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The Bargain Nexus - Two Faced Woman
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $64.98
Your Save: $ ( % )
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Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Starring: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Robert Sterling
Directed By: George Cukor
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301976282
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6301976282
Label: MGM (Warner)
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Running Time: 90
Studio: MGM (Warner)
Theatrical Release Date: 1941-11
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: UNDERRATED
Comment: It's striking to find out how many critics, especially in the past, condemn this film. Almost every biographer in every Garbo book comes up with a senseless list of accusations - including quotes from the Legion of Decency and the critics in December 1941, when America entered the war, to tell us that this film is no good. But it's a misjudgement. Garbo herself was disgusted with the criticisms.
TWO-FACED WOMAN is a lively and extremely interesting film and certainly no disgrace for Garbo. It's one of the Garbo films that fascinates me most, because it's her last one and because she plays a different kind of role (although she has frequently played a two-faced woman, like in "As you desire me" and "Ninotchka"). The story is very funny with excellent bits of farce. In the two-faced character of Karin/Katharine Blake/Borg, Garbo shows many different personalities which makes it so amazing to watch. This was a new and very experienced Garbo. George Cukor told that she was in a very brilliant period at that time. However, Cukor dismissed the film in retrospect.
The film grossed $1.8 million and it wasn't really a huge flop, it was a modest success, especially in Europe after the war.
The uncensored version still exists, it was shown at the George Cukor retrospective in London in 2004, and it is possible that it will be released on DVD.
"Two-faced woman" was destined to be Garbo's last film, as she predictably says: "In this harsh new world there's no place for me anymore".
Customer Rating:
Summary: "It's the Chica Choca!"
Comment: Hot on the heels of her success in Ninotchka, Greta Garbo is back for another lighthearted comedy complete with Garbo's smile. Karin (Garbo) is a ski instructor whose simple life is a contented one. When Lawrence Blake (Melvyn Douglas) arrives, he instantly requests private lessons with her, but he has more than skiing on his mind. The two elope, but in their haste, they have not learned enough about each other to determine their compatibility. It turns out Larry plans to take his new bride to New York, but Karin has no intentions of leaving her happy life.
So Larry goes to New York and Karin stays home. And in spite of promises of his impending return, Larry spends months without his new wife. She decides to take matters into her own hands and travels to New York to surprise her husband. Her plans are dashed, though, when she spots him making eyes at another woman (Constance Bennett). Forced to think quickly, she impersonates her nonexistent twin sister Katharine and tempts Larry away from his mistress.
A delightful comedy, Two Faced Woman turned out to be Garbo's last film. Although she enjoyed success since the silent era, she did not like being in the spotlight and chose a reclusive life. Unfortunately, this movie bombed at the box office, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why. It does not have the witty dialogue that Ninotchka does, but the mood is very much the same.
Incidentally, the big dance scene is titled the "Chica Choca" which in Spanish means "Girl I Hate."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best dance musical scene from that era is in this film!
Comment:
Okay, Garbo fans, we know the sad story of how this was the nail in the coffin of Garbo's Hollywood career but that was then and this is now so let us for a moment reassess...
Given that Ninotchka is her best role (sssh don't argue!) BECAUSE in it she does more than pose and mope but actually comes to life with a sparkle and a laugh, this may be her next-best role, or at least, contain some of her best bits.
The La Chica Chaka dance number ... in which Garbo, who says she does not dance but with professionals, and who doesn't dance... creates a sensation on the dance floor due to a heel caught in her hem, is one of the most wonderful bits of cinema magic ever. Indeed, as a send up of all of those "make it up as we go along" Fred and Ginger numbers, it is a hoot, and the dancing is pretty darn spiffy, too. Everything combines to make it a show stopper.
As Griselda, Constance Bennett is fabulous, her catty remarks and the ladies' lounge scream are priceless.
Melvyn Douglas is not as successful here as in their other costarring role but he is more or less the straight man to Garbo's frivolity.
If you want the dying swan Garbo, by all means watch GRAND HOTEL, but if you want to see her as a real live 20th Century woman, and no doubt the character closest to her own personality, then this is the film.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unfortunate Screwball Misfire Provides an Ironic Finish to Garbo's Stellar Career
Comment: It seems a shame that Greta Garbo ended her illustrious career at the age of 36 with this ridiculous mistaken-identity marital romp. Coming off the success of her first romantic comedy, Ernst Lubitsch's masterful "Ninotchka" (1939), where she was ideally cast as an austere Russian envoy, Garbo is reunited with her leading man Melvyn Douglas for a sitcom-level story that has her playing Karin Borg, a plain-Jane ski instructor who impulsively marries publishing executive Larry Blake when he becomes smitten with her. Once he makes clear that work is his priority, Karin inadvertently decides to masquerade as her high-living twin sister Katherine to test her husband's fidelity when he is back in Manhattan.
It's surprising that this infamous 1941 misfire was directed by George Cukor, who led Garbo to her greatest dramatic performance in 1937's "Camille", because this is as unflattering a vehicle as one could imagine for the screen legend. Only someone with Carole Lombard's natural sense of ease and mischief could have gotten away with the shenanigans presented in the by-the-numbers script by S.N. Behrman, Salka Viertel and George Oppenheimer. MGM's intent behind this comedy was to contemporize and Americanize Garbo's image for wartime audiences whom the studio heads felt were not interested in the tragic period characters she favored in the thirties.
However, Garbo appears ill-at-ease mostly as the bogus party girl Katherine and especially compared to expert farceurs like Douglas and Constance Bennett as romantic rival Griselda. Photographed unflatteringly by Joseph Ruttenberg, Garbo looks tired in many scenes and downright hideous in her teased hairdo for the "chica-choca" dance sequence. The story ends conventionally but with the addition of a lengthy physical sequence where Larry tries to maneuver his skis on a series of mountain cliffs that unfortunately reminds me of Sonny Bono's death. Roland Young and Ruth Gordon (in a rare appearance at this point of her career) show up in comic supporting roles as Douglas' associates. This movie is not yet on DVD, and I wouldn't consider it priority for transfer as it represents a curio in Garbo's otherwise legendary career. She was reportedly quite unhappy during the filming. I can see why.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A witty proposal!
Comment: After Ninotchka, MGM decided to transform the image of Greta Garbo, to become her a more funny, modern and joyful personage. Some peals of apparel and hairdressing . That is why this frivol comedy , previously filmed as Her sister from Paris (Sidney Franklin, 1925) and again as Moulin Rouge.
She wants to test her husband `s faithfulness, posing as her seductive siste, givn as result a very smart comedy loaded with double sense humor.
The premiere of the film was in November 1941 and almost immediately the picture was condemned as immoral by Decency League, a powerful catholic organism at those ages, that argued the anti Christian attitude before the marriage and its duties, scenes, dialogues, and immodest suggestive. It is curious how the same League did not react with the same strength when The Pope decided to shake hands with the Fuhrer in Vatican. Maybe the moral and the public relationships have nothing in common. That must be.
May be this was the unexpected but additional drop that exceeded the patience of Greta Garbo due this would be his last screen appearance.
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