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birthday. He dances with Anna; she is mesmerized. The house guests include Gustaf, who tells Anna that he believes in her reform and will keep her secret. The next day, Anna accidentally leaves Lars-Erik under a sun lamp too long. Her genuine distress makes
Torsten doubt her, and he gives her an ultimatum: Lars-Erik must die before the next night. In the courtroom she says, “because... it was what he wanted.”
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a message inside the chess set. Emma admits to keeping the letter, but she is above reading other people's mail. It is a full confession—and a suicide note. While the judges deliberate, Gustaf coaxes Anna into admitting that she loves him. He proposes. The clerk tells them that the judges are ready and adds that Gustaf should come, too.
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The Consul recalls the sleigh ride. Torsten speeds by with Lars-Erik, lashing the horses, Anna and Gustaf in pursuit. Torsten won't stop, so Anna shoots him. He slips into the river and over the falls. The Consul believes Anna is innocent, but the judges are not satisfied. Anna protests that she left
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She becomes the boy's governess and goes to
Barring Hall as Ingrid Paulsen. The house is in the mountains, across the river from the metal works that produces the Barring fortune. Anna becomes fond of the kindly Consul and the sweet-natured little Lars-Erik. Torsten arrives on the eve of the Consul's
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Torsten is amazed by her new beauty. She reassures him: She has not joined “the saints”. He tells her that his very old, very rich uncle, Consul Magnus
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Emma
Kristiansdotter, the jealous housekeeper, is next. In the attic getting robes for the birthday sleigh ride, she overhears Anna and Torsten, who scorns the ”dove” she has become and reveals his ambitions to do in Sweden “what has been done in other countries.” Downstairs, Anna gives the Consul a
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Anna is called to testify and remembers that, when she was five years old, her drunken father set her room on fire; he saved her, but not himself. When she was 16, hating the world that shunned her, she chose a life of crime. She describes a meeting with
Torsten at his apartment in which she reveals
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The manager, Bernard Dalvik, refuses credit, and
Torsten meets the proprietress, Anna. The right side of her face is mutilated, but Torsten ignores her scars and compliments her beautiful eyes. Anna forgives the bill and hints that she might be useful to him. After the party leaves, Eric returns to
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Some sources state that
Torsten takes the letters from Eric's coat pocket and gives them to Anna in exchange for the tavern bill. The film does not show this and it isn't physically possible. Torsten took Eric's overcoat on the way out, after his encounter with Anna. Rundvik had already swiped the
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Gustaf picks up the story. The next day, Anna takes the child for a cablecar ride to the mill. Gustaf climbs aboard an ore bucket on a neighboring cable. He sees her start to pull the bolt on the gate, but she shoves it back and hugs the oblivious child. To Lars-Erik's delight, Gustaf passes them.
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Next up is
Bernard Dalvik. On the advice of her masseuse—Dalvik's wife, Christina—Vera comes to them for help: someone has her letters to Eric. Torsten calls on Anna while Dalvik is making the arrangements with Vera. Anna brings Torsten into their gang and falls deeply in love.
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More recently, film critic Dennis
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Vera testifies: Anna comes to sell the letters. Gustaf returns home unexpectedly; Anna trips, injuring her ankle. He wants to call the police, but Vera dissuades him. Intrigued by Anna's scars, Gustaf offers to heal her. Vera protests, and her testimony ends.
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The first witness, Herman
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wrote "Miss Crawford takes a radical step as a screen glamour girl to allow the makeup necessary for facial disfiguration in the first half ... has a strongly dramatic and sympathetic role ... which she handles in top-notch fashion."
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letters. When Torsten brings Anna flowers at her “office,” their second meeting, the blackmail of Vera is well underway and Dalvik is in the next room with her, setting a time for the payoff.
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Gustaf questions a furious Anna. The screen pans to the courtroom. He believes she was angry because he doubted her. The prosecutor accuses Gustaf of loving her; he does not deny it.
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ask Rundvik if something dropped from his overcoat pocket. Back in the courtroom, Rundvik identifies Anna as boss of their blackmail ring.
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in 1945, which she claims this film had a cumulative effect in helping her win that award). Crawford's scar makeup was credited to
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during World War II. In 1941, Torsten's words were a clear threat to establish a fascist regime using the Barring fortune.
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778:: November 2, 1942
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639:Sweden was neutral
612:En Kvinnas Ansikte
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890:Our Betters
548:(1939) and
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425:Donald Meek
292:, starring
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264:blackmailer
231:$ 1,907,000
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199:105 minutes
165:Loew's Inc.
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1229:(1981)
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981:(1940)
973:(1940)
965:(1939)
957:(1939)
949:(1938)
941:(1936)
933:(1936)
925:(1935)
917:(1935)
909:(1933)
901:(1933)
893:(1933)
885:(1932)
877:(1932)
869:(1932)
861:(1931)
853:(1931)
845:(1930)
837:(1930)
829:(1930)
826:Grumpy
303:album
220:Budget
530:Oscar
954:Zaza
710:IMDb
617:IMDb
532:for
376:Cast
313:Plot
274:and
258:and
774:on
762:on
744:on
719:at
708:at
673:.
615:at
282:by
79:by
1245::
566:^
296:.
254:,
805:e
798:t
791:v
619:.
601:.
581:.
185:)
23:.
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