Female

A pre-code drama that turns the male stereotype around by having Ruth Chatterton play an executive that's all business by day, but a man-eater by night. As Alison Drake, the head of an automobile manufacturing company that was started by her now deceased father, the actress plays a confident decisive woman that surrounds herself with good looking male secretaries and assistants that she can invite to her home after business hours for sexual liaisons. If any of the men get too chummy, she has them fired or transferred by her only older assistant, a trustworthy father-figure type (Ferdinand Gottschalk) named Pettigrew.

But Alison tires of the routine, realizing that everyone wants something from her, and she doubts the authenticity of the compliments (and a marriage proposal from Douglas Dumbrille, not looking very suave in a bathing suit) she constantly receives. Desiring to be 'just a woman', Alison escapes to a common part of town where she sees and pursues a man (George Brent) that she meets at a shooting gallery. They dance, have hamburgers and a good time together but, at the end of the evening, he declines Alison's offer to take her home, claiming he has a strict rule about pick-ups.

Of course, the man turns out to be Jim Thorne, an engineer that her company just hired to design a car with an automatic transmission. However, Alison learns that her regular routine doesn't work with Jim; the vodka her butler serves doesn't make him amorous and he spurns her advances.

Predictably, this causes her to revert to being a more typical female, one who's willing to chuck everything just to win him.

Originally directed by William Dieterle and then William Wellman, the only screen credit was given to Michael Curtiz, who was brought in to reshoot the scenes with Johnny Mack Brown (per some comments Robert Osborne made when the film aired on TCM), who plays one of Chatterton's pawns. Donald Henderson Clark wrote the story that was adapted by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola.

This is a very strange film. On one hand, it's very much a so-called "Pre-Code" film because it was made before the new and tougher Production Code. As such, the film is rather frank about sex and seems amoral through the first half. Ruth Chatterton's very liberated character is all business by day, but by night she wants her male employees to service her like stud bulls!! Then, if they fall in love with her, they are cast aside and transferred to another branch of the company. However, it's also like a Post-Code movie in the second half because it tries to completely undo the first half of the film--and even goes so far as to say that it's NOT a woman's place to be running any business! Chatterton, uncharacteristically, seems to agree with this by the time the movie ends!! It's like a case of amnesia or multiple personality!! This inconsistency really helped to undo the movie for me. Had they kept Chatterton cold and sexually charged throughout the film, it really would have made more sense and been more salacious--something that you really expect in the most extreme Pre-Code films. As is, parts are enjoyable and parts are really dull and conventional. An interesting but far from perfect film. How anyone can give this rather ordinary film a score of 10 is just bizarre.

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.

I am indebted to others on this site to learn that Mr Curtiz was by no means the only director involved in this film, that the sprightly Ruth Chatterton was 41 and married to her co-star at the time of shooting. I also might not have been aware of the Frank Lloyd Wright architecture on display but what I wouldn't have needed any prompting on was just how much fun this movie is. Chatterton as head of a major company employing many men rather enjoys suggesting overtime in her room at night and then, astonishingly, tossing a cushion onto the floor to get the message across. Great cars, great buildings, some amazing dialogue and some eye popping moments as our leading lady goes from hard and calculating, to assured and seductive before rejecting all this manly stuff and reverting to being female and married and all that stuff. Most enjoyable, audiences at the time must have sat mouth agape.

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!)