IMDb lists this 1949 film as a romance drama.\u00a0 Today we\u2019d call such a film a \u201cchick flick.\u201d\u00a0 The director,Joseph Mankiewicz\u00a0 was also responsible for \u201cAll About Eve,\u201d which was another movie that centered around women.\u00a0 Mankiewicz received Oscars for both of them so it seems this type of movie was his specialty.<\/p>\n
The plot revolves around three married couples, the Bishops, the Phipps and the Hollingsways.\u00a0 They live in a suburb of New York City and the three wives Deborah, Rita and Lora Mae, respectively, all have an uneasy relationship with a fourth woman, Addie Ross who has always been admired by their husbands for her beauty, intelligence and taste.\u00a0 As the story opens it\u2019s the morning of the first big country club dance in town and the wives are in various stages of annoyance with their husbands.<\/p>\n
Deborah is angry at Brad because he\u2019s going on a business trip and doesn\u2019t even know if he\u2019ll return in time for the dance.\u00a0 In addition, he has selected an evening gown for his wife for the dance that she has discovered is identical to a dress Addie Ross recently wore.\u00a0 Rita is angry with George because he is dismissive of her job as a radio script writer whereas she resents that he works as a low paying teacher at the high school.\u00a0 She is also surprised to see him leaving that morning in a suit, something he never does.\u00a0 And Lora Mae is dismissive of her husband Porter strictly on general grounds.\u00a0 Their relationship is a continuous stream of digs and jibes by both of them.<\/p>\n
The wives are engaged that day as chaperones for the grammar school annual outing at the lake.\u00a0 But right before the boat leaves the dock a letter arrives for the three women addressed from Addie Ross.\u00a0 In it she ironically says goodbye to them as her three dearest friends.\u00a0 She\u2019s leaving town forever but as a memento of her life with them she says that she\u2019s running away with one of their husbands.<\/p>\n
The bulk of the movie is the reminiscences of the three women on their history together as wives, friends and rivals for Addie Ross.\u00a0 Brad and Deborah Bishop are played by Jeffrey Lynn and Jeanne Crain.\u00a0 Brad is the rich, handsome aristocrat of the story.\u00a0 Deborah is a farm girl that Brad met in the Navy in WW II.\u00a0 She has always been intimidated by the more sophisticated background of his friends and their shared experiences as longtime residents of the town.\u00a0 Honestly, I find these two characters the least interesting of the six.\u00a0 Kirk Douglas and Ann Sothern are George and Rita Phipps.\u00a0 They are the intelligent couple.\u00a0 He\u2019s a school teacher and a wit.\u00a0 She\u2019s a hard-working career mother trying to push George into a more ambitious and better paying career.\u00a0 Paul Douglas and Linda Darnell are Porter and Lora Mae Hollingsway.\u00a0 Based on their way of speaking and information you learn from the story they are both from \u201cthe wrong side of the tracks.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, in a comical scene from her past we see that Lora Mae\u2019s mother\u2019s apartment was practically on top of the elevated train tracks adjoining it.\u00a0 Porter is a very wealthy retailer with a chain of appliance stores and a mansion.\u00a0 And when Porter and Lora Mae meet, she is his employee and he is a cynical divorced man on the make.\u00a0 She is a painfully beautiful young woman to his gruff 35-year-old cynic and she skillfully uses her charms to negotiate a marriage.\u00a0 And after he can no longer resist her, he grudgingly agrees to marry her but in terms so unflattering and unromantic that their married life is guaranteed to be a vicious cycle of hurt feelings.\u00a0 Porter and Lora Mae are the most interesting part of the movie.\u00a0 Paul Douglas\u2019s characterization of Porter as the gruff regular guy and Linda Darnell\u2019s Lora Mae as the wise-cracking shrew are very amusing.\u00a0 And Linda Darnell is a remarkably beautiful young woman in this film.\u00a0 A small supporting part in this movie is played by Thelma Ritter as a friend of Lora Mae\u2019s mother and housekeeper to the Phipps.\u00a0 Ritter is always the most interesting character on screen in any scene she is in and this movie is no exception.<\/p>\n
The movie has a surprise ending at the country club dance when we find out that love can be found in unexpected places.<\/p>\n
