The surgeon who did the job was dead. Only the nurse knew what this gangster looked like in his new face. He learned about women from her!
Acting
Brian Donlevy plays two roles with gleeful theatrical excess.
Writing
Pre-Code dialogue snaps harder than it has any right to.
Director
Christy Cabanne
Wallace Ford
Joe Haynes, Press Agent
Brian Donlevy
Broken Nose Dawson / Spencer Dutro III
Phyllis Brooks
Sheila Barry
Erik Rhodes
Grimm
Alan Hale
Charles L. Kellar
Molly Lamont
Mary McCall
Jack Randall
Tex Williams
Paul Stanton
Bill Branch
Hattie McDaniel
Nellie (uncredited)
Emma Dunn
Sheila's Mother (uncredited)
Ethel Wales
Aunt Hattie (uncredited)
Oscar Apfel
Dr. H.J. Buler (uncredited)
Si Jenks
Studio Janitor (uncredited)
Inez Courtney
Mamie (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was a loose remake of 'The Face Behind the Mask' (1932), but the studio flipped the tone from tragedy to cheeky crime caper.
Released just before the Production Code crackdown, this gleefully lets its criminal protagonist succeed through sheer charisma—a narrative freedom that vanished for decades.
US
