The ending was pretty disappointing. Allison Drake went from a strong, independent woman running an auto manufacturer to wanting to be basically a housewife. It doesn't seem like an authentic conclusion - it would make more sense, I think, if she still ran the company.
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I loved this movie right up until the disappointing ending. Normally I accept such things as a product of their times and chalk it up to an interesting peek at a past era, but this ending was so far from reality as I know it that I found it rather unacceptable. The only way that this movie was innovative was that it showed a woman in power, in both the boardroom and the bedroom, but rectified the situation neatly at the end.
Whadda ya hear, whadda ya say!
I agree that the ending is a real shame. I think it's interesting though that back in the 1930s, it was probably pretty much a necessity to salvage credibility for the film. Robert Osborne on TCM noted that even with this ending, this film faced a major backlash when it came out for suggesting that a woman was capable of running a major company even for a time. I guess audiences in those days would just grimly nod along when Brent tells Chatterton that women are "made for" marriage and having children, not being in business.
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The ending did screw up the film. I thought it was very good until she breaks down and wants to be a housewife. There's no reason she can't be a wife and a businesswoman except that the audiences of the time might scoff at a woman in a position of power as a 'threat to manliness'. Progressive film gets sel-out conservative ending.
Even as a man I found this insulting to women and pandering to the males in the audience. I'm sure modern women would have much more trouble with the conclusion of this film.
re: other films in the Forbidden Hollywood vol.2 collection:
'The Divorcee' suffers from a similar helpless/pathetic woman syndrome ending.
'Three on a Match', while an okay film, had the best ending in the set. What the female lead did in that film was a bit unusual and at least made sense to the story unlike these two. 'Night Nurse' was good, but I don't completely recall the ending off the top of my head since I watched that one ages ago. Getting ready to watch 'A Free Soul' soon and the rest of the docu next (recorded these off TCM a few months back and am just getting around to them today). Might buy the boxset if the remaining film is good.
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If you're watching 'Fullscreen' DVDs, you aren't getting the whole picture.
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Ugh, I can at least find relief from reading the consensus on this board! I was also extremely disappointed in the ending. I think the disappointment wouldn't have been so strong if I hadn't loved the rest of the movie so much. It was charming, funny, well dialogued, going on a great pace.... I was completely won over by her character up until the end. It was just such an insult to the rest of the film!
As someone else already pointed out, with that being the times, what else could you expect.
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It's not the ending I would have preferred and I don't think it was in character with the way Allison is portrayed in the rest of the movie, but there still *are* powerful career women who get tired of it and want to chuck it all and be "taken care of". I know someone like that. I just wonder how long being dependent on someone would last for my friend and Allsion before they got bored. <w>
'You may very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment'
Horrible horrible ending
shareI chalk up the ending to a sign of the times. I've seen movies made as late as the mid 1950s with comments like "women haven't accomplished anything in the world. they aren't smart enough to do anything other than have babies". So I can imagine how sacrilegious it would have been in 1933 to show a woman be successful in business and love without being "punished" somehow.
No two persons ever watch the same movie.share
Why do people jump all over women when they reject the business world and decide to get married, have children, and stay at home? The women's liberation movement decried the lack of choice for women, but when a woman makes the "wrong" choice then she is attacked for it. Let the flames commence!
Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.
I'm going to guess that your comment is an expired trolling attempt, but in case I'm wrong I will answer your question.
Alison was not designed as a truly individual character but a case study to reaffirm the American publics bias that women were unfit for work, competition, or responsibility. It is not merely that she reaches a breaking point, but the implication that every woman, by nature, is cast from an inferior mold. Thus, they will all fall as she does, says the film.
I would also note that women who participated in the liberation movement do not tend to mind that some women want to remain as the dutiful wife, they mind those dutiful wives who tell other women that the role of wife is the only proper one. The moral judgment of either extremist is very distasteful.
I say to each her own. But the film, entitled 'Female' not entitled 'Alison' very crudely implies that having nine children is the greatest, highest, most responsible past time for a woman (despite Alison having successfully run the company for five years). The film does not imply (as was chanted by the liberation movement) that women have a choice and that Alison simply chooses the home and hearth but that she belongs there. It is a condemnation, a reprobation for her previous ambition, and tries to be a stern lesson to the ladies of the audience.
I would say that is why it sickens so many viewers today.
No, I'm not a troll, it just seems like people on these boards turn to personal attacks when they disagree with someone. I do, however, stand by my post. And besides the general feeling of a woman's duties and place back then, remember this was during the depression. When a woman was working, many saw it as taking away a job from a man, so there was a certain resentment towards her. The ending was probably seen as necessary to appease the audience.
Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.
Glad to hear your comment was legitimate, sorry for my false assumption. It just seems the world's message boards are full of twelve-year olds or people trying to recapture their youth by acting like twelve-year olds. My troll senses are hypersensitive on IMDB.
I am curious though, you just said that you "stand by [your] post." In your original post you chastised people for not accepting some women wanted to stay in the kitchen.
But as I was trying to point out, people do not object that some women want to remain out of business, they resent the condescending chauvinistic tone of this film that claims all women belong there. Again, it's called 'Female.'
I feel that this film can be safely derided as socially irresponsible or at the very least a nuisance because of its message, regardless of the era. I feel that all the necessary information was available, even in the 1930s for people and writers to know better. The competencies of the sexes was not some mystical, difficult to calculate variable. The social roles being reinforced in this film were mere social conventions and I can unabashedly say that I think people should have known better back then.
The fact it was made during the depression is not an excuse. Frankly one would think this film would have upset the masses simply because it showed the wasteful pettiness of the wealthy upper crust, not because it briefly antagonizes opinions on gender roles. Regardless, I think the ending is not only crude, but that it is distastefully, inartistically disjointed in light of the the first fifty minutes of the story. It capitulates to the social norm of woman being weak and inferior, it beats Alison, but it gives a narratively weak and ridiculous scene in which she does it.
Part of me hopes the writers did this intentionally. They made Alison's fall into frumpy housewife intentionally unbelievable so that the audience would walk out doubting the ending, but I doubt it.
iwals says > Why do people jump all over women when they reject the business world and decide to get married, have children, and stay at home? The women's liberation movement decried the lack of choice for women, but when a woman makes the "wrong" choice then she is attacked for it.I'm with you. For all the talk of women having more options, only one option ever seems to satisfy some people. They complain about the ending of this movie even though it was set in a time when most women would have actually been happier with that choice. They also assume that all women are looking to have casual, meaningless sex with men who are not their equal.