I Found it at the Movies

This movie was recently on TCM’s Noir Alley, and I’m surprised I haven’t reviewed it before this. I’ve seen it before, but it had been a few years, so watching it again was almost like watching it for the first time.

The movie starts off looking a little bit like His Girl Friday or The Front Page. Barbara Stanwyck plays a busy and smart newspaper reporter. I half expected Cary Grant to show up and for the two of them to start cracking wise at any moment. Or maybe Fred MacMurray. That would’ve been interesting.

But the movie is not a screwball comedy, of course. It’s about a woman who places her husband’s job and home life above herself and her own needs. And it is expected of her. She ditches her career as a reporter, marries a police detective (played tres empathetically by Sterling Hayden, who gets a rare chance to play a basically decent guy), then proceeds to devote herself entirely to making sure he advances up the career ladder. She also has to hang out with a bunch of wives, who are all playing the same game.

The men, meanwhile, play cards. And drink whatever they drink, and Barbara is there, as hostess with the mostest, to make sure their needs are catered to. She kind of slips back-and-forth between the gaggle of gals gossiping and the mob of men, doing manly men stuff.

This division between male and female is underscored by the scenes in which the various players get together, socially. We see Barbara Stanwyck, lurking at the edges of the female gaggle, all burbling enthusiastically to the police captain’s wife about her husband. Along with a truly boring tiresome talk so small it nearly disappears into a low buzz of BS. And, boy, does it show in Barbara Stanwyck’s expression. Not to mention the cinematography, which visually captures the relentlessness of the conversational mediocrity. Babs is most definitely displeased with developments on the home front.

I thought, “My gosh. What year was this movie made?” 1957. At that point, I had to check something out. This movie is about a phenomenon that someone named Betty Friedan wrote a book about. The Feminine Mystique. I remember the name, the book, and the message. The book first came out on February 19, 1963. But the research for the book started in—yes—1957.

I don’t think the Wikipedia editors will mind if I quote from their entry on this book:

In 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising. The book faced criticism for focusing primarily on the experiences of white, middle-class women and overlooking the perspectives of women of color and working-class women. Friedan originally intended to create an article on the topic, not a book, but no magazine would publish the work. [Ahem!]

Friedan coined the phrase “feminine mystique” to describe the assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children. The prevailing belief was that women who were truly feminine should not want to work, get an education, or have political opinions. Friedan wanted to prove that women were unsatisfied and could not voice their feelings.

I have a vague recollection of this phenomenon being referred to as “the problem with no name.” Which I assume is why she coined the phrase. Frankly, I find the use of the word “mystique” a bit misleading, as if women have some special, mystical quality. We don’t. We’re actually human beings.

But let’s get back to the movie. Okay, so Barbara Stanwyck is living a lie and scheming to advance her husband’s career. She arranges a little accident, so she can meet the captain’s wife and endear herself to the couple. Meanwhile, the captain (played by the real Perry Mason Raymond Burr) (Sorry. For a moment, I thought it was 1963 again.) has his eye on her. The captain is wise to Barbara’s ways. He knows and takes advantage.

Things, of course, do not end well. For much of anyone.

I think this movie’s been remade a few times, with different protagonists, different storylines, and higher technology.

I wonder if the story will ever change.

*****

Directed by Gerd Oswald
Screenplay by Jo Eisinger
Produced by Herman Cohen

PS: When Eddie Muller said this could be considered a “proto-feminist film,” he wasn’t kidding around.

This isn’t a movie trailer, but it seems to capture the theme mood tone of the film.

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