Forever Female

As an actress I have often admired Ginger Rogers. I am one of the few who think the films she made after the musicals she made with Fred Astaire are better than all that Art Deco Camp that still in some quarters has dominated her reputation. To name two only, ' Storm Warning ' and ' Tender Comrade '. She excelled as a witty serious actress, and when given the chance was riveting to watch. In this film she gives an exceptionally brave performance realising that a woman in the cold world of show business does not have to be, or should be always ' 29 '. Other people have remarked upon the certain similarities with ' All About Eve ' and there are some, especially with the main content being a new and apparently brilliant actress wanting to take her place in a stage play. This film is sexually bolder as Rogers plays a woman who unashamedly has had a sting of younger lovers with her ex-husband still very much an emotional focal point in her life. and she plays this up in many ways that Bette Davis in ' All About Eve ' could not have done. Rogers has a stronger sexual presence and shows it. The other brave aspect is her recognition that time is not on her side and the scenes where she admits that are truly moving, and without histrionics. William Holden is her latest conquest but his acting in the film does not match hers. He is also encumbered with many scenes with the aspiring young actress played very badly by Pat Crowley. She is nowhere in the same range of acting ability as Anne Baxter opposite Bette Davis. I am not sure if Irving Rapper the director was responsible but Pat Crowley was miscast and what could have been a very good film with a fine script loses much of its force and poignancy. I give it an 8 for the script itself, for Paul Douglas as the ex-husband and for the excellent Ginger Rogers.

In Forever Female, Ginger Rogers is a Broadway star, still at the top of her game, but not realizing that the times are a changing. Like Norma Desmond she won't believe that there's nothing wrong with being 50 unless you try to act 25.

As this is a comedy, the consequences are not quite as tragic as they are in Sunset Boulevard. Forever Female is however Ginger's reality check.

New playwright William Holden has written a play that's got Ginger excited, a great role for her, maybe 10 to 15 years ago. She insists the role by revised from a 19 to 29 year old. She hasn't lost hold on reality that much.

There's a young ingénue on the scene who might be right for the part and she proves it in a way you have to see Forever Female to find out about. That would be Pat Crowley who was 'introduced' here. Though she never became the bright star of tomorrow, she plays a kinder, gentler Eve Harrington here. Pat Crowley's greatest success would be in the television version of Please Don't Eat the Daisies in the part Doris Day did in film.

All this is proving quite amusing to Rogers's ex-husband and producer Paul Douglas who has some of the best lines in the film.

There's nothing earth shattering about Forever Female, but it did no harm to any of the folks associated with it and still has some laughs for today's audience.

This film was made in the shadow of ALL ABOUT EVE, and paints a more benign view of that film's central situation. Ginger Rogers plays a leading Broadway star, who retains a close relationship with her former husband (Paul Douglas), and works closely with playwright William Holden (possibly a softer build-up for his play director in Bing Crosby's/Grace Kelly's THE COUNTRY GIRL). Pat Crowley, a younger woman of some acting talent, is trying to break into the circles that cast and produce Broadway plays (she is doing mostly off-Broadway work). The relationship of these four characters are the basis of this comedy.

There are differences between the situation here and the situation in EVE. There was more of an atmosphere of the theater and it's traditions in EVE (because Joseph Mankiewicz writes literate scripts, and was determined to show what goes on behind the stage curtains). But there Bette Davis has gotten trapped into a lonely greatness on stage, and she turns out to be willing to vacate her pedestal if she can have a human life with Gary Merrill. She just does not like the way Anne Baxter is trying to replace her in her parts - Baxter's underhanded methods are despicable. Crowley is not Baxter. She genuinely admires Rogers, and just wants entry (which she may get through Holden). It is just that Rogers is still clinging to her youth - Holden is her last chance for such a cling when they go out together. But even Rogers realizes that she is beyond the point of return. In fact, towards the end of the film the audience and Holden and Crowley discover that Rogers actually gives herself a long summer vacation where she can wear softer, easier clothing and eat as much as she wants to. In the end she accepts that the scepter is passed, but she still has her old husband/friend/and continuous argument partner Douglass to play with.

This 1954 film features Ginger Rogers and William Holden with a nice supporting role played by Paul Douglas as Ginger Roger's ex-husband. Ginger Rogers was in her early forties at the time of this film and played an actress not totally accepting of her age. The public still loved her but playing a 29 year old was beginning to strain credibility. William Holden played an unknown playwright with a play featuring the relationship of a 19 year old and her mother. The role was rewritten so that Ginger Rogers could play a 29 year old, once again. Won't go further into the story but I found it interesting that Ginger Rogers was brave enough to play a role like this where age was a focus. It was a surprise to see an older Ginger Rogers after only having seen her earlier movies. Overall this film was entertaining with a nice mix of comedy and drama. Well worth the time to watch.

When we see the middle-aged actresses of today facelifting and botoxing themselves to stay bankable, this movie still speaks to females feeling forced to appear forever young.

The ending/solution to the central plot is glaringly obvious from almost the get go and the movie ends exactly where you think it will for all of the main characters.

Still I found myself enjoying folks I like to see (Ginger Rogers, William Holden, and Paul Douglas) and actually felt moved by the decision of the Ginger Rogers character.

I wouldn't say this is feminist, but an early acknowledgement of the uphill battle aging females face in stardom and in real life worth watching at least once.