Last night I spent the evening watching old movies. I started the evening with Sunset Blvd. William Holden was excellent in that movie. I love the fact that he’s being kept. The next movie was Mr. Skeffington which really should have been called Mrs. Skeffington. Bette Davis and Claude Rains. Bette goes from beautiful young woman to ugly hag after a horrible bout of diphtheria. She struggles to accept her appearance. No one wants her and she is sad that she let Claude go when she was beautiful. Thankfully, Claude returns. Sadly he had been in a concentration camp. He is a broken man, poor and blind. Bette takes him back and it just works perfectly because he is blind and he doesn’t know she lost her looks and she will always be young and beautful to his inner eye.

A Woman’s Face starring Joan Crawford was next. This story was practically the inverse of Mr. Skeffington. As a child, Joan was burned and left facially disfigured. No one accepts her and so she turns to crime. She becomes a blackmailer. Along the way she meets Melvyn Douglas, a plastic surgeon who actually is able to fix her face. Once beautiful she takes up with her old partner, Conrad Veidt who convinces her to kill his young nephew. She gets a job as the child’s governance. Somehow, she finds her hard exterior cracking and she begins to love the child. When the time comes to kill him by tossing him out a ski lift, she can’t do it! Conrad Veidt realized this and takes the child on this horrific sleigh ride. Joan and Melvin try to stop Conrad but they just can’t get him to stop the sleigh. Joan seizes the moment and shoots Conrad! The jury realizes it is self defence and she is acquitted. At the same time, Melvyn and Joan realize they love each other and…. THE END!