Female

This is a wonderful movie! The Art Deco sets are great - especially Miss Drake's house. (High up in the entry hall there is a balcony with a live organist!). Here are some facts: The assembly line for the "Drake" automobile is actually footage of the assembly line for the 1932 Plymouth. That beautiful town car she travels in is a Cord L-29 (as it pulls away listen to that beautiful whine of the front-wheel-drive transmission). George Brent drive a 1929 Packard. (Guess my obsession!)

A powerful FEMALE tycoon is accustomed to getting everything she wants - including men - until she meets a fellow utterly unimpressed by her wealth.

Ruth Chatterton completely dominates this brilliant, fascinating little film, until off-screen spouse George Brent shows up midway through the proceedings. Deftly handling the details of her life - from controlling her commercial competitors to adroitly arranging her next romantic conquest, Chatterton never lets up for a moment. Suave & composed, Brent arrives on the scene, calmly pegging targets in a sideshow, and presents the immovable object to her irresistible force.

Definitely pre-Code, the script throws a few zingers into the face of complacent modern viewers, with Chatterton & Brent doing all they can to entertain their audience. If her toughness turns into compliant conformity at the fadeout, it's a small price to pay for an hour's amusement.

Impish Ferdinand Gottschalk steals several scenes as Chatterton's fey factotum, while Ruth Donnelly makes the most of her tiny role as a spinster secretary. Johnny Mack Brown & Philip Reed are two of Chatterton's discarded young men.

Movie mavens will recognize Robert Greig & Rafaela Ottiano as Chatterton's butler & maid, as well as elderly Charley Grapewin as a sidewalk inebriate, all uncredited.

Warner Brothers gave the film a first-rate production; the terrific sets use detail to add to the story, rather than detract from it. Also, notice the ironic use of the Harry Warren tune during the seduction scenes; by the end of 1933 it would be famous as 'Shanghai Lil,' (with lyrics by Al Dubin) climaxing Warner's FOOTLIGHT PARADE.

Ruth Chatterton stars with husband George Brent, Philip Reed, and Johnny Mack Bfrown in this 1933 gem, Female.

This movie is a riot. Ruth Chatterton, looking very pretty, plays the a tough businesswoman who runs a tight ship. She tells a friend of hers she has no time for men, no interest in marriage, she's all business.

Whenever there's an attractive man in the office who approaches her about some business thing, she says she can't discuss it right at that moment. Come to her house for dinner that night so they can discuss it.

When they get there, she's feminine and flirty, and eventually the night leads to its inevitable precode conclusion, so we assume. The next day she rebuffs them and it's back to work. One guy gets sent to Hawaii instead of her apartment.

When she meets George Brent, the tables turned, and suddenly she can't live without a man.

Women in the '30s, in films, were sexually liberated and very feminine. In the '40s, they were tailored businesswomen who were miserable without a man. Boy, Ruth got the best of both worlds.

The deco sets were huge and stunning.

Very enjoyable. I love Ruth Chatterton anyway.

Alison Drake (Ruth Chatterton) is the owner and CEO of the Drake auto company. She is strictly business at work, but has an eye for the handsome men among her employees. They usually want to talk about some idea that they have pertaining to the company, she acts interested in their idea and invites them for dinner at her house, and she then loves them and leaves them as in a one night stand. The next day they think the two of them are an item. They find out otherwise when they are transferred to the Montreal office. Alison proves, through her actions in the first half of the film, that she can be as ruthless in business and as carnivorous in sexual conquests as any man.

But then she meets HIM - Jim Thorne (George Brent). They meet at a shooting gallery one night when she is looking for somebody to like her for herself - He does. But he also thinks she is a pick up AND he has traditional values. He won't allow himself to be used and he won't use others. She finds herself caring that he doesn't care, and she has an opportunity to see a lot of him as he turns out to be the hot shot auto designer to whom her company has given a two year contract.

This film benefits from the fact that Brent and Chatterton were married when they made this, and their chemistry shines through. It also benefits from some great character actors including Ruth Donnelly, usually full of sass, acting demure here, strangely enough. She is pursued by Pettigrew (Ferdinand Gottschalk), Alison Drake's personal assistant who at age 75 is elf-like enough that no credible sexual link between them could possibly exist. He is a wise and yet mischievous presence. Also note that this film, a B effort for Warner's, acts as a running ad for other Warner's films with Cagney's "Picture Snatcher" being called out by name and the film's soundtrack consisting of Warren and Dubin songs written for the Busby Berkeley musicals of this same year.

This film was initially a troubled production and ultimately had three directors - William Dieterle, who became ill after nine days, then William Wellman, and ultimately Michael Curtiz, who was tasked with reshooting what Jack Warner considered a weak film. Happy with the final product, and with the speed with which Curtiz reshot the film, Jack Warner gave Curtiz sole director's credit.

The basic change in Alison's character did not spare "Female" when it came to the Production Code Era which began in 1934. Head censor Joe Breen refused to allow it to be shown calling it "A cheap low-tone picture with lots of double meaning, wise-cracks, and no little filth which they think is funny." Usually such words from Joe Breen are a ringing endorsement, and that is the case in this instance.

I think that this was one of the most incredible and yet most under-rated films for it's time. For even though they ended with the woman succumbing to the whim of man and the traditional "woman's role", it still spoke miles for the woman. She was strong, brave, and did everything that a man could do and wasn't ashamed and had they only kept her going she could have been great. In fact, she could have won. But did she really lose? I don't think so, because maybe it showed something more about the female mystique, something that people missed because they thought that it only showed how a woman in power breaks down under pressure. What if they were really trying to show something deeper...I don't know now I am getting lost...too many things going through my mind to explain. Nonetheless, I do know that I was in awe after watching this film and it has had a lasting impression on me ever since.