Lady Scarface

The Film is Highlighted by Every Scene with the Dame known as Lady Scarface (Judith Anderson). There is Early Noir Inspiration in the Choice of Showing the Dark Character's Entrance in Striking Shadow. When the "Lady" is in Person the Flesh Crawls. Her Voice is a Siren from Hell.

But when She is Off Screen the Movie Sinks to Comedy Relief and Cartoonish Romantic Boredom. It is Gut-Wrenchingly Awful at Times and comes off as Less a Crime Thriller and more like Nancy Drew. Talk about a Misfire.

Worth a Watch for the Lady Scarface Scenes and Little Else. A Curiosity at Best and is Burdened Beyond Belief by All of the Rest of the Sickly, Smarmy, Sappiness.

Here's one more little jewel from the RKO collection. An exciting thriller, well plotted, amusing and concise (it hardly arrives to 70 minutes!).

But what makes this film so special is its revolutionary treatment of the noir's conventions and the advanced-for-its-times feminist touch: here, the devious gangster is a woman (fantastic Judith Anderson)instead of a man, opposite to a brave female journalist who will help the police to catch her. The film deals admirably with the confusion game, relaying on the male centric point of view in noir's genre only to turn it down: the male main characters appear here as incompetent (those policemen who think they go after a man because they can't bear the idea of being defeated by a woman) and weak (the whole male gang is completely dominated by the powerful lady Scarface).

Without doubts, "Lady Scarface" is one to watch! Don't miss either "The Curtain Call", from the same director, Frank Woodruff, and a funny screenplay by Dalton Trumbo.

Judith Anderson is lots of fun as the gangster of the title. She's a bad woman, all right. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark: Anderson. (References and allusions to "Hamlet," in which she played the Melancholy Dane on stage, abound here.) She is beautifully shot in shows by Nick Musaraca. But alas! The movie is for the most part a routine romantic faux thriller. It's kind of a riff on the Torchy Blane series: A police detective investigates a case. A female reporter is after the same story. Which of them will get it? Will they get each other? These concerns (never mysterious in any incarnation) are the primary concerns.

Alas poor Judith! She did so well.

Obviously swiftly dashed off by RKO to exploit Judith Anderson's recent notoriety as Mrs Danvers; although in the title role she's - androgynously named Slade, improbably teamed with Arthur Shields and at the conclusion dressed as a maid and brandishing a gun like Rosa Klebb - sadly onscreen for only a few minutes.

Although there are a couple of noirish moments atmospherically lit by veteran cameraman Nicholas Musuraca, the presence of Eric Blore indicates that little of it is to be taken too seriously; and most of the action actually consists of talk in hotel rooms.

Police lieutenant (Dennis O'Keefe) and a nosey reporter (Frances Neal) pursue bank robbers led by a scar-faced lady gangster (Judith Anderson) named Slade. Disappointing because it's less about Anderson's character than O'Keefe's. It's a nice change of pace for Judith Anderson, who is more well-known for her serious parts in films like Rebecca. She gets to sling some snappy gangster lingo, which I'm sure was fun for her. I just wish there was more of her. For their part, O'Keefe and Neal are okay if a little bland. The grumpy cop/lady reporter dynamic had become a cliché by this point, done best perhaps by the Torchy Blane series. The supporting cast is good, featuring the likes of Arthur Shields, Marc Lawrence, Eric Blore, and pretty blonde Marion Martin. Short runtime helps but focus on the boring cop/reporter plot rather than the gangster stuff is a major flaw.