RICK'S REAL/REEL LIFE: The Many Faces of ‘Eve’ & ‘Lizzie’ 1957

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

The Many Faces of ‘Eve’ & ‘Lizzie’ 1957

"The Three Faces of Eve" & "Lizzie," that respectively starred Joanne Woodward &
Eleanor Parker, were both 1957 films that depicted the topic of multiple personalities.

Hollywood had competing films about title characters with three conflicting personalities, both released in 1957. Very specific coincidences, right?! The Three Faces of Eve showcased rising star Joanne Woodward; Lizzie starred film veteran Eleanor Parker. The movies were made on small budgets, returned modest profits, and its stars were praised—with Woodward winning a Best Actress Oscar.

Of course, the studios promoted the more sensational aspects of their subjects
in 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve" & "Lizzie."

Their Situations

The Three Faces of Eve was based on a true story, with Joanne Woodward as Eve White, Eve Black, and Jane. The first personality is a meek young housewife with a young child. Her behavior has become increasingly erratic, at one point endangering her little girl. It's not long before her doc meets Eve Black, a raucous gal who comes out occasionally to find fun and create chaos. Jane comes on later in the movie as the even-keeled personality, who is the best bet to take over this woman's body. David Wayne is her exasperated husband Ralph; Lee J. Cobb is the sympathetic, but no-nonsense Doctor Luthor.

In 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve," Lee J. Cobb is the psychiatrist,
Joanne Woodward the title character, and David Wayne her bewildered husband.

In Lizzie, Eleanor Parker plays a young woman, Elizabeth, who lives with her drunken Aunt Morgan (Joan Blondell) and works at a museum. Her character is plagued with headaches and insecurities, making her a co-worker to avoid. Her aunt is mostly oblivious to her but does notice her escalating odd behavior. Lizzie’s director, Hugo Haas, also plays the writer neighbor, Walter, who encourages alcoholic auntie to get her niece to kindly doctor Dr. Wright, played by Richard Boone. Once Doc has Elizabeth under hypnosis, he meets her alter ego, Lizzie. She is a vicious character, a female Mr. Hyde. Later in the movie, the doc discovers a third personality, Beth, who is balanced and normal.

In 1957's "Lizzie," Eleanor Parker is the title character with three personalities.
Joan Blondell is the aunt with an overbearing personality!

Their Stories

In The Three Faces of Eve, Eve White is hospitalized for treatment. While the symptoms are identified with her varying personalities, the doctors can not figure out what sets them off. Once home, Eve isn’t getting better. It doesn’t help that husband Ralph wants to drag Eve to another state. And the more Eve Black comes out, it’s more than the reactionary husband can handle. Once he leaves her, this leads Eve back to Dr. Luthor.

David Wayne's Ralph has an obedient wife in Eve, but not when she's Eve Black! Joanne Woodward plays three personalities in 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve."

Lizzie’s Aunt Morgan isn’t a deep thinker, but when auntie's bourbon bottles empty ever faster, her antennae go up. The writer neighbor notices and for some reason is empathetic to the harridan aunt. Yet, he urges her to be more patient to the niece. It all comes to a head when the woman's work life and her erratic nightlife collide. You see, there are nights when mousy Elizabeth is left behind and hellcat Lizzie springs out. She hangs out at local nightclubs on the prowl and one evening meets up with her office place Romeo.

Joan Blondell's Aunt Morgan knows where Eleanor Parker's "Lizzie" finds
the booze AND the boys! "Elizabeth" only gets the hangover!

The Actors

The Three Faces of Eve got a lone Oscar nomination and win for Joanne Woodward; Lizzie received no nominations.

Joanne Woodward is excellent in all three roles in The Three Faces of Eve. Eve White is totally repressed, a type of role Woodward played well. Joanne played a more raucous sort like Eve Black as the beatnik in The Fugitive Kind. And the later personality to emerge is Jane, the most complete personality to emerge, that Joanne plays with great empathy. Woodward, an Actor's Studio product, is quite natural without going over the top, like Geraldine Page or Kim Stanley would have probably done.

Joanne Woodward as Eve Black comes on to a male nurse like Blanche Dubois
chatting up the paper boy in 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve."

In Lizzie, Eleanor Parker's performance is quietly effective as the repressed Elizabeth and the serene Beth. Though flatteringly photographed, Parker is quite toned down from her studio era glamour, and is very expressive in Elizabeth’s anguish and Beth’s calm. However, as wildcat Lizzie, Parker goes big, either of her own volition or Haas’ direction. Either way, Eleanor as Lizzie is way over the top. From the way she makes herself up like a clown or vamps around the cocktail bar like Sadie Thompson, it’s funny, not fierce. Also, Elizabeth is 25 going on 26; Eleanor was a lovely 35. Very typical in its movie age math—thankfully, Parker can pass as a decade younger.

Eleanor Parker suffers in chenille as tormented Elizabeth in 1957's "Lizzie."

