The Female Animal

What Douglas Sirk, and a better chosen cast, could have done with this material!

Hedy Lamarr plays "Vanessa Windsor," an aging movie queen who falls hard for a handsome extra named "Chris" played by George Nader. Chris feels himself genuinely drawn to Vanessa but fears becoming nothing more than a "kept" man. Vanessa's adopted daughter Penny, played by Jane Powell, enters the scene. Penny suffers the usual problems experienced as the child of a famous, rarely-present person and has drifted into alcoholism and promiscuous behavior. She also falls for Chris and he feels himself attracted to her though he tries to keep Vanessa from learning this fact. The movie soon becomes a question of (1) what will Vanessa do when she finds out the truth, and (2) which woman will Chris wind up with?

Miscasting weakens this movie which isn't quite flamboyant enough to be "camp." Hedy Lamarr fits easily into her role but Jane Powell seems about 10 years too old to be the adopted daughter. Similarly George Nader's part might have been better filled by an actor 10 years his junior. Like Robert Mitchum, Nader usually declined to shave off his chest hair but he obviously made an exception here for his various shirtless scenes. Perhaps he felt this would make him look younger in a "beachboy" sort of way.

Jan Sterling receives third billing and wanders into and out of the plot but her character isn't well integrated into the story. (She's the counterpart to Ruth Roman in "Love Has Many Faces.") Like the other performers, her "smart, sophisticated" lines generally fall flat. The plot also suffers a bit from a flashback device which kicks in shortly after the start of the movie but which is presented in such an off-hand way that some viewers may not realize that a flashback is now in progress.

As for the ending, it appears to have been decided upon by a committee anxious to please as many people as possible. As a result, it'll probably please no one and its ambiguity is more annoying than stimulating.

George Nader's quiet, dignified performance -- and he isn't given much to work with -- almost holds the movie together. It's good to see him with his shirt off but one can't help feeling a bit sorry that he's sometimes relegated to just being a slab of "beefcake." Those viewers familiar with Nader's private life will appreciate the fact that his character is given the sexually-ambiguous name of "Chris."

This was not cast well at all. Hedy Lamarr was 44 and still ravishingly beautiful; her daughter is played by 29-year-old Jane Powell who does NOT look like a teenager with her bleached blonde hair and worldly air. George Nader at age 37 looks totally appropriate for Hedy! He does not look like a "boy toy" as the role calls for. He looks mature, weathered, tan, sort of like a Marlboro Man.

Since Jane's character is supposed to be a teenager, he is way too old for her! He looks like a teenager's dad!! The script is meant to make us think the boy toy character is more appropriate as a teenager's love interest, but the casting is wrong.

Hedy does what she can with the script and always seems warm and loving. Jane's character does not have any charm. It's hard to see why the male lead would be torn between the two.

Poor George Nader is also very wooden. When his agent says "You can't act yourself out of a paper bag" it's easy to believe, but we should believe the MAN in this role even if we couldn't believe him as an ACTOR. His face and voice are without variety. The role must have been cast by just asking actors to take their shirts off.

At one point in the film, a character professes to Hedy Lamarr, who plays an actress: "I always thought you were a better actress than the roles they gave you." The character might as well have been speaking about Lamarr herself, because this film typifies the substandard material that the actress was handed throughout most of her career.

While there were some highlights in Lamarr's career, such as the wonderful H.M. Pulham, Esq., The Strange Woman, and Dishonored Lady, there was also a lot of fluff. It seems Lamarr was always treated as a glamorous beauty rather than a great actress, although she was smart and talented.

The Female Animal was one of those fading star vehicles that Universal seemed to specialize in at the time (others included Female on the Beach with Joan Crawford, and The Price of Fear with Merle Oberon). By 1958, Lamarr had not been the leading actress in a film for a few years, but she was still youthful and beautiful. It's curious that she was not offered more roles, although back then the shelf-life of a glamorous star was even shorter than it is today.

The Female Animal is a somewhat trashy and sordid melodrama. It is perhaps the only film I have ever seen in which Hedy Lamarr was not the object of desire. Here she plays a more aggressive woman who is not ashamed to take in a house boy. The idea that Lamarr, even at the advanced age of 45 (*eye roll*), would need to pay for handsome male companionship is beyond absurd. She was still very sexy and could have probably had her pick of men. I agree with the other reviewer who said, to some effect: "Hedy past her prime was any other woman's peak." She is widely considered the most beautiful actress of all-time (interchangeably with Gene Tierney).

The film overall leans more toward camp classic than art house. You have drunk ladies, aging starlets out "hunting" for young studs, and of course glamorous Hedy, who has trouble speaking some of her lines. It's all kind of a mess, but it somehow hangs together, and it's a lot of fun. Jan Sterling is entertaining in a supporting role.

The ending redeems the film. Lamarr gives a rather poignant speech about determination, and we are reminded of what a remarkable actress she was. We think about how sad it is that her career was cut so short by...ageism.

The movie was filmed in Cinescope b and white, a rarity in those days of large screens. Hedy was perfect as a woman fading from the limelight and ageing, but turning to alcohol. That is why she looked and acted like she was supposed to. Jane Powell looked too old to be Hedy's daughter and way overacted her dramatic scenes. She should of stuck to musicals. George Nadar, looked the part, but his acting was wooden. jan sterling was good for the small part she had in it.

Hedy's a star in crisis, at a crossroads in her career, too fond of the bottle and adrift without a man. Enter big strong George Nader who saves her from an onset accident and she's swept off her feet but there's trouble ahead especially in the personage of her daughter.

Sound familiar? If it doesn't you haven't seen many latter day Joan Crawford movies. Miss Lamaar's last feature is a low budget affair but that doesn't mean that it doesn't offer high grade fun for its target audience, namely people who enjoy sudsy melodrama with MOVIE STARS of a certain vintage.

Hedy looks great though it's obvious that she's either had a face-lift or some sort of surgical tape applied since her eyes are definitely different from her glory days. The real stretch of credibility comes in the casting of Jane Powell, also looking great, as Hedy's daughter. True they are 15 years apart in age so it's conceivable that they could be mother & daughter but at 44 and 29 respectively they look more like sisters plus Jane's character is clearly supposed to be much younger. She give an okay performance but she's miscast nonetheless.

As for the story it careens around not making a whole lot of sense, nor does it need to, but it's far more entertaining than many "good" films it would be considered inferior too.