On Jul 21, 3:03=A0pm, "Frank R.A.J. Maloney" wrote:
> steve wrote:
> > Yet another great film from the 30s.
>
> [deletion]
>
> Thanks for the recommendation. I've put it on my Amazon wishlist.
>
> > It's interesting to me that there were so many films in this era featur=
ing
> > intelligent, independant, strong willed, and .y women (Joan Bennett i=
n
> > this and "Big Brown Eyes"; Myrna Loy in the "Thin Man" films, Claudette
> > Colbert in "It Happened..", Jean Harlow in "Wife vs Sec."). =A0These wo=
men may
> > make mistakes, but they're smart and aggressively persue thier own
> > interests. =A0Thier impressive personalities only enhance their . =A0=
appeal.
> > What does all this say about women and about public opinion in the 1930=
s?
>
> Not being a sociologist, I have no idea what it says about public
> opinion. I do notice that these are all women of privilege, except
> Harlow, the one career woman. They are probably enjoyable as film
> characters because they are exceptional in so many ways; who wanted to
> see a film about colorless women struggling to survive when he or she
> was surrounded by them?
>
Bingo! Seems the vast majority of the time, the women lived wayyy
above average, and had pretty good looking clothes. If they started
out as a working gal, they somehow found a rich guy to get involved
with and viewers wouldn't be stuck watching a dreary Depression
situation.
Hell, you went to the pictures to get away with that. Crawford
practically specialized in those kind of roles. Preston Sturges
turned this plot into farce with his EASY LIVING script. Who else
would come up with "Kismet" as a punch line?
> ____
>
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