The Second Face

When the film begins, a young woman (Ella Raines) is upset...so upset she's driving like a maniac and ends up nearly getting killed in a traffic accident. She awakens in the hospital and she's a mess...and her face heavily bandaged. As she is lying there in bed, she thinks back to her recent life.

Phyllis (Raines) was working for a really nice boss but he was very afraid of getting closer to her because he'd already been badly hurt by his ex-wife. In fact, he's so afraid that he arranges for her to have a job far away. It seems she's gone to school for fashion design and her designs are terrific. But when she arrives at the new job, they dump her because she's very plain. So she then gets a job as a secretary to a real scum-bag and he uses her designs to make a name for herself and makes her feel LUCKY that he uses her work and pawns it off as his own. He manages to string her along for a while...but when she learns about what a nasty guy and other guys in her life are, she runs away and has the accident.

When she is ready to leave the hospital, Phyllis looks nothing like her old self thanks to plastic surgery. Now she finds it's easy to get work and men adore her...but she isn't happy. What's next? See the film.

The film has a nice idea and I appreciate it. However, the impact of the film is severely lessened for two big reasons. First, while they did have Raines made up to be quite plain, the change was NOT that significant. It was also funny that when they took the bandages off, she was well coiffed, had perfect eyebrows and lovely make-up!! Second, too often the characters in the film are too obvious...too obviously evil and one-dimensional. Jerry, in particular, was almost like Snidely Whiplash he was so transparent! Fortunately, while certainly schmaltzy, the film ended very well and I wish the entire film had been as well-crafted as the finale. Overall, an interesting film which should have been a lot better but is still well worth seeing.