Woman of the Year. Not!!

I just re-watched Woman of the Year (Oscar for best writing), with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.

First of all, I loved both of them, and I will always remember them as two of the greatest actors that ever lived. But I have to say that it's been awhile since I've seen this movie and after seeing it again, I'm very disappointed.

Just a quick run down.

Katherine Hepburn plays a very successful career woman.

She meets Spencer Tracy who, c'mon!!! knows she's a successful career woman.

They feel an immediate 'chemistry', and get married.

Then all of a sudden Spencer turns into what I consider to be a typical whiny man. Why doesn't Katherine know (ESP?) how his day went, why isn't she waiting at the door for him, who cares if she's getting the scoop on the Nazi's!! And then get this, he's obviously pissed off about the little Greek refugee boy she is in the process of adopting, and SENDS HIM BACK TO THE ORPHANAGE because it's 'upsetting the household' (he actually said that)! I could go on ad nauseaum but hopefully you get the picture.

So her dad gets remarried and Katherine goes to the ceremony sans Spencer because he tells her he has something more important to do. What he's really saying is that he's giving her a dose of her own medicine.

She then goes to the ceremony where the preacher goes on and on about the importance of a wife being the man's servant (or at least that's how I took it), and she gets all teary eyed.

Now I'll stop right here and say that if a woman wants her marriage to be that way, then fine. Really.

I mean it.

But in this case Katherine is not that kind of woman at all. I mean she speaks a million languages, she's on top of every current event... It's her career! And once again; he knew this!

But here's the kicker. She quits her job!!! And the ending scene is Katherine, stumbling around the kitchen (in her fur coat) trying to figure out the coffee maker, stove etc...and finding a cookbook from her new mother in law that has a thousand recipes to a mans heart. And Spencer is all smug that from now on every thing's going to be all about him (he wants to know if she's going to love, honor and obey! Wash his socks! And she says yes! Gag!!!).

And this is supposed to be a happy ending?

I love old movies but I don't think I going to watch this one again.

It's too depressing.


And that's sadder than the plot!

The Women

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is showing the original version of 'The Women'. A movie full of vicious gossips, loyal friends, and backstabbing bitches; I feel it conveys the most realistic portrayal of the intricate and tangled relationships among women, of any movie that Hollywood has ever produced.



I think the first time I saw it was about 15 or so years ago, and as an old movie buff I couldn't believe I'd never seen it before. I also couldn't believe that someone hadn't tried a remake of such a fabulous film, but I was wrong and from what I've read, The Opposite Sex from 1956, was a remake and a dismal failure.

Maybe we need to learn that sometimes, perfection, cannot be duplicated.

Would I want to see a remake of It's a Wonderful Life?

Well, I did, and it was awful. Poor Marlo Thomas was thrust into the female version of George Bailey and it was, at best, pathetic.

The wit and rapid fire dialogue of the original 'Women' cannot be surpassed and unfortunately with the evolution of time, the original plot just can't hold water either.

These days no matter how much a woman may love her husband, not very many women would take back a sniveling idiot who drops his drawers for the counter girl at Saks, and ends up marrying her!

Period.

But in the original, which was made in 1939, it is believable because back in those days a 'good' woman was loving, and forgiving, and understanding.

Today, she refuses to be the door mat, the 'oops I made a mistake so please take me back', woman.

And thank God she doesn't need to be.

But I still hoped that somehow the new version would be a keeper, something that everyone would rave about, and that I wouldn't mind spending a few dollars on to go see.

Apparently that's not going to happen but that's ok, because at 8:00 tonight I will be tuned into TCM (instead of Nancy Grace), and I will once again enjoy, The Women.

And I'll enjoy every bitchy second.