Very well executed

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It's not on the same level as the best early 1950s Hammer films that I have seen such as "The Last Page" or "Mantrap" - both of which were also directed by Terence Fisher - but it's a good little thriller which packs quite a bit into its 70 minutes runtime. It concerns a plastic surgeon, Philip Ritter, who alters the appearance of a disfigured habitual criminal, Lily Conover, to recreate a beautiful woman, Alice Brent, with whom he had a brief but intense romance. It can be seen as a precursor to "Vertigo" as well as Fisher's later (and lesser) Hammer films "Four Sided Triangle" and "Frankenstein Created Woman", which cover similar territory from a sci-fi / horror perspective.The film has a great leading man in the effortlessly classy and charismatic Austrian actor Paul Henreid. Best known for his supporting roles in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and "Casablanca", he was the most high profile male Hollywood star to ever grace a Hammer film and the most high profile overall after Bette Davis and Joan Fontaine. Lizabeth Scott, who only died in January, is not a great actress but she is perfectly fine as Alice. When playing Lily, her voice is dubbed by the original actress Mary Mackenzie so I can't really gauge Scott's performance but Mackenzie is a much better actress. It also features nice supporting roles from André Morell, my favourite Hammer leading man after Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, in his first film for the studio and future "Dad's Army" star Arnold Ridley as well as a small appearance by Richard Wattis, who does not play a civil servant for once! This has nothing to do with my enjoyment of the film itself but I was a little disappointed that the John Wood in the film was not, contrary to what it said on both Wikipedia and IMDb, the Shakespearean actor who is best known for playing Stephen Falken in "WarGames".Overall, this is by no means a Hammer classic but it's great fun.

When famed plastic surgeon Dr. Philip Ritter (Paul Henreid) is visited by a wealthy aging client, he refuses to service her, knowing that her advanced years and already damaged skin would make surgery pointless. He instead prefers the type of surgery necessary to either improve one's life (as in the case of his youthful poor client he has no problem in waiting for payment from) or the embittered career criminal damaged during the war who has psychologically been damaged as well. Lily Conover (Mary Mackenzie) is a woman so embittered by her scarred face that getting out of prison is only a temporary reprieve for, and a return to her life of crime is only a matter of time. He decides to take on her case as he falls in love with the beautiful Alice Brent (Lizabeth Scott), a gentle renowned concert pianist he treats for a bad cold while she is on hiatus from a world tour. When Alice leaves him to continue her tour, he is so broken up by her departure that he utilizes her facial structure to re-make Lily into her image, certain that beauty will change her criminal ways. But you can't turn a rhinestone into a ruby, and after Phillip marries her, he discovers the unfortunate truth, just as Alice returns....This isn't one of the all-time great film noir, but you can't help but be riveted by the transition of Lily from Mackenzie into Scott. Even her voice all of a sudden changes into that of the sweet Alice (abliet with cockney accent) and it is truly amusing to watch her continue her life of crime even though she really has no reason to. I guess the film is saying that a sow's ear will never become a silk purse, even if it is lined with gold. Trashy she was, and trashy she remains, using her new-found beauty for free love even as she holds onto her abused husband. Scott does utilize a fairly convincing cockney accent as she takes over the role, and there is no denial of who is Lily and who is Alice as their differences in fashion-wear is more obvious. Henreid, who had a similar film ("Hollow Triumph") several years before, shows a variety of emotions as he realizes what a mistake he made and why there is a rule that you never become involved with a patient. This film will never resemble reality, but it is certainly engrossing.

I saw it as a child and looked for it on video. Finally got a poor video of it, but i'm glad I own it. I really like this film, maybe it's because I am a big fan of Lizabeth Scott....maybe I like English movies, I don't know...I just like it!!! Yes, this film is dated, but it still works today.

Up front I must admit I am a die-hard Paul Henreid fan, and I want to reassure any potential viewers of this movie that he was professional enough to put as much effort into this role as every other one I have seen him play, despite the fact that he made this film as a blacklisted and (consequently) underpaid actor.There were basically two things I couldn't believe regarding the plot of this movie: 1)That an intelligent, established, professional man would marry a thievin' Cockney wench even if he did make her look like his lost true love; and 2) That his lost true love, on returning to him, didn't do a mad dash the other way when she found out he had actually made someone else look like her & then married that woman. I mean, isn't that a little twisted or something?Overall the film was pretty good, & the romance between Henreid & Scott at the B&B truly enjoyable. I thought it delightful the way Henreid nursed Scott through her nasty head cold, & I like seeing a guy who is 6'3" sit on one bar stool with his feet on the next bar stool & look perfectly comfortable. It was only when the plot wanted me to believe the unbelievable that I had some trouble enjoying the film.Ah, but the ending was pretty darn cute, & worth the 'huh?' I uttered during the dubious parts.