The Stepford Wives (1975)

Ira Levin's scary novel about forced conformity in a small Connecticut town made for this compelling 1975 thriller. Katharine Ross stars as a city woman who moves with her husband to Stepford and is startled by how perpetually happy many of the local women seem to be. Her search for an answer reveals a plot to replace troublesome real wives with more accommodating fake ones (not unlike the alien takeover in Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she faces--not to mention the likelihood that the men in town intend to replace her as well. Screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and director Bryan Forbes (King Rat) made this a taut, tense semiclassic with a healthy dose of satiric wit. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Newshawk DVDs

I remembered that the original "Stepford Wives" movie had been a great and fairly scary picture, so I bought the newer version on DVD a few years ago -- and was very disappointed. The newer version just didn't capture the mood or tone of the original. That DVD went went into a cardboard box filled with other of my "lesser" DVDs.
A few weeks ago, I was going through that box to determine which DVDs I would keep and which ones I would give or trade away.
When I came across my copy of the newer "Stepford Wives." I put into my discard box. Then, for some reason, I decided to keep it -- and order a DVD of my beloved original "The Stepford Wives" and some other DVDs.
When my order was delivered I watched the original for the first time in many years. It was just as I remembered, It was still the great movie even if it didn't seem as scary as I remembered. The acting, lighting and mood was wonderful, especially since it was in black and white It was thrilling -- and without the gore every few minutes that seem to be required by
so many modern movies to create thrills and chills.
A few days later I decided to watch the newer "Stepford Wives." As I watched the DVD I realized I was watching the same movie and, while the mood was so different from the original, it was a delightful movie. The colors added the tone of the movie and I realized I was watching an almost-satire of the original. It was an inspired version of the original without a fault, especially with the casting. The light touch was perfect.
Now, instead of loving just one movie, I have two versions of the same and two favorite movies to watch to my heart's content.
December 24, 2008

The Stepford Wives is an American Classic

I love this film. This is film-making at its American Classic best. There is so much depth to this film. And the subtleties are amazing. I've seen it more than once and it really does have a lot of layers. Maybe, as a previous review indicated, it seems slow-paced compared to the movies we're accustomed to seeing now. However, if you watch closely there are a lot of things that are revealed but not underscored in a heavy-handed fashion. Joanna insists her husband finish doing the dishes as she does other kitchen chores. Joanna is asked if she's ever made it in front of a fireplace by her husband and she replies "Not with you." Joanna was a strong and opinionated woman, and that obviously grated on her weak-willed husband. The reasons he loved her to being with are also the reasons he plots to replace her.

I also really enjoyed the documentary that sheds some light on the behind-the-scenes casting and writing issues, such as learning Diane Keaton was originally to play Joanna but dropped out, and master-screenwriter William Goldman wrote a draft of the script and fought with producers and was fired.

To me, the plot's seemingly slow pace actually furthers the central theme - one way or another, moving to Stepford is going to envelop Joanna either like quicksand or the more horrifying ultimate truth. Joanna even unwittingly contributes to her own demise, allowing herself to be studied by the guys from the Mens' Association. By the time Joanna realizes what is happening, it is too late.

I tend to think of this film as more of a European film in some ways, rather than 1970's style filmmaking, because they don't do blatant exposition. They allow the viewer to see the clues and arrive at their own conclusion. It is a matter of treating the audience's intelligence with respect. August 27, 2008

Nicely drawn allegorical suspense movie

This film certainly deserves to be rated a classic for the imprint it has left on popular culture alone. Everybody knows what a Stepford Wife is even if most people haven't seen the film. And as a straightforward suspense horror it belongs in the premier league. Perhaps a little slow in the first half but more than making up for it in the second.

In terms of its message, I found it wasn't so easy to interpret. Is it simply, as others here suggest, an allegory parodying the resentment felt by men after the first feminist revolutions of the 60's? Of course we are supposed to identify with the women in the story and especially the lead heroine, the suspense and drama of the film wouldn't work at all otherwise. But perhaps we are entitled to feel a little bit of empathy with the menfolk of Stepford and their motivations. In particular the poor Walter, stressed to the hilt through working non-stop to provide for his children only for his self-indulgent wife to pursue her egotistical and vain dreams of becoming a famous photographer. Is the allegory more subtle - are we really looking at the disorientation of men, and are the Stepford wives merely experiencing what it feels like to have your identity, expectations and certainties overturned almost over night?

