The Magic Face


The Magic Face is a 1951 American drama film directed by Frank Tuttle, written by Mort Briskin and Robert Smith and starring Luther Adler, and Patricia Knight. The film was released on August 8, 1951 by Columbia Pictures.

Cast

Production

Columbia Pictures rushed the production of the film so that it could be released before Twentieth Century-Fox's The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel.

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "he cock-and-bull story that unfolds smacks of nothing more firmly reliable than the vaporing of a script-writer's brain. And, as a piece of free-flight romancing, it ranks somewhere between 'The Count of Monte Cristo' and ... More than the story is fantastic. The way that it is played, under Frank Tuttle's unrestrained direction, is beyond fairly rational belief. Luther Adler, who portrays both the actor and the unlamented boss of the Third Reich, throws himself into this nonsense with the affected seriousness of a smalltime vaudeville 'ham,' and Peter Preses, who plays the prison warden—which is the next most important role—gives out with such snorting and sneering that you'd think he had jumped out of a melodrama of the first World War.... Says Mr. Shirer, in conclusion, 'an amazing story, almost beyond belief—and yet it is difficult not to believe it.' That's what you think, Mr. S. !"