Joan Crawford gives one of her most effective performances, particularly in the first half of this George Cukor drama, as a Swedish woman whose face has been hideously scarred by a traumatic childhood incident. Taking out her bitterness against an unsympathetic world, she becomes the leader of a blackmail ring in Stockholm's rough underworld. What begins as a character study turns into a suspenseful melodrama, with Conrad Veidt as a ruthlessly ambitious aristocrat involved in a plot to murder his own nephew for financial purposes, and Melvyn Douglas as the plastic surgeon who heals Crawford's face and then goes for the soul.
Variety picked up on this unique role for Crawford, who “takes a radical step as a screen glamour girl to allow the makeup necessary for facial disfiguration,” and Molly Haskell comments on the appeal of such a role: “The Jekyll-and-Hyde vehicle was the perfect solution for the star who wanted to try something challenging without tarnishing her popularity and the image on which it was based.” --in “From Reverence to Rape.” A Swedish version of A Woman's Face, En Kvinnas Ansikte, made in 1938, starred Ingrid Bergman.