Reviews (20)

entertaining, but kind of silly
Joanne Woodward was splendid to watch in this amusingly dated film about multiple personalities.

I do realize it was made in the 1950's, but I'm sure hypnosis and the switching of personalites were a little more dramatic in the time of mashed potatoes and meatloaf.

I don't want to give away anything if you haven't seen the movie, but the little secret eve/jane was harboring all of those years, that made her personality split, was a letdown. I'm unfamiliar with the actual case, but I'd love to know if there was something more shocking going on there that was considered inaapropriate for moviegoers at the time. My other qualm was the accent... why didn't the real eve/jane have a southern accent? that made no sense to me.

Overall, the film was entertaining. It just wasn't very believable.

Breaks New Ground
The film is effective as an introduction into the realm of multiple personality disorder, but that's as far as it goes. Joanne Woodward is functional in the role, but I agree that it is in no way an Oscar performance. I have also witnessed multiple personality change under clinical conditions, and the person does not change in any dramatic fashion (like the lowering of the head). It's an imperceptible change at first. I read that Joanne Woodward studied film of Eve White's real life counterpart going through the change. She said there was no obvious physical punctuation whenever the other peronalities came out, and that she wanted to play it that way. According to the article, the studio wanted the lowering of the head, etc. so that the audience wouldn't become confused whenever a change occured. No faith in the public. David Wayne is superb in his role, and I feel he is underrated in the part. I've known people like his character, and he was right on the mark with his performance. His role is easy to get lost in the overall dramatic screenplay. It's a brave film that enters relative virgin territory. It held my interest.

Groundbreaking Hollywood handling of Schizophrenia
Joanne Woodward's stellar performance as a woman afflicted with multiple personality syndrome gives empathy and to victims of emotional disorders. Lee J. Cobb is equally brilliant as the man desperately seeking to help end Woodward's torment.

In nearly 50 years since production of this Classic, much advancement in Psychology and medicine in general has occured. The early days of Psychology, a field still barely explored in the 1950s, rendered countless "patients" as incurable and hopeless cases. More enlightened than the late 1800's "Nelly Blye" institutions, the mid 20th century methods still showed an element of cruelty that today could not be imagined.

"The Three Faces Of Eve", though fictional, relied in great part on evidence at hand regarding treatment methods of the mentally ill. Dated only due to the great strides made since then, this film remains a milestone in filmmaking, tackling a tabu subject in need of exposure. This is not a Saturday Night entertainer, but a serious and important film.*****

Joanne Woodward is incandescent in this complex role.
This compelling drama centers around superb performances by Joanne Woodward and Lee J. Cobb. The unusual nature of the story is introduced and explained by (a very young!) Alistair Cooke, and that setting prepares viewers for what is to come. Because this presentation is art, not news reporting, the film may not always be exactly true to the "real story." Fine art takes purposeful liberties with reality, and this film is certainly a fine example of cinema art. Engrossing, entertaining, and enlightening! Highly recommended.

Stunning performance by Joanne Woodward
If anyone else had played Eve/Eve/Jane, it would not have worked. Joanne Woodward proves herself worthy of the Oscar she won for this movie. She is an actress of the highest magnitude. I can't imagine anyone else coming close to pulling it off but Joanne. This movie is amazing. It will change your life and the way to see things. One of the greatest films ever made. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Gregory Peck plays a young New York executive who defies the wisdom of the corporate class by deciding his family is more important than the offer of a new job. Lots of melodrama, guilt, and a revelation about a wartime affair (told in flashback), but this well-oiled, good-looking 1956 film still holds up pretty well. Based on a novel by Sloan Wilson, the script and direction are by Nunnally Johnson (The Three Faces of Eve). --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (10)

One of the Best Movies of the 1950s
I have seen Gregory Peck in quite a few films, and he is a fine actor. Some will disagree with me, but I believe he gave the strongest performance of his career in "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit."

The story, set in the middle of the 1950s (Eisenhower, tail fins, cowboys and indians, martinis before dinner), concerns Tom Rath (in his middle thirties, it appears) struggling to achieve a better life for his family, but at the same time trying to maintain some sense of integrity. The problem arises when he agrees to work as a PR man for a big communications company on Madison Avenue, and he realizes that deception and chicanery are integral to the advertising business. The movie is probably one of the most effective dramatizations of this dilemma you'll ever see. "It's easy for a man to be full of integrity when there's money in the bank and food on the table," he says to his wife at one point, "but when someone offers you a good-paying job doing something dishonest, then it's a different story." (I don't remember his exact words, but that's the jist of it.)

