The Second Face

Car accident framing device, then... our hero, Phyllis Holmes (Ella Raines) wrapped in bandages. We go back... back... to Fresno—she's talented and well-liked, good with children, and going into the designing clothing business... etc. But she can't land a man... or even get a job in a department store—why? Because she's homely! Watching this movie kind of makes you feel insane because, of course, she's beautiful—she's Ella Raines. I suppose they gave her a dowdy hairstyle, no lipstick, and I guess they gave her a slight prosthetic nose—it's subtle—not like a clown nose or anything. I'm guessing the unspoken intention was to make her look “Jewish”—which adds an additional, disturbing slant to this story. Anyway, she keeps getting reality shoved in her face and she's—for good reason—angry. The story is a bit convoluted, but the actors do remarkably well with dialogue that's about as smooth as a train with square wheels.

She goes to help her friend (a woman who's going through hard times herself because she's getting older—her husband is leaving her for an younger woman) and bam! We're back to the beginning. Once Phyllis recovers from the accident, her doctor essentially gives her a nose-job, and just like that she's beautiful, and also glamorous, now—dresses well, new hairstyle, and makeup—and suddenly all the men are falling all over her—even some who met her before now don't recognize her! This reminded me of how it used to piss off my mom when, in movies, they shorthanded “ugly” by having a woman wear glasses—then she'd take them off and guys would all suddenly come in their pants.

Anyway, even though the “world is her oyster” now, she has kept her anger and kind of breezes through high society like an assassin. At a pool party she meets a wise old drunk, a rich guy who tells her how empty his life is—always realizing that people only like him for his money. She's smart enough to apply that. Then she finds out that the guy who secretly paid for her plastic surgery was her old friend who was in love with her when she was “ugly”—but she had told to fuck off. She goes back to him, now in love with him, but now he doesn't want her because he “liked her how she was before”—see, he's afraid of having a beautiful wife because he had one once who left him. So now he tells her to fuck off, and she leaves. Then he goes running after her in rom-com style, she stops, sees him, runs back—but is hit by a truck! Now she's ugly again, but now—he loves her again—but now—now she thinks he's just pitying her—so she tells him to fuck off again. And it just goes on and on and on—the comic cosmic clown parade of stupid vanity, self-destruction, tragic luck, and bad choices. Aren't humans silly? Oh, did I forget to say “spoiler alert?” It's okay, because a lot of that, toward the end, I just made that up! You'll have to watch it to find out what really happens!