The Three Faces of Eve
Reviews
John Chard
It's not you marrying me. It's me marrying anybody. I'm sick. I am mentally sick, and I can't marry anybody, ever. The Three Faces of Eve is directed by Nunally Johnson who also adapts the screenplay from a book written by Corbett Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley. It stars Joanne Woodward, Lee J. Cobb, David Wayne and Edwin Jerome. A CinemaScope production, music is by Robert Emmett Dolan and cinematography by Stanley Cortez. Doctor Curtis Luther (Cobb) treats Eve White (Woodward) for Multiple Personality Disorder... Christine, Strawberry Girl. It has become one of those films that is stuck in some sort of Hollywood purgatory. Its impact back on release in 1957, where Hollywood was still struggling to come to terms with putting mental illness on celluloid, should not be understated, and it's that time frame where one might have to transport yourself to get the benefits of the production. Looking at it today, it is rife with simplistic ideals, where it often feels like Hollywood believes there is this magical cure for mental illness, a world where some amiable doctor can chat the chat, snap his fingers and bang! What joy, it's all good really, and sorry we played some of the film for laughs... The reason why it is in Hollywood no man's land is because in spite of the near crassness of the piece, it still stands up as a film of importance, a picture that brought out the topic at hand into the mainstream. As an interim movie in the trajectory of big screen forays into matters of the mind, it advanced awareness and built a bridge that the likes of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Girl Interrupted" would later traverse with some distinction. It also boasts a brilliant Oscar winning performance from Woodward, a real tour de force that engages the viewer emotionally to the point where sadness, anger, hope and understanding merge into one blurry cinematic achievement. Though away from "Eve's" interactions with Doctor Luther (Cobb perfectly restrained for a change), the rest of the film kind of feels like filler, Johnson not quite comfortable enough as a director to expand the dramatic thematics out of the Doc's office. Based on the real life case of Chris Costner Sizemore, the story only scratches the surface of what the poor lady went through. The psychiatric resolution here on film is very disappointing, this even if there's undoubtedly some exhilaration to be had as cinema Eve comes through the dark tunnel to find daylight. So in that respect, it's another blot on Nunally Johnson's landscape. But again, it put the case in the public conscious, where even today it should at least make people consider reading up on the real "Eve's" story. Uneven for sure, where rewards and annoyances await, but Woodward and the film's mark in subject matter history lift it way above average. 7.5/10
Jack
I was not expecting this film to be this good! Didn’t know anything about the film before I started watching it and what a pleasant surprise it was! The film, which tells the true story of a young woman with multiple personality disorder, is way ahead of its time in my opinion. Coupled with good acting and a storyline that never bores you, it’s one of the best films I watched that is from the 1950s. Would I watch it again? Absolutely. Would I make my friends watch it? Definitely.
CinemaSerf
Joanne Woodward is superb in this complex and intricate drama of "Mrs. White". Now here is a woman married to "Ralph" (David Wayne) who reaches the end of his tether when she goes on a spending spree. She denies it, she attacks their child then she ends up in a psychiatric hospital remembering nothing, where "Dr. Luther" (Lee J. Cobb) starts to think that she is ill. Further conversations, and some assistance from his colleague "Dr. Day" (Edwin Jerome) soon leads them both to believe that this lady has a split personality. One, a benign and gentle creature, the other a more assertive one. They share the body on a symbiotic basis that is seeing a gradually changing dynamic between the occupants. Things complicate further when a third persona appears - and that leaves the doctors scratching their heads, but still determined to try to help this woman before she succumbs to the pressures of her toxically confusing and upsetting character. Is it something buried deep in her past; a trauma or tragedy? Woodward moves from one iteration to the other with consummate skill; her scenes with both Wayne and an on form, considered, Cobb really do enthral. This exposé of the elementary science of psychiatric medicine is well delivered by Nunally Johnson using Robert Dolan's score cleverly to assist us as the eponymous faces of "Eve" come and go. It's a difficult topic to reflect well, but this really does offer us strong, solid, efforts and some food for thought, too.
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