What makes it different from others?

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

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.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A play is about to have it's opening night when something awful happens....Stanley Vance (Louis Calhern) arrives. It seems that everyone thought he was dead...and hoped this was the case. But this malicious jerk is somehow alive and he's arrived for one reason....to destroy his wife's play until he is paid off to just go away again! It seems that Jessica (Mary Astor) is like a zombie around the Svengali-like Stanley...as if he is exerting some sort of mind control over her...and she seems helpless to stop him from ruining everything. Everyone hates Stanley...everybody. So you assume sooner or later Stanley is going to suffer some 'accident' which will permanently remove this vicious jerk from the picture. But who and how...that is what you'll have to find out when you watch the picture.I really enjoyed watching Louis Calhern. He was delightfully awful...sort of like watching a cat toying with a mouse before ultimately snuffing it. He must have had a great time doing this...and he was excellent. I also loved that this is the sort of film where the audience is pulling for the murder to happen AND for the killer to get away with it...something which helped make "The Suspect" one of the best movies of its day. Overall, a very entertaining film...well acted, well written and very enjoyable.

The TCM plot description got me to put this this on my DVR, but it was months before I actually sat down to watch it. Totally thought I'd watch a few minutes and move on. But I found myself with a big smile the whole time because it's pretty near perfect - the timing of what we're told, the acting, everything. Not surprised that it's based on a George S. Kaufman play. (Kaufman knows the theater and can be quite clever.) Edward G. Robinson breaks away from his always-EGR persona and Louis Calhern, who plays Stanley Vance is delightfully slimy. The surprises weren't really surprises, but it sure was fun to watch them play out. I wish the reason for Mary Astor's behavior had been hinted at earlier, though, and the print shown on TCM was pretty washed out, but other than that, it's a real keeper. Anyone who likes to watch the tables turned should get a kick out of it!

As I first began watching this film it was a little slow, but it picked up momentum and got fairly interesting. The plot involves a fine stage actress (Mary Astor) who is resuming her career after a 3 year hiatus. Her missing husband (Louis Calhern in a truly unsavory role) returns, and he seems to have an hypnotic affect on her (literally) and she loses all desire to act. Meanwhile, her brother (Edward G. Robinson) decides not to let Calhern ruin his sister's life once again, so he disguises himself and murders the fiend. Will he get away with it? Edward G. Robinson does nicely here, and a refreshing change from all his gangster roles of the era. He is particularly entertaining in his semi-dual role. Mary Astor may just overdo it slightly in her role when she is in a daze as a result of her husband's return; I generally liked her as an actress, but not so much here; that may be the director's fault. Ricardo Cortez is attractive, but not particularly good as a producer. Louis Calhern is simply sleazy as the villain here. Arthur Byron is pleasant as a doctor. David Landau has a very nice turn as a police sergeant. Emily Fitzroy is entertaining as the housekeeper. Henry O'Neill is present as a police inspector.I wouldn't rate this as high as the television service did, but it's pretty good, and a good chance to see Robinson in his prime...but not as a gangster.

THE MAN WITH TWO FACES is one of the Edward G. Robinson films that rarely reappears on television, like SILVER DOLLAR and THE HATCHET MAN. I only saw it on television once in the last decade. It is about a famous actor who dislikes the swine who has married his sister (Louis Calhern, who is the husband of Mary Astor in this film). He creates a "perfect" crime scheme, kills Calhern in the apartment of a fictitious producer he has impersonated, and leaves Calhern there for the police to puzzle over. A blunder regarding the disguise (his false mustache is left in a bible) unravels the crime. But the film ends with Robinson (about to be arrested by Ricardo Cortez) believing he might be able to win acquittal at his own trial. Last minute bravura or growing insanity/instability...we are left guessing. The basis for this plot of the disguised murderer is as old as the hills, but the most likely source was the 1882 Pelzer Case in Belgium. Two brothers, Armand and Leon Pelzer, planned to murder a lawyer named Guillaume Bernays. Bernays was married to a woman Armand wanted to murder. They hoped that Armand, when comforting the widow, would be able to marry her. To commit the crime, Armand gave Leon money to go around Europe marketing a plausable business scheme for a new shipping line. Leon was carefully disguised with false hair and mustache. Leon was a linguist (apparently a good one) and pretended he was a man named Harry Vaughan from England. Thus a realistic straw man was created, even to the extent of "Vaughan" renting property in Paris, Brussels, and other cities. Bernays was approached by "Vaughan" to come to his rented rooms in an isolated building for a business meeting. Bernays went to the meeting, but was killed. Shortly afterwards the police were tipped off by a letter from "Vaughan" that there had been an accident at the meeting and Bernays was shot and killed. But when the police came they found evidence that the body had been tampered with. For nearly four months police throughout Europe and America were looking for the Englishman Harry Vaughan, when suspicion of Armand and his brother developed. Leon's movements were traced, and he was found to not be able to account for his movements when "Vaughan" seemed to have legitimately existed. Eventually both brothers were tried and convicted of murder, receiving life sentences (Belgium had abolished the death penalty). THE MAN WITH TWO FACES follows a general pattern based on the Pelzer Case, but consolidates it, and changes the motivation and relationship of the perpetrator and the victim. Whether or not a full film study of the actual Pelzer Case would be a better film I cannot guess. Nobody seems to have thought of doing one.