6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Eve White is a quiet, mousy, unassuming wife and mother who keeps suffering from headaches and occasional black outs. Eventually she is sent to see psychiatrist Dr. Luther, and, while under hypnosis, a whole new personality emerges: the racy, wild, fun-loving Eve Black. Under continued therapy, yet a third personality appears, the relatively stable Jane. This film, based on the true-life case of a multiple personality, chronicles Dr. Luther's attempts to reconcile the three faces of Eve.
Starring: Joanne Woodward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb, Alena Murray, Edwin JeromeDrama | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English SDH, French, Japanese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Mental illness and psychiatry have had a rather bifurcated history in film. For every Snake Pit or Spellbound, where nurturing therapists help their afflicted patients come to terms with their problems, there’s a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or a Frances, with almost cartoonish mental health professionals out to slice and dice their patients’ brains into zombiefied submission. The Three Faces of Eve is decidedly in the former camp, but it’s also a rather interesting example of what ironically became a sort of obsession in the mid-fifties, a previously little known syndrome called multiple personality disorder. While latter day efforts like the Sally Field made for television movie Sybil (ironically but probably not so coincidentally co-starring The Three Faces of Eve's patient, Joanne Woodward, as Sybil's therapist) put this affliction on the pop cultural map for a younger generation, it was 1957’s The Three Faces of Eve which first popularized it (if that’s even the right word), offering a fascinating glimpse into a trifurcated mind that some audience members at the time probably thought was pure hogwash. Eve’s story was in fact based in reality, and the film tries to take an almost clinical approach to the subject matter, replete with a patrician narrator (Alistair Cooke) and dialogue which is at least partially culled from the actual case files of the real life Eve. That said, The Three Faces of Eve was still met with a certain amount of critical skepticism when it was first released, though Joanne Woodward’s career defining performance met with almost universal acclaim, and Woodward, who was then a largely unknown starlet, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, beating icons like Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner and Deborah Kerr in the process. Nunnally Johnson, the journeyman writer-producer-director who was responsible in one way or another for some very fine dramatic films but who had at that point become perhaps more associated with such Fox fluff as How to Marry a Millionaire and How to Be Very, Very Popular reestablished his dramatic mettle with this film, at least with regard to Woodward’s still viscerally compelling performance. If parts of The Three Faces of Eve seem a bit, well, simpleminded (no pun intended) to today’s more psychologically astute audiences, Woodward’s dramatic heft helps to keep the story largely on track.
The Three Faces of Eve is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is another stellar looking transfer of a Fox catalog CinemaScope feature, sourced from elements that were either pristine to begin with or have been immaculately restored. The film really doesn't have a lot of "pop" visually, playing out on pretty flat looking and minimally dressed sets, but Stanley Cortez's beautifully shaded cinematography gives the film an unusually lustrous look, something that comes through quite clearly on this Blu-ray. This really isn't chiaroscuro in any traditional way, but Cortez lights scenes carefully, sometimes leaving Woodward's face left in just partial shadows. Blacks are solid and consistent and gray scale is very accurately reproduced. While early CinemaScope offerings tended to be pretty grainy looking at times, by 1957 things had considerably changed. The Three Faces of Eve has a very fine layer of grain which floats quite naturally throughout the frame—it isn't overwhelming, but it's quite noticeable, especially when backgrounds are lighter. A couple of passing shots are just minimally softer than the bulk of the film (two of them are the establishing shots of the hospital where Eve is kept, probably done by a second unit), but otherwise this is a really gorgeous looking high definition presentation.
The Three Faces of Eve features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix which suffices perfectly well for this dialogue driven film. The film actually has some nice musical elements courtesy of Robert Emmett Dolan, and those are reproduced accurately as well. The film doesn't have much in the way of dynamic range, but the track is damage free and reproduces the modest ambitions of the film's original sound design quite well.
The Three Faces of Eve is one of the quieter films about mental illness, but due to Woodward's commanding performance(s), it's an often fascinating experience. Some of the film seems a bit dated by modern day standards, and the soap operatic elements don't help things, but when Woodward's on the screen (which is most of the time), minor qualms drift away into nothingness, like a neurosis disappearing after years of analysis. This is another great looking and sounding Fox catalog release, and it comes Recommended.
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