"Two-Faced Woman" carries a load of meta-baggage for having been the final film of the celebrated Greta Garbo and for its condemnation by Catholic Legion of Decency for immorality. Efforts to revise the plot after principal photography had been completed added unnecessary confusion to what was already a silly, strained and tedious bedroom farce based on one of those Central European stage plays that Hollywood processed in large numbers into sophisticated film fare from the 20's through the 40's. The MGM money men must have felt that since Garbo's previous film, "Ninotchka," made money by presenting the star in a more lighthearted vein they could profit even more by Americanizing her as well.
It's a shame that Garbo's career ended just at this point. As the ski-instructor Karin, the down-to-earth half of the title character, she exhibits an appealing onscreen naturalness and ease without losing her distinct otherworldly gravitas and depth. But as the amoral, urbane and ultra-feminine Katherine, the fake twin she impersonates to revitalize her impulse marriage to a magazine publisher (Melvyn Douglas), she comes across as an overdressed farm girl with brain damage. In fact, she acts drunk even when sober. To make matters worse, she sports a curly, fussy hairdo that emphasizes the masculine aspect of her features, destroying the intended effect. Some viewers have criticized her dance moves in a nightclub scene and the way she looks in a bathing suit after climbing out of an indoor pool. What were they expecting? Rita Hayworth and Dorothy Lamour? Her dancing fulfils the needs of the scene and her exposed limbs are as fit and healthy as anyone of her age could wish. Nothing objectionable there. The problem is the inane dialogue in several extended scenes with Douglas that unspool like a rehash of "Ninotchka" two years earlier but without the sparkle and wit.
Constance Bennett has some effective moments as Garbo's romantic rival and wins the glamour trophy hands down, but her character disappears too soon. If this film had been made several years earlier, she would have been a good choice for the title role. (She did a fine imitation of Garbo's accent and manner in the opening scene of the 1932 film "What Price Hollywood?") Ruth Gordon and Roland Young appear, not memorably, as Douglas's publishing colleagues, along with Robert Sterling as a young man smitten with the Katherine character. (Twelve years later he would take over the Cary Grant role in the TV adaption of the 1937 comedy "Topper" which co-starred Bennett and Young.)
It's a shame that Garbo's career ended just at this point. As the ski-instructor Karin, the down-to-earth half of the title character, she exhibits an appealing onscreen naturalness and ease without losing her distinct otherworldly gravitas and depth. But as the amoral, urbane and ultra-feminine Katherine, the fake twin she impersonates to revitalize her impulse marriage to a magazine publisher (Melvyn Douglas), she comes across as an overdressed farm girl with brain damage. In fact, she acts drunk even when sober. To make matters worse, she sports a curly, fussy hairdo that emphasizes the masculine aspect of her features, destroying the intended effect. Some viewers have criticized her dance moves in a nightclub scene and the way she looks in a bathing suit after climbing out of an indoor pool. What were they expecting? Rita Hayworth and Dorothy Lamour? Her dancing fulfils the needs of the scene and her exposed limbs are as fit and healthy as anyone of her age could wish. Nothing objectionable there. The problem is the inane dialogue in several extended scenes with Douglas that unspool like a rehash of "Ninotchka" two years earlier but without the sparkle and wit.
Constance Bennett has some effective moments as Garbo's romantic rival and wins the glamour trophy hands down, but her character disappears too soon. If this film had been made several years earlier, she would have been a good choice for the title role. (She did a fine imitation of Garbo's accent and manner in the opening scene of the 1932 film "What Price Hollywood?") Ruth Gordon and Roland Young appear, not memorably, as Douglas's publishing colleagues, along with Robert Sterling as a young man smitten with the Katherine character. (Twelve years later he would take over the Cary Grant role in the TV adaption of the 1937 comedy "Topper" which co-starred Bennett and Young.)