Female (1933) - film review

Alison Drake has inherited a large car factory from her father and runs it with ruthless efficiency.  She has no time for sentiment in either her personal or professional life.  From time to time, she invites one of her more attractive male employees back to her home for an evening’s entertainment.  If any of these select few dares to imagine he means anything to her, Miss Drake soon has him sent on his way.  Alison has grown tired of men professing their love to her and suspects they are merely after her fortune.  She wonders if she will ever find a man who is capable of loving her for herself.  One evening, she slips away from a party she is hosting and visits an amusement park.  Here she meets a young man who immediately takes her fancy.  They spend a few hours together, enjoying each other’s company at the park, but he declines her invitation to spend the night with her.  The following morning, Alison is surprised when she encounters the same man at her factory.  He is Jim Thorne, the star engineer she had hoped to recruit to improve the design of her cars.  Alison tries her old trick of inviting Jim back to her home one evening, ostensibly to discuss professional matters.  But Jim is not so easily taken in and refuses to be seduced...

Female is something of a cinematic oddity.  Initially it appears to be a piece of flagrant feminist propaganda, a film that boldly challenges the assumption that a woman’s place is in the home bringing up children. "Why should men have all the fun?" is what the film appears to be saying.  "Surely women have just as much right to lead fulfilling professional lives.". But then, twenty minutes in, it becomes glaringly apparent that this is actually a piece of satire that mocks both feminism and the way in which men exploit women (making it both anti- and pro-feminist at the same time).  Once you realise this, the film is hilariously funny, although those who lack the Y chromosome may find it harder to see the joke (oops).  Ruth Chatterton’s portrayal of a hard-headed business woman who regards men as amusing little playthings is one of cinema’s earliest and best examples of role reversal.  Could the film have been made a few years later, once the Hollywood Production Code was in force?  Probably not.

Although Michael Curtiz was given the sole director’s credit for Female, the bulk of the film was shot by two other directors.  William Dieterle was originally assigned to the film but he fell ill and was replaced by William Wellman.  Once the film was completed, Warner Brothers’ boss Jack Warner objected to one of the actors in the film and insisted that his scenes be re-shot with another actor.  Johnny Mack Brown was hired as the replacement actor and his scenes were shot by Curtiz.  Here, Ruth Chatterton appears along side her real-life husband George Brent.  They had worked together on three previous films, including Lilly Turner (1933).

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