Thursday, July 21, 2022

Thursday Movie Picks- Female Bosses

 


I was just, what’s the technical term?? Oh yes, blecchhh last week after the failed colonoscopy. For the next 3 days I felt like my walls were being stretched and I was in quite a bit of pain Which makes me wonder if diverticulitis is the culprit. I will have to go through it again but this time, no f#@,! 4L jug to drink. All I need is some vile Jim Jones juice to down and that should do it. 

This week, over at Wandering Through The Shelves, it’s about female bosses and I was quite surprised at how many movies had female bosses that were just mean bitches. I wanted to try and find 3 women bosses who were good and not vicious, sexually charged(or under-charged) harpies. I think I found 3 so let’s get the show on the road.

1. MILDRED PIERCE-1945

You can rely on Joan Crawford to be her own woman and this is the perfect part albeit kind of wild considering she was not the best mom in the world. She plays a wonderful wife and mom to 2 girls, one sweet and the other a total mean little bitch. The marriage is not the best and when the good little girl dies, the marriage falls apart mainly because Crawford’s mommy ways are beyond stupid when it comes to her mean, vile daughter played brilliantly by Ann Blyth. Crawford decides to get a job at a restaurant and soon learns the ropes and exceeds it becoming her own boss to a very successful restaurant of her own all the while giving in to the demands of this beast of a daughter. Her best friend, played by Eve Arden, knows who this gal is when she states,  "Crocodiles have the right idea...they eat their young.” Or something to that effect. Crawford won the Oscar for her role which she graciously accepted while “sick in bed with the flu” all dussied up in her best boudoir outfit.

2. THE FAR COUNTRY-1954

This is a western that stars James Stewart as a man who was swindled out of his cattle by a corrupt judge but takes them anyway, crossing into Canada with the herd. Along with his best friend, played by Walter Brennan, they decide to try their hand at gold prospecting and making a point of staying out of the less than savoury goings on at the lawless place called Dawson. The saloon owner and very wealthy owner of other business ventures, Ruth Roman, has the hots for James Stewart but also likes to own the town along with the judge. She makes sure she buys the food plus make herself richer with gals and gambling, so as to have the main competition go under. It finally comes to a head and Stewart must take sides but what will the owner of the saloon do now that she sees hubba hubba Stewart is silent no more? This is a pretty good western and the scenery is stunning. I had just visited Athabaskan glacier and was shocked when I saw this film because it has 2 great scenes at this famous glacier. You can see how much the glacier has shrunk since this film was made which is quite sad.

3. IT HAPPENED TO JANE-1959

You know that I had to choose a Doris Day movie because, in many of her comedies if the late 50s/ early 60s, she played a self made woman who was her own boss. This film tanked at the box office possibly due to the title of the movie but I found it fun. It's not an earth shattering comedy classic but a fun Doris Day romp as a widowed business lady of a lobster business. She sells her lobsters to businesses but when the railway screws up causing  her lobsters to bite the dust, she loses her biggest contract. Well, this won't do for this headstrong, spunky gal so she insists that the local lawyer  played by Jack Lemmon, take on the railway. The head of the railway is played to evil perfection by Ernie Kovacs with Granite-faced Steve Forrest wanting to make Day his own much to Lemmon's dismay. I have not seen this in years, but would like to watch this again because I found it thoroughly engaging.

Which female boss movies can you think of?

I have to put this hilarious send-up of Mildred Pierce by Carol Burnett because it's just perfect but don't watch it if you have not seen the movie and want to. 




16 comments:

  1. Meryl Streep (ugh!) in The Devil Wears Prada was my first thought. As a former female boss, I wore my title of 'bitch' as a badge of honor.

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    1. Yes, that's a great choice and a movie i can rewatch over and over despite Meryl Streep in this movie. Yes, I wear Bitch ulike a badge of honor too.

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  2. Birgit I'm so sorry to hear your procedure went awry!! It's never the most pleasant thing to have done but usually the prep is worse than the rest. Hope the next goes smoothly!!

    Now to your films. I ADORE everything about Mildred Pierce!! Joan is sensational, Ann Blyth hissably repellent, Eve Arden divine, Jack Carson marvelous, Zachary Scott smarm personified and little Jo Ann Marlowe wonderful as youngest daughter Kay. She was a natural, I've always wondered why she didn't go further in her career.

