It actually has polarizing film on both sides of the liquid crystal plane. I tried removing a section of the polarizing film on just one side, no dice, nothing could be seen. I put the piece of film back, and the image in that area reappeared. I tried removing a section of the film front and back and still nothing. Apparently this type of LCD relies on a polarizing film both front & back in order to display an image.

Both films were definitely polarizing. If I held them up to my eye and rotated it in front of my LCD TV, the picture would either be present or disappear as a result of the rotation of the film.

I would actually try replacing the film if it wasn't for the fact that the liquid crystal panel was actually cracked in the center.