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| Lizabeth Scott and Paul Henreid |
While on vacation Dr. Philip Ritter (Paul Henreid). a renowned plastic surgeon, meets and falls in love with concert pianist Alice Brent (Lizabeth Scott), but discovers that she is already betrothed to another. When Ritter is enlisted to give a disfigured female criminal, Lily (Mary Mackenzie) a new lease on life by giving her a new face, he uses Alice's countenance, and tries to turn her into Alice [sow's ear, silk purse, and all that]! Further complicating matters is Alice's decision to return to Philip, meaning the two women in his life now have the exact same face. This is certainly an intriguing idea [with some echoes of A Woman's Face, not to mention Vertigo, both of which are vastly superior]] but it is astonishing that no one ever calls Ritter out on his completely unethical and highly unprofessional behavior, making this a movie that seems to operate in its own weird little dimension. [The movie seems to find Ritter's bizarre obsessive actions to be reasonable!] On the other hand, Stolen Face is well-acted by the leads and Andre Morrell, has a nice score by Malcolm Arnold, and is completely absorbing.
Verdict: One of the best of the Hammer studio melodramas released in the U.S. by Lippert. ***.
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