's money if his four-year old relative is killed....changing this to a much darker story.
Wonderful film noir, filled with several dark lines and even darker twists. I can not imagine Joan Crawford as a governess! There are a couple of the cutest kids in this film who disarm Anna with smiles and compliments of her beauty.