4 Comments

  1. Don Draper doesn’t very often expose his thoughts on women, so in terns of the witty and flirtatious comments, she’s more like Roger from Mad Men! Roger: “Have a drink. It’ll make me look younger.” But seriously, she sounds like the forerunner for Samantha.

  2. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this movie! It sounds fascinating. I love that weird little moment in the early to mid thirties when the gender roles in movies were briefly complicated and sophisticated. The fact that women were portrayed as having real careers and power did reflect the collapse of men’s jobs because of the Depression, but what I like is that filmmakers got creative and took a range of approaches to the topic. We get films from the period that decry “pushy” women, but we also get movies that glamorize the fast-talking career women. Like Hildy in His Girl Friday, or the professional sharpshooter mother in Hitchcock’s original Man Who Knew Too Much. (It’s like she’s from a totally different universe than Doris Day’s version of the same character 25 years later.) –From your friend who watches too many Korean soap operas (which sometimes spend a lot of time on women’s careers–the best hero is the hero who can help the heroine figure out how to balance the accounts/win the big contract/open her new fusion restaurant)

    • Thank you for commenting!:) I need to watch some of those dramas now that I’ve gotten through Orphan Black, per our mutual friend’s rec. (I also rewatched Fletch.) This movie is so much more fascinating than I can capture. And you’re right–that sharpshooter is one of my favorite Hitchcock characters. I love that version of the film, which is so scary & good, and hate the Doris Day version, which gets on my nerves. The pre-Code movies are always fun–I recommend http://pre-code.com for great input on them.

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