This packs a wallop because you can choose quite a few women from any decade but I chose 3 that came into my head right away and 3 films where the woman wasn’t a scheming bitch or insane. So, here are my 3 films…I could have chosen so many more..
1. HIS GIRL, FRIDAY-1940
This is, I think, the quintessential strong female played to perfection by Rosalind Russell as a newspaper woman in a very male dominated field. Her boss and ex husband, Cary Grant knows how to get under her skin and knows that being married to poor Ralph Bellamy baking cookies and wearing an apron, is not her schtick. He gets her involved in a prime story and she gets to sink her teeth into it knowing full well what her ex is up to and she can match him in every way. It is very witty, fast paced and wonderfully acted by all the leads and the character actors.
2. WOMAN OF THE YEAR-1942
This is the film where Katherine Hepburn met Spencer Tracy for the first time and started the love affair that only ended with his death. This film, Hepburn plays a major league reporter, like Barbara Walters ( when Barbara was a kid/teen) who meets Tracy, a no nonsense sports writer. They soon find out they like each other more than just friends and end up marrying but Tracy did not realize that his wife was not ready to meet half way and be a marriage partner. I find this film quite mature for this time since it is hinted at that they sleep together before being married. This was not an easy feat during the censorship days.
3. TO BE OR NOT TO BE-1942
This is the last film of the beloved Carole Lombard who tragically died in a plane crash, with her mom, when she wanted to rush back home, after a bond selling tour, to her husband, Clark Gable. In this film, she plays the wife to Jack Benny, in an acting tour group in Poland, who find out they must work with the resistance movement to help people get out of Poland and themselves as well. There are cases of mistaken identity and jealousy when Jack thinks his wife might be carrying on with a young Robert Stack. I haven’t seen this film in decades and need to see it again. I just remember how Carole was brilliant playing a spy to help her husband and her people. This is a great film that dealt with the war and the rumours of what was happening to the Jewish people. A must see…again for me.
What strong women films can you think of?
Hi, Birgit!
ReplyDeleteThis is my final day of blogging for the month, and didn't want to miss your Thursday movie reviews before I fade back into the woodwork.
This gives me another chance to mention Howard Hawks, who directed the screwball comedy His Girl Friday. One year after the film's release, Hawks married fashion icon Slim Keith. Once again, I need to plug the series Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans. It is currently running on Hulu and it's must see, believe you me.
Now that I've seen the trailer, I want to watch Woman Of The Year. Spence and Kate are so good together, and the scene where everything goes wrong in the kitchen looks like a classic. As long as everything goes right in the bedroom... all is forgiven, I'm sure.
I'd like to loop-play the trailer for To Be Or Not To Be so that I can keep listening to the cultured voice and crisp diction of that v/o announcer. This is another film I haven't yet seen and now want to. It must have been painful for the players and audiences to watch the movie knowing that the leading lady had died in a plane crash one month before its release. It reminds me of Jailhouse Rock, a movie Elvis could not watch because his female co-star, Judy Tyler, was killed in a car crash only a few days after production had wrapped.
The strong woman that immediately comes to my mind is Barbara Stanwyck is most of her roles. My earliest impression of Barbara was in the role of brave wife Julia in Titanic who watched the ship sink into the icy black sea with her hubby and son on board. I also want to highly recommend Naomi Watts in The Impossible (2012), the incredible true story of a family caught in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Naomi's performance is riveting.
Well, I'm off then, Birgit. It was wonderful spending time with you again this month, and I look forward to getting back together on the first of April when I return with a new post. I hope you are feeling better today and I wish you and my buddy Harley a safe and happy March. Take care, dear friend BB!
Would it be wrong to say Wonder Woman?
ReplyDeleteJust watched The Heires for the umpteenth time. Always one of my favorites. Found it on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteGreat theme and you are right there are lots of choices this time round. I’m going to stick to your chosen period since it’s such a gold mine of films with powerful female characters.
ReplyDeleteCall Me Madam (1953)-Ethel Merman wasn’t really suited to movie stardom, her outsize personality apparently translated better on stage. But in this film version of one of her biggest Broadway successes she tears the joint up as Sally Adams (based on famed society hostess Perle Mesta) who is appointed by Truman as an ambassador to a small country and by the force of her personality (and leather lungs!) sets everybody’s problems right while being romanced by a singing George Sanders!
Stage Fright (1950)-Hitchcock was not too fond of this England set mystery but it does afford two very strong women’s roles for Jane Wyman as the heroine out to save her friend and Marlene Dietrich as the duplicitous by wildly charismatic villainess.
Deadline at Dawn (1946)-Dime a dance girl Susan Hayward, with the aid of cabbie Paul Lukas, only has until sunup to prove naïve gob Bill Williams is innocent of murder by prowling the lonely streets of a slumbering New York City. Full of wonderful dialog and atmospheric cinematography with heroine Susan whose interior, at least initially, is seemingly made of flint as tough as they come.
Oh wow, I've seen all three of these. I've even seen a version of His Girl Friday with Matthau and Lemmon. (Originally, the part was written for a man, but when an assistant read Russell's part, someone realized it worked well with a woman in the part.)
ReplyDeleteThese all sound like films I'd love to see. Classic films of this era portrayed female stars in a more realistic yet elevated way. That deteriorated later when all the women in movies were seen as sex symbols. Hollywood seriously does not know what to do with women or how to honestly portray them.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the first two and loved them! Missed the third one, but I know Carole Lombard's tragic story. Clark Gable never got over losing her, by all accounts. Two classics that come to mind are "The Women" and "All About Eve".
ReplyDelete'HIS GIRL FRIDAY' is one of my all-time favorite screwball comedies! I love the dialogue being spoken in double-time, which forces the viewer to really concentrate. So many clever, rapid-fire retorts from everyone in the movie! It's quite unique. And that moment where Cary Grant *breaks the fourth wall* in mentioning "Ralph Bellamy" makes me laugh-out-loud every single time!
ReplyDeleteDebbie noted the film 'The Women', and I like that one a lot, too. But for very different (serious) reasons.
~ D-FensDogG
Of your movie picks, "HIS GIRL FRIDAY" is the only we've seen and I remember liking it a lot but then those old films are often some of the best ones to see. The last one sounds like it would be fun to see with Jack Benny. I'm assuming it's a comedy. These type of "strong women" are true in every sense of the word unlike today's unrealistic versions on screen and off. Strong women of yesterday remained feminine while standing their ground determined minded all the while looking pretty and never brutish in action. These are the kind of role models for today's woman should aspire to be more like. :) Excellent movie line up! 👏
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