The Three Faces of Eve
Academy Award Winner
Based on Corbett H. Thigpen's novel of the same name, The Three Faces Of Eve follows the fascinating story of a deeply troubled young Southern housewife. Suffering from headaches, emotional upset, and forgetfulness, Eve White sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Luther (Lee J. Cobb). At first Luther gives Eve banal, commonsense advice and sends her home to her husband (David Wayne). But as Eve's condition worsens, Luther hypnotizes her, unveiling two additional personalities within the woman-a vamp and an independent sophisticate. But curing Eve will require a deep probe into an abusive past and support from her less-than-supportive husband. With narration by the inimitable Alistair Cooke, The Three Faces Of Eve is intriguing drama at its classic best.
Member Reviews
worth watching - xmas78
First off this is a well constructed movie. But the real turn on about this movie is the incredible acting of Joanne Woodward. Just for that its worth watching! Her ability to transform into three very different personalities and still make them all believable is incredible. Definately something that will get you psychologically plus it has an element of subtle creepiness that is hard to find in modern movies. One last thing to add Lee J. Cobb who plays the psychiatrist is also very believable in a role helping to cure eve white of her strange defect. The three faces of eve is up there on the must watch list!Eh... - middleagedmom
If you like old movies, you'll probably love this one -- Joanne Woodward's performance is outstanding.
But the subject matter is dated -- (hasn't the theory of multiple personalities been debunked?) and it moves slowly compared to movies today. Clearly the writers were relying on the shock value of the concept of multiple personalities to intrigue viewers, and that shock value wore off long ago.Johnson and Woodward Handle Dark Subject With Deft Hands - Tinseltown_Tess
It was quite a feat to pull off a movie based on a story that must have been extremely off putting to censors and audiences in the overly sanitized world of the 1950's. I really expected that the impact of the case would suffer in the hands of an old Hollywood studio. Kudos to both Woodward and director Johnson for making sure that it was still a powerful picture.
"Eve" a real woman who in fact had 21 personalities that presented in groups of three, is still alive, and according to commentator Aubrey Solomon, was pleased with the film, but she didn't watch it until 20 years after it's release, and there are several rumors about exploitation of Eve (Who's real name is Christine Costner-Sizemore, could you get much more Hollywood?) being exploited at the hands of both the doctors that wrote the book and Fox as well.
That aside, the script manages to deftly balance the facts of the case with the sensibilities of the audience it is trying to entertain, and surprisingly few details suffer. Woodward shows great skill in her trio of roles, as it would have been extremely easy to be hammy. It isn't a comfortable movie by any means, especially with the themes of domestic violence and sexual promiscuity that are interlaced throughout, but it does make for good drama, and aside from the rather heavy handed narration on the part of Allistaire Cooke,(brought in to lend credibility to the story), it's actually very well done.
As for special features, the commentary by Solomon focuses largely on Nunnally Johnson and his career at Fox, but contains a good deal of information on the real "Eve" and Joanne Woodward as well. Unfortunately there is no AMC backstory for this film, but we do get the requisite newsreel fox has included with all it's studio classic releases.
Member Reviews
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worth watching - xmas78
First off this is a well constructed movie. But the real turn on about this movie is the incredible acting of Joanne Woodward. Just for that its worth watching! Her ability to transform into three very different personalities and still make them all believable ...Eh... - middleagedmom
If you like old movies, you'll probably love this one -- Joanne Woodward's performance is outstanding.
But the subject matter is dated -- (hasn't the theory of multiple personalities been debunked?) and it moves slowly compared to movies today. Clearly ...Johnson and Woodward Handle Dark Subject With Deft Hands - Tinseltown_Tess
It was quite a feat to pull off a movie based on a story that must have been extremely off putting to censors and audiences in the overly sanitized world of the 1950's. I really expected that the impact of the case would suffer in the hands of an old Hollywood ...