Two-Faced Woman is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor and starring Greta Garbo in her final film role, Melvyn Douglas, Constance Bennett, and Roland Young. The movie was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Garbo plays a wife who pretends to be her own fictitious twin sister in order to recapture the affections of her estranged husband (Douglas), who has left her for a former girlfriend (Bennett). The film is generally regarded as the box-office flop that ended Garbo's career in an unsuccessful attempt to modernize or "Americanize" her image in order to increase her shrinking fan base in the United States. By mutual agreement, Garbo's contract with MGM was terminated shortly after Two-Faced Woman was released, and it became her last film.
Plot
Following a whirlwind romance and marriage, Ski instructor Karin Borg (Greta Garbo) learns, to her chagrin, that her new husband Larry Blake (Melvyn Douglas), editor of a fashion magazine, expects her to be a dutiful, submissive wife and not the independent woman she was when they met. They separate and Larry returns to New York City, where he takes up again with playwright Griselda Vaughn (Constance Bennett), with whom he was involved before his marriage.
Karin travels to New York to thwart the romance and win her husband back by masquerading as her spurious twin sister Katherine Borg, a wild, amoral "modern" woman. Larry is fascinated by Karin, in the guise of Katherine, but he quickly discovers the truth. He continues to play along, nearly seducing his wife's purported twin sister, but stopping short each time. Karin and Larry eventually reunite during a chase on the ski slopes, and all is forgiven.
Cast
Greta Garbo as Karin Borg Blake / Katherine Borg
Melvyn Douglas as Larry Blake
Constance Bennett as Griselda Vaughn
Roland Young as O.O. Miller
Ruth Gordon as Ruth Ellis
Robert Sterling as Dick Williams
Frances Carson as Miss Dunbar
Production
Before Garbo's previous film, Ninotchka (1939) was completed, MGM scheduled Madame Curie as her next picture. Pleased with the financial and critical success of Ninotchka, MGM decided to pair Garbo and Douglas in another romantic comedy. George Cukor, who had directed Garbo in Camille (1936), which is generally regarded as her best film, was assigned to direct. Constance Bennett, a major leading lady of the 1930s whose career was waning, was cast in a supporting role through the efforts of her friend Cukor. The screenplay by S.N. Behrman, Salka Viertel, and George Oppenheimer was based on a 1925 Constance Talmadge silent film titled Her Sister from Paris, which in turn was based on a play by German playwright Ludwig Fulda.
MGM used the film to promote a new image of Garbo as modern and glamorous, hoping to increase her appeal to filmgoers in the United States. Much of the income from Garbo's earlier pictures had come from their popularity with European audiences, which were now unavailable due to World War II. Garbo hated the script for Two-Faced Woman, and did not want to make the film; she was angry and disappointed Madame Curie had been shelved (MGM made the film with Greer Garson in 1943) and was very uncomfortable with the attempt to portray her as a modern "American" woman. Garbo strongly objected to a scene where she is wearing a bathing suit and swimming; She pleaded with director Cukor to have the scene cut, but Cukor, who shared Garbo's reservations about the film, told her it had to remain in the picture. The script also called for Garbo to dance in an elaborate ballroom rhumba scene. Garbo, who was not a natural dancer and disliked dancing in general, was forced to take lessons and once hid from her dance instructor in a tree at her home. She later said that she was embarrassed by the film and that it "was not good and it could never be made good." Garbo recalled that her co-star Melvyn Douglas disliked the film as well and his distaste for it was obvious during the production.
Two-Faced Woman was produced by Gottfried Reinhardt, with music by Bronislau Kaper, cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg, art direction by Cedric Gibbons, and costume design by Adrian.