Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
mark.waltz
Although she only has perhaps half of the film's running time, the future Dame Judith Anderson really shines in this bottom of the bill crime drama which mixes some uncomfortable domestic comedy that seems somewhat out of place with some really violent action sequences. Looking like an outtake from a Leon Errol or Edgar Kennedy RKO short, this sequence is amusing, but it distracts from the really exciting stuff. Fresh from her movie success as the evil Mrs. Danvers in "Rebecca", Judith is truly scary as the mysterious Slade whom the FBI is aware of, but what they don't know is that she is a she. While it's obvious that Judith is aware that this movie is beneath her massive talents, she plays it with gusto and steals every moment she is on.When first seen, Judith is her shadowy profile, holding a gun on a victim while dressed as a scrubwoman. She has no remorse of doing what she needs to do to get away with the loot she forces the frightened man at gunpoint to open up his safe. Only 42 when this was made, Judith had already taken Broadway by storm in the 1930's, winning raves in such Broadway hits as "As You Desire Me", "The Old Maid" and "Family Portrait". She had also achieved great acclaim as Gertrude (Hamlet's mother) and later in 1941 would become one of the most praised actresses to portray Lady MacBeth. Like Tallulah Bankhead, she was "too big" for film, but unlike Tallulah, she achieved great acclaim in the movies in supporting roles while Tallulah attempted only leads. Their similar voices and strong features lacked vulnerability on camera, but Judith used that to her advantage by playing some of the most wonderfully domineering evil women on film.The remainder of the screen time is devoted to detective Dennis O'Keefe's attempts to find her and newspaper photographer Frances Neal's assistance in helping him discover who Slade really is. Comic moments featuring Eric Blore as a dog salesman who answers an add meant as a contact for Slade's pick-up person leads to the revelation of two people named Mary Jordan, one of whom gets an envelope filled with money by mistake. That fantastic hard-boiled blonde bombshell Marion Martin plays the Mary Jordan meant to receive the package, and she is involved in a fantastic car chase sequence. Mildred Coles, the innocent trained by Kay Francis to be a proper "Play Girl", plays the innocent young bride who gets the money by mistake, leading to all sorts of confusion. In spite of the distraction by these entertaining but unnecessary subplots, "Lady Scarface" is a fun low budget crime drama that truly shines with Judith in the spotlight.
utgard14
Police lieutenant (Dennis O'Keefe) and a nosey reporter (Frances Neal) pursue bank robbers led by a scar-faced lady gangster (Judith Anderson) named Slade. Disappointing because it's less about Anderson's character than O'Keefe's. It's a nice change of pace for Judith Anderson, who is more well-known for her serious parts in films like Rebecca. She gets to sling some snappy gangster lingo, which I'm sure was fun for her. I just wish there was more of her. For their part, O'Keefe and Neal are okay if a little bland. The grumpy cop/lady reporter dynamic had become a cliché by this point, done best perhaps by the Torchy Blane series. The supporting cast is good, featuring the likes of Arthur Shields, Marc Lawrence, Eric Blore, and pretty blonde Marion Martin. Short runtime helps but focus on the boring cop/reporter plot rather than the gangster stuff is a major flaw.
OutsideHollywoodLand
Sometimes pre-war movie propaganda can take a strange turn, when they surface decades later. Lady Scarface, starring veteran actress Judith Anderson, as Slade, (long before she was tapped as a real "Dame"), gives us a tough female gangster boss, who rules with an iron fist over her small posse of cheap crimesters.This movie, directed by Frank Woodruff, spins a tale of murder and mayhem, bringing Dennis O'Keefe (Lt. Bill Mason) and Frances Neal (Ann), together as the cutie-pie couple who bring down Slade and her crew with surprising wit and affection.This film was clearly made to send the message that women should "toughen up", and be strong - especially in the face of approaching war. Writers Arnaud d'Usseau and Richard Collins, focus on juxtaposing newspaper reporter Ann and crime queen Slade. Ann is much braver and more honest than our hero cop, Bill, and she literally saves the day. Slade, for all of her ruthless nature, spends most of her time trapped – like a wild animal - in a tiny claustrophobic hotel room, pacing about and tersely snapping orders to her male minions. Like many women of the period who stayed home, Slade comes off weaker than her plucky female counterpart, Ann, who freely moves about the city to gather clues and get her woman (so to speak). A strange pairing, indeed!Lady Scarface is a rare prize found among the TCM film archives, so enjoy it the next time it comes to late-night TV.
bmacv
`Always leave them wanting more' is one of the hoary axioms of show business, but why there isn't more of Lady Scarface in Lady Scarface is a better mystery than anything the movie has to offer. The title role, a tough Chicago mob boss, falls to Judith Anderson, who more often than not was the best thing in any movie where she happened to appear (e.g. her Mrs. Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca). Title character or no, she takes second billing to Dennis O'Keefe as a minion of the law pursuing her; the billing accurately reflects the screen time each is allotted. It's a pity, since, apart from Anderson, Lady Scarface is just another print struck from the template of light crime programmers. The bulk of the movie has to do with O'Keefe's following money to New York in order to smoke out the gang. And, to cover all the bases, there's mistaken identity involving a newlywed couple; comic relief in the form of a beef-witted hotel detective and fussy Eric Blore; and a matey romance between O'Keefe and Frances Neal.But Anderson took her assignments seriously; she brings the same steel to Lady Scarface as she would later to Lady Macbeth. (The movie could have settled for a lesser villain, and Anderson should have held out for a better movie.) The last scene, in which she steals into the Leonard Sheldon Hotel disguised as a chambermaid, looks very much like the final confrontation between James Bond and Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love. Was that an hommage, or just a steal?
