Themes: Split Personalities, Doctors and Patients, Therapy
Main Cast: Joanne Woodward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb, Edwin Jerome, Alena Murray
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
When Alistair Cooke shows up to introduce Three Faces of Eve, we know that the fact-based story will bear more than a little fidelity to truth. Joanne Woodward won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Eve, a young Georgia housewife suffering from multiple personalities. Eve's husband (David Wayne), confused by his wife's aberrant behavior when assuming her two "other selves," seeks out help from a psychiatrist (Lee J. Cobb). Carefully probing Eve's subconscious via hypnosis, the doctor finds out that, though each of Eve's personalities is aware of the other's existence, none are related. After months of therapy, Eve is purged of her negative selves and is totally cured. Ironically, Joanne Woodward would herself play a psychologist confronted with a multiple-personality case in the Emmy-winning 1976 TV movie Sybil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The surprising success of The Three Faces of Eve unleashed numerous films and stories to come about multiple personalities. In 1957, delving into mental illness was a more controversial proposition, and The Three Faces of Eve broke disturbing new ground for Hollywood. Joanne Woodward, who would later play the psychiatrist treating Sybil in that 1976 classic about a woman with multiple personalities, won an Oscar as a woman with three personalities: a mousy housewife, a party girl, and a sophisticated matron. The film also represented a growing cultural trend of examining the psychological toll on women of the constricting gender roles of the 1950s. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Nancy Kulp - Mrs. Black; Douglas Spencer - Mr. Black; Terry Ann Ross - Bonnie; Ken Scott - Earl; Mimi Gibson - Eve (younger); Alistair Cooke - Narrator; Rush Williams - Hospital Orderly; Vince Edwards - Soldier
This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2007)
The Three Faces of Eve is the title of a 1957 book and film, loosely based on the true story of Chris Costner Sizemore, a woman who suffered from dissociative identity disorder.[1] Sizemore's identity was concealed in the book and film, and was not revealed until decades later.
Eve White is a quiet, self-effacing wife and mother who has headaches and occasional blackouts. Eventually she is sent to see a personality psychiatrist Dr. Luther, and while under hypnosis her "alter personality", wild, fun-loving Eve Black, discloses herself. With Eve Black on the loose, Eve White's husband leaves her and abandons their daughter. Under continued therapy, a third personality appears, the relatively stable Jane.
The rest of the film depicts Luther's attempts to reconcile the three faces of Eve, including uncovering a traumatic event in Eve’s childhood. Her beloved grandmother had died when she was six, and according to family custom relatives were supposed to kiss the dead person at the viewing, making it easier for them to let go. Eve's grief and terror led to her "splitting off" a second personality to accomplish things she herself did not want to do.
After discovering the cause of her disorder, Jane is able to remember everything that has ever happened to all three personalities. Luther asks to speak with Eve White, but when Jane tries to bring her out, she discovers that Eve White and Eve Black no longer exist. All three personalities are once again whole. She marries a man named Earl whom she met when she was Jane and reunites with her daughter Bonnie.
Film notes
Eve White is sent to an asylum after Eve Black tries to kill Bonnie. Jane is the origin of Eve White and Eve Black. Eve White does not know about Eve Black but Eve Black knows about Eve White. All personalities are in control while under hypnosis which is why Jane and Eve Black are able to reveal themselves to Dr. Luther.
The book
The book by Thigpen and Cleckley was rushed into publication and film rights immediately sold to director Nunnally Johnson in 1957, apparently to capitalize on public interest in multiple personalities following the publication of Shirley Jackson's 1954 novel The Birds' Nest,[2] which was made into the 1957 film Lizzie.
Chris Costner Sizemore has written at some length about her experiences as the real "Eve." In her 1958 book, "The Final Face of Eve," she used the pseudonym Evelyn Lancaster. in her 1977 book I'm Eve, she revealed her true identity. She has also written a follow-up book, A Mind Of My Own.