One of the things I find interesting about this movie is the \u201ctypes\u201d that the various characters represent.\u00a0 Brad Bishop and apparently Addie Ross are the \u201cto the manor born\u201d aristocrats of the town.\u00a0 They both have money and refined taste.\u00a0 George and Rita Phipps are the educated middle class.\u00a0 They are the product of the egalitarian World War II generation who believe in the virtues of enlightened modernism.\u00a0 Porter and Lora Mae are from the working class and for both of them buying into refinement of the upper class is one of their highest motivations.\u00a0 Porter is constantly talking about Addie\u2019s \u201cclass\u201d and disparaging Lora Mae for her lack of class.\u00a0 And when she goes to Porter\u2019s house for the first time Lora Mae tells Porter that she wants to be a lady so she can have a big house with a piano with a photo of her in the silver frame just like Porter has of Addie Ross.\u00a0 Deborah Bishop is the farm girl who is completely intimidated by Brad and Addie\u2019s sophistication.\u00a0 Instead of aspiring to become like them she just fatalistically assumes that someday brad will cast her aside for her social superior, Addie.<\/p>\n
Although Brad is obviously friendly with the Phipps and not noticeably a snob his character is very sparsely sketched in.\u00a0 And likewise, Deborah\u2019s inferiority complex makes her a very one-dimensional character.\u00a0 The Phipps are a more fully drawn pair of characters and their husband\/wife dynamic is also more believable and therefore enjoyable.\u00a0 I especially like how Kirk Douglas describes his low status and not very well-paying job as making him a comic figure and almost unmanly.\u00a0 George is the modern man, comfortable with his wife as a bread winner.\u00a0 When she complains that he bought cheaper whiskey because he can\u2019t afford scotch, she hints that she can afford to buy it instead.\u00a0 To this George replies, \u201cI forget sometimes that I\u2019m merely the titular head of the household.\u201d\u00a0 But even Rita is insecure of George\u2019s relationship with Addie.\u00a0 When Rita forgets George\u2019s birthday Addie sends him a present of a rare symphony recording that has a romantic inscription that inspires Rita\u2019s jealousy.<\/p>\n
But the most fully drawn characters are Porter and Lora Mae.\u00a0 He is the self-made man who worked his up to success.\u00a0 He is proud of his success and desires to be measured by his material possessions and by the \u201cclass\u201d that he tries to surround himself with.\u00a0 Addie Ross is his ideal of an aristocrat who wouldn\u2019t covet his wealth and would add the class that he was born without.\u00a0 He was formerly married to a gold digger and he assumes because Lora Mae forced him to marry her that she is looking for the same kind of \u201cpay day\u201d where she can divorce him for all she can get.<\/p>\n
Lora Mae is a woman born poor but blessed with the gift of great beauty.\u00a0 She likes Porter but she refuses to enter into an intimate relationship with him without the promise of marriage.\u00a0 She knows this will torture him but she tells him openly that is her price.\u00a0 When he finally grudgingly agrees, he tells her that she is making a \u201cgood deal\u201d without any illusions of love.\u00a0 The bitterness this statement elicits from her is the poison that haunts their every married day with each of them sniping at the other about their shortcomings.\u00a0 Here is an almost Shakespearian scenario where misunderstanding blinds love on both sides.<\/p>\n
The movie is quite enjoyable and is an excellent date movie for married couples since the war between men and women is on full display and is resolved very agreeably.\u00a0 I highly recommend this film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IMDb lists this 1949 film as a romance drama.\u00a0 Today we\u2019d call such a film a \u201cchick flick.\u201d\u00a0 The director,Joseph Mankiewicz\u00a0 was also responsible for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237],"tags":[2454,1238,2455,2450,2451,2452,43,2453,38,1355,993,1230],"class_list":["post-10699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-ann-sothern","tag-hollywood-golden-era","tag-jeanne-crain","tag-joseph-mankiewicz","tag-kirk-douglas","tag-linda-darnell","tag-movie-review","tag-paul-douglas","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-the-war-between-men-and-women","tag-thelma-ritter"],"yoast_head":"\n