Meh, but...
Rosalind Russell is stunningly beautiful in this. I love that she always played such strong characters but yet and still in the end we receive the running message of the 40s: A career is okay, but every girl should be a wife!
sharebworm76 says > still in the end we receive the running message of the 40s: A career is okay, but every girl should be a wife!I mostly agree with what you said, even to some extent with this part of your comment too, but I don't think that's the message this particular 1940's movie was trying to send. Susan's career was not the source of her problems.
She was portrayed as a very successful and effective psychiatrist. Her professional life was fine but she was so closed off emotionally she didn't allow herself a personal life. She had become cynical about relationships because she had seen too many negative, or what she considered negative, behaviors associated with being in love: dependency, vulnerability, anxiety, etc.
Susan didn't want to fall in love because it would mean losing control and facing the chance she could get hurt. Hers were the sort of problems her patients needed her help to overcome but she wasn't getting help. She didn't even realize she needed it. It was starting to affect her practice and patients. She was starting to recommend that everyone play it safe rather than live the life they wanted.
In general the movies of the 40's made the women out to be ineffective or unnecessary in their jobs because they was women or because they were neglecting their families. The two things were at odds and the women usually had to make a choice. I did not get the impression Susan had to choose between her career and a relationship with Kent. Finding love would expand her and enrich her life rather than limit it.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate] share