Ms Kathleen's

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In addition to seeing a 70 year-old film deal with a sexually-strong female character, “Female” has a number of interesting background details. The exterior of Miss D’s home and love nest is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, located in the Hollywood Hills. Chatterton and the man who plays the one guy who says no without a ring, George Brent, were married at the time this film was made. There was a veritable merry-go-round of directors who worked on this film. William Dieterle began the film with cameraman Sid Hickox. When Dieterle fell ill, the film was taken over and completed by William Wellman using cameraman Ernest Haller. At that point Warner Brothers decided the lead “boy toy,” George Blackwood, was not up to the job. They replaced him with Johnny Mack Brown and brought in Michael Curtiz who ended up re-shooting half the movie and gaining the final directorial credit.

What I love most about it is the sassy Ruth Chatteron walking in Female Authority and Female Power, portraying female sexual liberation thirty years before the Women’s Liberation movement. I also like the fact the title says it all. “Female”, meaning that it is the female nature to be strong, assertive, powerful and liberated, even as she seeks a male partner.