    It's been quite some time since I've seen The Far Country but I remember liking it and I am a HUGE Ruth Roman fan! I'll have to track it down and revisit it. Thanks for the memory jog. :-)

    I think that awful title probably did have something to do with Doris's film tanking at the box office. The original "That Jane from Maine" is far more intriguing. I do have to say that even though I enjoyed it and love both Dodo and Jack Lemmon they just didn't have the chemistry that I would have expected as a romantic couple. That might have played into the film's initial lackluster performance as well.

    A fun theme! My very first thought was that there could be a full list of just Rosalind Russell boss lady movies since the woman in charge was her comic niche in 40's film. But aside from her 1942 starrer "Take a Letter, Darling" she didn't technically play the boss, more a litany of newspaperwomen, judges, lawyers and competent secretaries always in charge but not a boss per se. But the one I mentioned is a cute rom/com with advertising exec Roz, and her mile high hair, running male secretary Fred MacMurray ragged until the inevitable clinch.

    The other two that occurred to me are the saucy 1932 Kay Francis pre-code film Man Wanted. Married Kay's a magazine editor who hires a random man as her secretary, complications ensue in all directions.

    The other is a 1957 is the 1957 comedy Top Secret Affair with Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas (it was supposed to costar Bogie and Bacall, but they had to withdraw when Bogart's cancer worsened and he died shortly after.) Susan is a powerful media maven who sets out to expose Kirk as unworthy when he is appointed to a government post that she wanted to go to one of her cronies sending her quislings running to get the dirt on him. Problem is there is no dirt and things don't go as Susie had planned.

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    1. Hi Joel...yes, I can take that liquid buy not 4l of it.
      I haven't seen any of your pics but I'd love to. Kay Francis is a forgotten star, same with Constance Bennet. They were both big stars in the early 30s.
      I wanted to pick Russell as well but I couldn't find a vehicle I saw where she was the boss.
      I have not seen the Hayward film but that one sounds good too.
      I thought you liked Ruth Roman because I always liked her and she stands put in this film even though she is not the main star.
      I think you are right that they should have name the Day film the way it was meant to be and not Twinkle!. I still enjoyed the romp.

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  3. Here's hoping you feel better soon and that your next colonoscopy goes well! These are all great movies and I loved the Carol Burnett clip too. ☺ Faye Dunaway in Network, Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl and Meryl Streep in the Devil Wears Prada come to mind. They were all considered bitches, but then, so was I during my corporate world stint. I considered it a testament to my abilities. ☺

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  4. The first movie that came to mind was Desk Set with Katherine Hepburn. She was the head of the research department in that.

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  5. I haven't seen any of these. I did see a bit of the newer TV mini-series adaptation of Mildred Pierce starring Kate Winslet some time ago.

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  6. I hope your next colonoscopy goes better.

    I had never heard of any of these films before, but I enjoyed reading about them. The only one I could think of that no one has mentioned was not necessarily a "boss," but three secretaries who take down their boss in 9 to 5.

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  7. Hi Birgit...not a pleasant experience but hopefully a good result after the next one....its been boiling here and I haven't even been in my craft room or turned on my computer but at last it has cooled off
    haven't seen any of the films but good on you reflecting the positive female roles...take care xxxx

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  8. So sorry you had such a bad time of it.
    Haven't seen these, but they look good. First movie that comes to mind for me is The Intern.
    Have an excellent weekend.

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  9. I could only think of Working Girl and Devil Wears Pravda, which I see have both been mentioned. Hope you lose that discomfort soon.

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  10. Mildred Pierce is a great pick. I loved that movie!

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  11. "Aliens" with Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. While not technically the boss, Ripley WAS the boss!

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  12. I hope you are doing well now! I watched long ago "It happened to Jane" and I remember being quite taken by the character Jane :)

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  13. Diverticulitis is very painful. That's possibly the reason for your weight loss. Does your blood work show signs of infection? When I heard it mine were really off. I couldn't get my temp down and I barely could walk. I was in horrible pain. I think the way the determined it was with the procedure where I drank that awful radioactive stuff and they actually took images like an x-ray but I really didn't know it until I was back in the hospital the second time. That's when I had surgery to remove 18 inches of my intestines to fix the problem. Be very careful what you eat. If you can get foods that are very easy to digest and bland. Saying prayers for you darlin'!

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