Femmes devant le désir

The 1950s brought to Hollywood a new sort of movie...the trashy soap opera film. The movies were quite salacious for their day and subtlety is NOT something you associate with the movies. Lana Turner and Susan Hayward made a bunch of these films. In this case, Hedy Lamarr tries her hand at the genre...and soon retired from acting! It's not that it's a bad film...it just isn't exactly artistic or something you might feel proud for having appeared in it.

The film finds aging actress Vanessa Windsor (Lamarr) falling for a gorgeous young hunk, Chris (George Nader). At the same time, Vanessa's daughter, Penny (Jane Powell*), is a mess....a drunk party girl who is on the road to destruction. When Penny learns that mom loves Chris, she makes her next task to seduce the handsome stud. Not surprisingly, this results in bad stuff...heart ache, hysteria and more.

Through the course of this movie, just about every lady throws herself at handsome Chris...which is ironic considering Nader soon left Hollywood after he was outed for being gay. Regardless, he really was the best thing about the movie...solid, an excellent actor and incredibly handsome. And, it was nice to see women chasing the guy this time! Overall, a trashy but thoroughly enjoyable soaper. Not for everyone's taste...but a film lovers of the genre will no doubt enjoy.

*This film was a very huge departure for Powell. Previously, she mostly played sweet roles or young girl parts. Here, however, she is thoroughly screwy...and mesmerizing.

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.

THE FEMALE ANIMAL is unabashed melodrama, as if some afternoon soap opera were fashioned out of SUNSET BOULEVARD... BUT there is a big BUT. Despite the idiocies of her character and the milieu in which it is established, the wondrous surprise is Hedy Lamarr's performance. She had done good work in the past when given half a chance, but that wasn't often. Here, as her career was sadly waning, she offers a sensitive and truthful portrayal of a fading film queen. Only in the worst of the soap opera moments is she unable to rise above the situation. I've seen criticism of Jane Powell's work, but it is not bad at all, thwarted by that same Wagnerian plot line. She gives it a good try. George Nader looks good but has the most ill-defined role of all. He, too, tries. And, then, there is the marvelous Jan Sterling, here in a bitchy role that, if better written, could have merited her professional attention. Jan, we miss you. Keller's direction is somewhat okay, with unobtrusive camera work and backed with clean cinematography. THE FEMALE ANIMAL is not a waste of time when one watches glorious Hedy showing what she can done, and with the underlying wonderment of how a good script could have taken these four performers to great heights.

Director Harry Keller and cameraman Rusell Metty were both fresh from working on 'Touch of Evil' for producer Albert Zugsmith (for which Keller had directed additional scenes) when Zugsmith reunited them on this shameless rehash of 'Sunset Boulevard', which in turn anticipates 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane' and 'Mommie Dearest'.

Although still a handsome woman at only 42, Hedy Lamarr in her screen swansong suffered the added indignity of being given a grown-up adopted daughter played by Jane Powell (herself nearly thirty although supposedly playing "a rebellious kid trying to find out about life"); while Jan Sterling completes this trio of feisty femmes as a poisonous former child star who has had her fill of "local, sunburned pseudo-virile types". Like George Nader. After Nader left Hollywood he was perfectly open about his homosexuality, which may have been an in-joke on Zugsmith's part, as well as enabling him to keep his head amid such alluring company (as when vamped in one scene by Powell in a polka dot swimsuit).

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.