En Kvinnas Ansikte [A Woman’s Face] *** (1938, Ingrid Bergman, Tore Svennberg, Anders Henrikson) – Classic Movie Review 6075

Ingrid Bergman stars as Anna Holm, a childhood accident victim who has her scarred face rebuilt into a face of beauty in director Gustaf Molander’s original 1938 Swedish film version of the story based on the play Il Etait une Fois by Francis de Croisset now better known in the 1941 Hollywood movie remake with Joan Crawford, A Woman’s Face.

Alas, the heroine cannot get over the psychological damage she suffered, and she has become bitter and a blackmailer. Anders Henrikson plays the plastic surgeon, Dr Wegert, who makes her beautiful again, and thereafter the plot thickens.

It is a ludicrous story, of course, but the film is a superior melodrama of considerable power, with a spot-on performance by the young Bergman going places, Hollywood obviously the foremost among them.

Also in the cast are Anders Henrikson, Georg Rydeberg, Karin Carlsson-Kavil, Goran Bernhard and Tore Svennberg.

It is written by Gösta Stevens, shot in black and white by Äke Dahlquist and scored by Eric Bengtson.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6075

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