Face Value

Howard Crandall Jr., heir to a considerable fortune, emerges from the trenches of World War I bearing not just psychological scars, but a profoundly disfiguring facial injury. Choosing self-imposed exile in post-war Paris, he finds a peculiar solace among a clandestine brotherhood of men similarly marked by the conflict. His eventual, reluctant return to the gilded cage of his family home and the embrace of his fiancée, Muriel, is initially met with a brittle shock, quickly masked by an overt, almost performative, acceptance. Yet, Howard, acutely sensitive to his altered appearance, perceives their gestures as pity rather than genuine affection. This festering insecurity reaches a critical point with the re-emergence of Arthur Wells, Muriel's former suitor, whose easy familiarity and warm reception by Muriel ignite Howard's deepest fears, confirming his suspicion that his value in their eyes, and perhaps Muriel's heart, has been irrevocably diminished by his ruined visage.