I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Good writers, sparkling cast, Cukor direction, all the luxe trappings of MGM, but this attempted soufflé of a comedy is unworthy of Garbo, and probably helped speed her exit from Hollywood. Metro tries to domesticate her, to make her more of a Jean Arthur-Claudette Colbert sort of spunky dame, and she's certainly capable, but we know she's capable of so much more. Some post-production tampering on behalf of the Production Code renders the story meaningless--if Douglas knows of Garbo's deception, why doesn't he just confront her with it and end the movie?--and their relationship is an unconvincing yes-you-love-me-no-you-don't mishmash. Too, Douglas's character, though meant to represent appealing American manhood circa 1941, is rather a rotter--deceptive, callous, impatient, faithless--and while Douglas surely has the requisite charm, he doesn't make me like this guy. Constance Bennett provides some glamor and dry wit, and Ruth Gordon and Roland Young, stuck in conventional supporting roles, kill time amiably. But the novelty appeal of seeing Garbo in a swimsuit, Garbo dancing the Chica- Choca, Garbo playing a sort-of double role, isn't enough to save the picture.

... and that is what both Greta Garbo and Constance Bennett are doing here - playing against type. I actually liked this one when I expected to dislike it. I don't think this one was an attempt to turn Garbo into a pin-up sweater girl as much as it was the Americanization of an old soul, and an old soul that people had become accustomed to seeing in a certain type of role for the previous 16 years.It was great fun to see Greta's character improvising a woman of the world with no real knowledge of exactly what that meant, and it was also great fun to see Constance Bennett's Griselda, a rival for the affection of Larry (Melvyn Douglas), doing what I thought she should have done in all of those precodes where she was so mistreated and yet suffered in such silence - going off in private when things weren't going her way and yelling, throwing things, and having a bit of a temper tantrum, then readjusting her clothes and hair, regaining her poise, and walking right back into the thick of things as though nothing ever happened.The thing that struck me as odd in this film even in the production code era - Karin (Greta Garbo) and Larry have just married after a whirlwind courtship. It is their wedding night. Both just put on their pajamas, and Larry promptly announces he is tired and lies down to go to sleep like they've been married for ten years and just returned from Black Friday shopping???? And this isn't what bothers Karin at all - it's that he admits being swept up in the moment about saying he wanted to live a simple life, and he now wants to go back to New York and his job as magazine publisher. Otherwise she would have laid down and gone to sleep too??? If this was close to realistic it would be the end of the human race.But that's the point. The whole thing is a farce from beginning to end and a delightful surprise at that. Highly recommended for the fun of it all.

"As shocking as seeing your grandmother drunk!" I believe Louis B. Mayer said about this film. Certainly, after performances as Anna Christie, Mata Hari, Anna Karenina and the lady of the Camillas, Garbo's reputation made her the Eleanor Duse of the silver screen. But after success in the subtle comedy "Ninotchka", Garbo was ready for something quite different, and proves that, just like Meryl Streep did after her series of accent laden weepers, that she could be really funny! Unlike Streep who turned to song in a few films, Garbo dances, and quite delightfully in the "Chica Choca", a dance she makes up quite by accident, getting her evening gown stuck in her shoe to the orchestra leader's delight.The basic storyline surrounds ski instructor Garbo who spends six months teaching people how to ski and the rest of the year waiting for it to snow. When New Yorker Melvyn Douglas comes to her resort for a vacation, she rescues him after a bad fall, and they are impulsively married. But his business takes him away from her the morning after, and Garbo decides to see if he truly loves her as she is by posing as her more scandalous sister. Not much in the way of reality, but still delightful and witty, a reverse of the same director George Cukor's other 1941 classic, Joan Crawford's "A Woman's Face".It is Constance Bennett who steals the scene as the temperamental near-sighted stage star as Douglas's jilted flame who has temper tantrums like other people say good morning to their co-workers. Walking into a ladies room with a very sophisticated gait then screaming into a mirror, politely warning Garbo to keep her paws off of Douglas (not for the supposed twin's sake, but for her own) or just squinting at something, Bennett is hysterically funny. It is roles like this that today get Oscar Nominations but back in the 40's, got lost in translation.Roland Young and Ruth Gordon are fine as Douglas's business associates, Young determined to keep Douglas and Garbo apart, and Gordon aware of Garbo's ruse and in favor of it. Those looking for a hint of Gordon's future wacky old ladies are going to be disappointed; She's pretty normal in this one. Beautiful winter photography and some great New York art deco scenery make for a glamorous if not unique film in MGM's cannon of sometimes sitcomish romantic comedies that they were giving to the team of William Powell and Myrna Loy and would finally perfect with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

The legends surrounding Geta Garbo were like so many deifications, partly true, partly fiction. When Garbo was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was only average. In "Two-Faced Woman," Garbo assays comedy one more time following her success in Ernst Lubitsch's classic farce, "Ninotchka." This time she nearly falls flat. Garbo's one redeeming feature in the film is the outlandish dance she performs midway through the show. It is indeed a marvel to behold and worth the price of admission.Almost all the other Thespians in "Two-Faced Woman" out shine the star, especially Constance Bennett, giving a wonderful personification of an acerbic bitch determined to keep her hooks in fresh meat. The gifted actor Melvyn Douglas shows his flare for comedy in a Cary Grant-type role, fun to watch in a slap-stick finale down a ski slope. The indomitable Ruth Gordon makes the most in a small role as Douglas' secretary. Bennett's former "Topper" colleague, Roland Young, is perfect as, again, a lecherous old man. Future TV "Topper" star Robert Sterling shows why he was chosen to portray George Kerby over a decade later.Another problem with "Two-Faced Woman" is the hackneyed story and script. Director George Cukor hoped to strike pay dirt a second time with a screwball comedy along the lines of his brilliant "The Philadelphia Story," utilizing a title similar to his recently successful "A Woman's Face." Unfortunately, he was let down by the writers, who gave him a theme already old hat. Bedroom farces involving mistaken identities, twins and lookalikes, etc., were passé by 1941. The popular Fred Astair, Ginger Rogers musicals of the 1930's employed such gimmicks in a fresh and original manner. The twins ploy of "Two-Faced Woman" just doesn't work.Karin Borg (Garbo), a ski instructor, meets and falls in love with Larry Blake (Douglas), a magazine writer. Following a whirlwind courtship that lasts only a few days, the two decide to tie the knot. Once married, however, their varied lifestyles clash. Larry spends most of his time in New York City away from Karin, who refuses to follow him, enjoying the life she already has. Distraught by visions of being two-timed and having her marriage canned, Karin heads for New York City, ending up incognito as her non-existing twin sister, Katherine. That Larry tends to be a philander becomes more evident as Karin sees her husband with other women, one in particular, Griselda Vaughn (Bennett). Katherine finds herself in the dubious position of competing not only against Griselda but against her own alter ego, Karin.Perhaps the shortcomings of "Two-Faced Woman" helped Garbo in deciding to retire from motion pictures. She never made another film. Though "Two-Faced Woman" is not a dud, it is below standards Garbo had set for herself.