The film targets big business and exposes United Broadcasting Company (the fictional company Tom works for) as peopled with shallow, back-biting, simple-minded sloganeering creeps--like the two guys Tom Rath (Peck) works with. But at the same time it presents the business titan, the "captain of industry", in sympathetic terms. The parallel story in this film concerns Tom's boss, a communications tycoon in his early 60s. Outwardly he is a huge success, but his home life is a miserable failure, largely because he dedicated himself body and soul to building the business. As a result, he hardly knows his daughter, and when he tries to re-establish ties with her, she rejects him utterly. At this point, he realizes that he has nothing left worth living for. You can't help but feel sorry for him, as he was only doing what he thought was right all his life.

What really gives this film depth and makes it striking are the World War II flashback sequences, which burst through the tranquility of the 50s like vivid nightmares. The shadow of the war hangs in the background like a curse. Tom's boss lost a son in the war, and from this loss he has never really recovered. And there are dark secrets about Tom Rath, concerning WWII, that he never reveals to his wife until the end. One morning, on his commute to work, Tom sees a fur-lined jacket and suddenly flashes back to a horrible incident when he and another soldier were so cold they brutally stabbed two young German soldiers (they look like they're 15 years old) for their coats. Another time he sees a plane in the sky and remembers an airborne drop in heavy flak. When they hit they ground, there is so much confusion that he accidentally kills one of his NCOs with a grenade. He is temporarily deranged by this, so much so that he carries the body for miles and miles, refusing to believe all the medics when they say his buddy is dead.

He never talks about any of this. All of the inner turmoil and horror are kept bottled up beneath a calm and gentlemanly facade.

But Tom Rath is not a freak or a misfit. He has his faults and has committed his share of sins, but at the same time you sense that he is a very decent man always trying to do the right thing. In that sense, he seems like a real human being, not a two-dimensional action hero or a cartoon villain.

I hope this film comes out on DVD sometime soon. In addition to its great story and characterization, it is a very visually appealing film. The combat scenes are very realistically done, and the sense of 1950s America as a time/place of newly-found luxury and opulence is effectively captured by the camera.

If you liked "The Best Years of Our Lives" (also about WWII vets trying to adjust to civilian life) you will probably like this film.

Business vs. Family
Gregory Peck stars as a Madison Avenue executive whose life reaches several crises at once. His wife, Jennifer Jones, is pushing him to make more money and to be more successful, but without losing his ideals or honesty in a business that values neither one of those. His experiences in World War II are coming back to haunt him, and his ownership of his grandmother's house is being challenged by her former servant. Fredric March co-stars as his new boss, a man who put his business before his family, a decision whose consequences he must now live with. There are a lot of lofty ideas being bounced around in this story, and they tend to center around the importance of family and being true to one's self and ideals. Peck is his usual solid self, probably the perfect choice for this kind of role. Jones gets the big emotional scene in the film, and she plays it to the hilt. March gives a very moving, sympathetic performance, while Ann Harding as his distant wife has a couple of good scenes. Although this is very much a film of the Fifties, the basic message of the movie still has its impact today. It's honestly presented, well acted and written, and well worth watching.

You WANT Spam?
I really enjoyed this film. It's a little disjointed and melodramatic, but a very good movie on everyday life. Good chemistry between the lead characters. Definately a movie for adults, which is much appreciated in today's world...And the conversation about canned Spam is priceless!

grey flannel
One of the most interesting movies of the 50s, and one which accurately portrays the rarely-approached subject of ordinary men trying to fit in their contemporary workplace. Peck is a little miscast (too tall and striking to possess the "ordinary" quality necessary for the role) and Jennifer could be a little more varied in her characterization (she needs a "light" moment or two) but they are both as usual fun to watch.
Peck's interview lunch is one of the best scenes, as is Ann Harding's plea to Frederich March. The other reviewers have not mentioned how the color and Cinemascope really add to the feel of the Fifties , and this cannot be stated enough - see it on a big-inch TV if possible. I think the wardrobe is one of the best in cinema history - it looks exactly as if it came off the racks of the department stores during the period. A great story, and one which anyone who has been employed in the business world as a white-collar worker, and who has aged thru their thirites, will identify with. Recommended.

an american who wanted to be grey
From outside the USA this film is rare. Isn't perhaps between the best, but usually these country is seen as the cradle of big heroes, brave cowboys, tycoons and the in general most rich or poweful people. However here Gregory Peck plays the figure of a common man who is, and it's intended wants not only to dress a grey suit, but voluntarily wants to be a ordinary, grey man, possibly possesing the qualities to get more. Perhaps this is truly wisdom and difficult. ... Read more