Lee J. Cobb is more three-dimensional as Eve’s Doctor Luthor than super-kind Richard Boone in Lizzie. David Wayne as Ralph is most realistic as the confused small town spouse of Eve White.

Joan Blondell's acting as the alcoholic aunt in "Lizzie" is about as subtle as her hat!

Joan Blondell’s performance as the alcoholic aunt in Lizzie is about as subtle as slugging down a bottle of bourbon. Joan gave a handful of memorable dramatic performances in her career and should have been given more opportunities. But Blondell is a complete caricature here—partly the way the character is written, as well as performed. My guess is that came from director Hugo Haas, who made a number of dime store melodramas that were hilariously unsubtle. Blondell’s boozing and barking in her bathrobe gives off a Baby Jane Hudson vibe!

Joan Blondell w/ director Hugo Haas, who plays a kindly neighbor in 1957's "Lizzie."

The Films

Eve White has a traumatic childhood incident that’s subtly recalled. In Lizzie, Elizabeth recalls a vile incident on her birthday, not subtle at all, but still powerful. Both characters find resolution in facing their pasts. The Three Faces of Eve was written by doctors Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley, who treated the real Eve. Lizzie was a novel written by Shirley Jackson (The Lottery).

The book versions of "The Three Faces of Eve" & "Lizzie."

Nunnally Johnson was more famed as a screenwriter than as director, but his intelligence was always a plus, and it shows in the sensitivity of The Three Faces of Eve. Hugo Haas, on the other hand, seemed to dwell on sensationalism in his B-movies. There is a lurid quality to Lizzie that screams Hugo Haas, especially with Joan Blondell’s role and Parker’s performance as the lowdown Lizzie.

Tears Mixed With Humor

The leavening humor in The Three Faces of Eve is in the small town world of the husband and doctors, faced with this strange woman, who’s a timid mouse one moment and then a purring cat on the prowl. There are some smiles with the perplexed classic '50s husband that can’t reconcile the two extreme behaviors of his wife. Eve Black reminded me of a cross between Shirley MacLaine's good-hearted bimbo in '58s Some Came Running and Lee Remick's good-humored trailer tart in Anatomy of a Murder in '59.

In Lizzie, the humor is unintended camp. The intentional “comic relief” between the aunt and niece, and aunt and neighbor are heavy-handed to the point of hilarity. Lizzie and Aunt Morgan's domestic life reminded me of the dramatized story of Frances Farmer’s life with mother or the Hudson sisters without the wheelchair. I love it when meek Elizabeth walks upstairs to get away from boozing Blondell and randomly barks out an insult as Lizzie, worthy of Kathleen Turner's Serial Mom asking her neighbor if she likes pussy willows!

Lizzie getting herself up to go out reminds me of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest. She meets the sexy janitor in the bar, who has switched out from his work white tee-shirt for evening wear black tee-shirt with jacket, anticipating the Miami Vice look by 30 years. As Lizzie finds the booze and the boys, Aunt Morgan seems more concerned where the booze is going than what's going on with Elizabeth.

Eleanor Parker getting dolled up as "Lizzie" gives me a Faye Dunaway vibe as
"Mommie Dearest!"

Near the showdown between the two women, Blondell’s aunt snaps, “You look like a slut!”

Parker’s Lizzie gives a Patty Duke/Neely O’Hara snarling delivery, “Drop dead, Auntie, drop dead!”

Future TV Stars

In The Three Faces of Eve, Vince Edwards aka Ben Casey, plays the horny young soldier who wants his due with Eve Black—after all, he spent 8 dollars on her! Near the end of the film, Nancy Culp of The Beverly Hillbillies appears in a flashback as Eve’s mother. In Lizzie, Marion Ross of Happy Days plays a kind co-worker of Parker’s lonely Elizabeth.

Vince Edwards plays a soldier who expects Eve Black to put out in
1957's "The Three Faces of Eve.

Needless Guest Appearances

Alastair Cook's introduction and narration in The Three Faces of Eve is highly unnecessary. It feels very condescending, as if he's a professor lecturing students about a very serious subject! With Lizzie, there is a very distracting piano bar player/singer named Johnny Mathis. He sings two tunes; one is his big hit, It’s Not for Me to Say. At least it wasn’t wailing Johnny Ray! All the while, Parker’s personality-plus Lizzie is working the joint with her hoochie mama antics.

Final Analysis

The Three Faces of Eve and Lizzie have very similar stories, likewise the female characters’ multiple personalities. The difference is in tone. The Three Faces of Eve plays like a pseudo-documentary mixed with a William Inge slice of life drama. Lizzie comes across like a campy “woman’s picture,” to use an old Hollywood term. Here, with the two women at odds in their dreary home, “suffering in chenille” might be more apt!

Why Cinemascope? To fit all those personalities?

"Lizzie" & "The Three Faces of Eve," both from 1957.

By today’s standards, both are very simplistic in the telling of multiple personalities. The one thing Eve and Lizzie have in common is strong lead performances by its stars, Joanne Woodward and Eleanor Parker. Both are worth a look, if only for the attitudes of the era on this controversial subject.