Housewife

Housewife is the kind of film that drive feminists absolutely mad in presenting the woman as fit to be nothing more than the one who keeps home and hearth for the husband. It must have been especially galling for Bette Davis who definitely did not fit the mold of the message of this film.

Bette's not in the title role, she's the infamous 'other woman' of this Warner Brothers soap opera. The title role is played by Ann Dvorak, wife of George Brent, mother of Ronnie Cosbey. She tells Brent that he's not exactly showing a certain amount of get up and go needed to succeed in the world. That sends Brent off in the direction of Davis who is a career woman who just started working at Brent's advertising agency.

In the meantime Dvorak ain't taking this philandering lying down, she shows she's got some worldly ways after all and even gets an admirer in the person of John Halliday sniffing around.

But this is 1934 so films like this can only follow certain specific formula guidelines. All these people are so terribly civilized about all this infidelity.

1934 was the year Bette Davis finally got a breakthrough part in Of Human Bondage. Yet Warner Brothers would still cast her in fluff like Housewife. No wonder she took off for Great Britain.

Self-described "just a housewife" Nan (Ann Dvorak) is married to hubby Bill (George Brent) who only earns $175 a month as office manager for an advertising firm. Scrimping and saving to make ends meet, she still manages to remember that Sunday dinner isn't Sunday dinner without Leg of Lamb (and even though complains about their lack of income, keeps a maid in the house to help her with her "housework"). Hubby has a meanie boss where he works who gives him no respect, so with wife giving him the push (she's been busy reading "Success" magazine) he quits and decides to start his own advertising firm, with strong wife by his side helping him come up with ideas AND helping him get new clients. And meanwhile - he brings over blonde Pat (Bette Davis) from his old office, a girl who once was in love with him in high school, and stills seems to hold the torch for him.

I guess the plot of this film sounds a bit silly, but I actually liked this a lot, though thought the ending was a bit tacked on and unsatisfying. Bette Davis looks very pretty in this film, and I love the chemistry between her and George Brent. Bonus - I love all the really gorgeous satin and crepe ruffled bias-cut dresses the women wear in this. Very good film, well worth seeing.

George Brent, Ann Dvorak, and Bette Davis star in "Housewife," a 1934 film done at Warner Brothers before they knew what they had in Bette Davis. Davis was pretty enough, with her blond hair and blue eyes, to be cast as an ingénue when she first got to Warners. When Warners realized she had some personality, they put her in films like this where she played stronger, ambitious women.

In "Housewife," she plays Pat, who has always had a mad crush on Bill (Brent), but Brent is married to Nan (Dvorak), and they have a son. Apparently this doesn't matter to her or Brent, as he starts working late at the office and enters into an affair with her. In one party scene, it's pretty obvious that they're a couple - and that's in front of his wife. His wife, well played by Ann Dvorak, refuses to give him a divorce. He doesn't know what the big deal is, apparently forgetting they have a child. All very odd - or is it the script.

This is a pretty typical and not very good B movie enlivened by the cast. I like Brent better without his mustache. Wonder why he grew one.

Pure soap opera and not of the highest quality, with a silly ending. But no Bette Davis fan will want to skip her earlier efforts; it makes one appreciate what came later.

especially from Ann Dvorak (Nan Reynolds), who is in the title role as the housewife. It's basically a story that's been told time and time again, but with a few twists - a man (Bill Reynolds) rises up from obscurity to riches largely due to not only hard work, but the inspiration and ingenuity of a good woman, and then that man loses his head when he gets to the top. Brent plays the man forgetting where he came from and how he got there, and he does a more sympathetic job of it than actors in similar films, mainly because George Brent usually plays his roles with such sensitivity. Thus is the case here, and he therefore looks somewhat conscience-stricken even when he's behaving unconscionably.

John Halliday plays Paul Duprey, a major client in Bill's advertising firm as well as a man who sees the value in what Bill is tossing aside in the person of Bill's wife, Nan. Finally there is Bette Davis as Pat Berkeley, a creative genius in the advertising world and an old friend of Bill and supposedly of Nan too, although that doesn't prevent her from going after Bill. Warner Brothers has Ms. Davis' acting abilities packed in cotton here, as her sharp delivery and style of the late 30's and onward is on Valium in this particular film. She isn't given much more to do here than wander around looking fabulous in what seems to be a copy of Kay Francis' wardrobe. No wonder she fled to England in 1936.

There are a few touches that are pure Warners. Particularly humorous is a radio show - "The Duprey Hour" - designed by Bill's office manager rather than by Bill when Bill begins chasing after the charms of Pat and allows his business to be neglected. The show is supposed to build up Duprey Cosmetics. The final result is a disaster and consists of all kinds of bad humor that is so tasteless it's funny. It's topped off by a crooner singing lines like "...if the circles under your eyes look like apple pies...". You get the idea.

I'd recommend this one for the fine acting of Ann Dvorak and George Brent, for the unbelievable underutilization of Bette Davis, and the little touches and comic turns here and there that only seemed to pop up at Warner Brothers, especially in the 1930's. Do note that I think this might have been a better and meatier film if it had been made a year earlier and not just as the production code was coming into full effect. The director and writers just might have been afraid, under the circumstances, to take this film some of the places that could have made it more interesting.

While the premise sounded pretty old-hat and familiar and the title not particularly appetising (not to mention trusted reviewers not caring for it), 'Housewife' did have enough to make me want to see it. The main reasons being Bette Davis, an acting legend, and Ann Dvorak, always a pleasure to watch. But also because of my appreciation of the genre 'Housewife' fits under and of my love for classic, pre-1970s film (though my film taste is made up of all decades and genres).

'Housewife' though could have been so much better. It is watchable and does have its good things, including Davis and Dvorak. There is also though nothing much special in 'Housewife' and has a lot of major drawbacks, with the story almost single-handedly bringing the film down. All did much better work, performances and films, despite coming off quite well this is lesser early Davis in terms of films and even a lot of her previous films are better.

As said, Davis commands the screen without over-doing it, though to me it wasn't a going through the motions type of performance. The best performance as others have said belongs to Dvorak, a sheer delight and perhaps the best and only real exceptional thing about 'Housewife'. The film looks good and is amiably scored.

It does pick up in momentum a little in the middle act where things got more eventful. There are moments where the dialogue isn't too corny or overwrought.

The story sadly badly undoes 'Housewife'. It is a slow-starter and takes far too long to find its footing. For so much of the length, the story is very flimsy in content and what there is is so been there done that that there are so few surprises. Then the film gets very rushed and cramped towards the end, culminating in an "out of the blue", very silly and tacked on ending that doesn't ring true for a second.

George Brent is very take or leave for me generally as an actor, and here he came over as very bland as a character impossible to feel anything for. The direction is very routine at best, which is a good way to sum up too much of the pace too. The characters are sketchy and only Dvorak's has much likeability. The script was in sore need of a tightening up and wit.

All in all, watchable but a big disappointment. 5/10