A Woman's Face (1941)

Once again, George Cukor directs an MGM feature with a feminine focus in the title and a nasty role for Joan Crawford. This one has a tighter plot and is set in Sweden, thanks to the play on which it's based. (OK, I'm having trouble finding good info on the play, but there was a Swedish adaptation in 1938.)

Blackmail ringleader Anna (Crawford) has spent most of her life with burn scars on the right half of her face, aversions to fire and mirrors, and misanthropy, especially toward beautiful people, tho she makes an exception for seductive Torsten (Conrad Veidt). When she unexpectedly meets a great and charitable plastic surgeon, Gustaf (Melvyn Douglas)...well, see how Crawford usually looked on screen in those days. Anna's a lot less bitter once people admire her appearance, but wickedness doesn't dry up overnight, especially if you've been keeping wicked company. In particular, Torsten hopes she still has what it takes to serve as a governess to his four-year-old nephew, Lars-Erik (Richard Nichols), only to bump him off to secure Torsten a bigger inheritance from Uncle Magnus (Albert Bassermann).

A Double Life (1947)

Could it really be the first time in 10 months that I accepted a Meetup invitation to a film? At any rate, I finally took advantage of AFI's Shakespeare festival, even if it meant yet another Othello adaptation.

OK, that's not a fair summary; it's more of an adaptation of the little-remembered Men Are Not Gods. Tony (Ronald Colman) is a stage actor admired for his talent but notoriously hard to get along with, not least because his method acting runs away with him. This is especially problematic when he plays Othello for an improbable 300+ nights, opposite his ex-wife (Signe Hasso), and develops auditory hallucinations. I won't say precisely what crimes he commits, but his temporary insanity does not prevent him from making the trail a bit difficult for the police to follow correctly. Then an acquaintance grows suspicious....

The Women (1939)

Possibly the most popular '39 film I hadn't seen yet, it stands out for having an all-female cast of more than 130. This includes the servants, the children, and even allegedly the animals (except for the roaring logo lion). Every contemporary major MGM actress except Myrna Loy and Greta Garbo participated. No wonder it's been remade a couple times, albeit less successfully and once with men.

If you want something that passes the Bechdel test with flying colors, however, keep looking: The trailer's parenthetical subtitle aptly notes, "...and it's all about men!" Must've been the best way to sell tickets. Oh, the ladies talk about other things once in a while, especially each other, but the plot mainly concerns a mother (Norma Shearer) learning about a shameless gold digger (perhaps Joan Crawford's nastiest role) wrecking her home, so to speak. Everyone else will eagerly share an opinion on it, leaving us to wonder what they'd do without men in their lives.