Actually, I'm inclined to see the film as merely a well made satirical portent of the possible dangers of a vengeful male backlash against the recently won gains of feminism. It must be remembered that in the 1970's it wasn't clear at all what the eventual outcome of the great gender war would be. Most of the men in the film are cold, calculating and evil. The only sympathetic male character is Walter and he comes across as much of a manipulated victim to the 'Men's Association' as the women do. Any feminist should delight in the carefully charicatured mysogny on display, from the mens' 'objectifying' picture drawing to the dismissal of the lead character's conspiracy paranoia as merely an over emotional hissy fit.

We now know that womenkind decisively won the 20th century sex war, unless or until Islam one day re-takes the west for the forces of patriarchy. The ending of the film, where all the women parade contentedly around the supermarket aisles with their trolleys, so dutiful and robotic that they do not even get sexually distracted at the sight of a black man, must strike most 21st century viewers as both unbelivable and kitschy.

But perhaps the dream of having women who once again accept their natural place in society (without having to resort to a neolithic religion) is not so fanciful after all. Feminism arrived late in Japan - it's first devasting effects (breakdown of the family, spiralling youth delinquency, horrendous abortion rates, the progressive retardation of the arts and sciences etc) are only just being felt and the first anti-feminist backlash only just beginning. But whilst Japan is behind the west in the social effects of feminism, it is years ahead of the west in terms of robotics. The most advaced and life like androids in the world were recently unveiled at a science fair in Tokyo - they can talk - very politely. They will do whatever their male inventors and programmers tell them to do. They are beautiful...and they are female...

May 25, 2008

CHILLING, DISTURBING, & HORRID

Another twisted tale from the late Ira Levin, who also gave us "Rosemary's Baby" and "Deathtrap." The film is quite effective in its use of creepy foreshadowing. Just before she moves with her husband and kids from Manhattan to tranquil Stepford, photographer Joanne (Katharine Ross) snaps a photo of a man carrying a mannequin across the street-- terribly symbolic of the environment she will soon find herself trapped in.
Once settled in Stepford, we see her husband (Peter Masterson) wearing a shirt with the word "PAPA" on it. He soon joins the Stepford Men's Association. The wives are much too tranquil-- they are vapidly "blank." They sound like TV commercials-- prattling on endlessly about the joys of ironing, baking, cleaning, etc. Everybody remembers the party scene where one "wife" keeps repeating "I'll just die if I don't get this receipe." Perky Paula Prentiss as Bobbie gives the only lively performance in the film; that is, before she is "changed." Katharine Ross is not particularly good; although her peformance grows much stronger (by "stronger", I mean "emotionally overwrought") by the time she visits the psychiatrist until the end. Perhaps Ross, like the doomed character she portrays, realized she was trapped in a mess!!
I wish I could have "enjoyed" this film as a satire of surburban assimilation, but I just can't. I don't find any humor, either black or camp, in the plot, either. At first, I thought it was all sickeningly misogynistic but, after reading another review, I realized the film is neither anti-women or pro-men. The men are all evil, and the women are all victims. I believe the basic premise was recycled for TV movies like "Stepford Children," (Parents kill their difficult children and replace them with perfect robot duplicats!), "Stepford Husbands," "Return To Stepford", "Revenge Of The Stepford Wives" or some such titles, equally inane and unnecessary. The original film accomplishes its disturbing chores in competent enough fashion. At the end, the evil president of the Men's Association tells Ross they do what they do "because we can." The implications therein are so horrid I can not, I did not, laugh at this film or "enjoy" any of it. April 20, 2008

A Classic!

I was born in 78, so I missed out on some of the good 1970's horror movies. I had read the novel and loved it, and as soon as I signed up for a mail order rental service, it went to the top of the list. I was not disapointed. I thought Katherine Ross was amazing! Yes, the pacing was slow at parts, and it didn't quite portray the growing dread as scary as I had imagined it, but those were my only real issues with it. This is a really frightening movie for me, that these men would be so heartless and selfish and hate their wives so much that they would turn them into "Stepford Wives." Destroying someone you claimed to love so they can cater to you every need and never complain or take time or think for themselves. Wow! That kind of stuff beats most recent horror hands down! April 13, 2008

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