A buddy and I were once talking about William Holden and he said, "William Holden owned the 1950s." I agreed. And Holden did pretty well in the 1960s too. If my boyhood, if Mom and Dad saw that a William Holden movie playing at one of the three drive-in theaters we frequented, we went to see. They didn't care what the movie was about and they didn't care if the reviews for it happened to be lukewarm. William Holden was reason enough to go to the movies. He worked steadily and did good work through the 1940s, but nothing really made the good actor a big star. Then came 1950. He was the leading man in Billy Wilder's masterpiece, SUNSET BLVD and BORN YESTERDAY, the film that brought Judy Holliday the Best Actress Oscar. Billy Wilder's 1953 prisoner of war drama, STALAG 17, would land Holden the Oscar for Best Actor. More hit films were to come. Yes, Holden owned the 1950s.
More than any other Hollywood actor, William Holden had the right stuff and intellectual vibe to play a writer. Look at his performances as writers in SUNSET BLVD, BORN YESTERDAY, LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING and PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES. As a Broadway director, he knew good playwriting in THE COUNTRY GIRL. Add to that list 1953's FOREVER FEMALE. This light, sophisticated comedy has William Holden as an aspiring Broadway playwright who works in a Greenwich Village food market to pay the rent. His blunt but likable character, Stanley Krown, has written a play that interests a Broadway producer, played by Paul Douglas, who wants to produce it for a top Broadway star, played by Ginger Rogers. The producer is the star's ex-husband. He's still in love with her and gets jealous when a romance blossoms between her and the young playwright.
Beatrice Page (Rogers) currently stars as a 29-year old woman in a sophisticated comedy. Critics called her "radiant" but found the play mediocre. Beatrice is definitely middle-aged. Stanley's play is a good one, a mother and daughter drama. Bea, still a bit sensitive about playing older women even though she is one -- like ALL ABOUT EVE's Margo Channing -- asks for rewrites to make the mother younger.
In comes a pert but annoying young actress who's determined to be cast as the daughter in the production. She's played by Pat Crowley. Crowley became popular in the mid 1960s as the mom on the TV sitcom version of PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES.
When Stanley and Bea happen to meet at Sardi's after her opening night, he honestly tells her that he didn't like the play. "The greatest quality an actress can have is humility," says Stanley. He felt Bea lacked humility. She was charming, but she knew she was charming. Harry, the producer, is present at the table for this. Bea takes it well. Harry takes a copy of the play Stanley wrote.
Although they've been divorced for so long that Harry owes Bea $11,000 in back alimony, they're still friends and they work together. We know from the beginning that she and Harry continue to have romantic feelings for each other even though she gets engaged to Stanley. Meanwhile, can the young playwright get his work onstage in his original vision? Will Bea commit to the mother role? Will Sally dial it down and learn how to be charming? Will the producer have a hit Broadway show thanks to Stanley's play? Will Stanley marry Bea?
Irving Rapper -- who guided Bette Davis through NOW, VOYAGER and THE CORN IS GREEN -- directed FOREVER FEMALE. Billy Wilder could've done it better, probably, but the three veteran stars keep it afloat. Billy Wilder, by the way, directed Ginger Rogers in one of her screwball comedy winners -- 1942's THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR from Paramount Pictures. This followed her landmark original screen musicals of the 1930s with Fred Astaire and her Best Actress Oscar win for the 1940 feminist drama, KITTY FOYLE. Pat Crowley as Sally in FOREVER FEMALE is so obnoxious and overacts with such force that you often find yourself waiting for Sally's scenes to end. But there's a reason for her tiring performance. The three stars know how to underplay a scene to perfection and that neutralizes Sally's hyperactivity.
FOREVER FEMALE is movie Mom introduced me to when I was a kid. It was on TV one lazy, sweet Saturday night when our family was at home together and relaxing. Mom wanted to see it. She loved Ginger Rogers' performance as the Broadway star trying to adjust to her age. Rogers does indeed have the poise, carriage and elegance of a beloved Broadway star. 1953's FOREVER FEMALE is a movie that Ginger Rogers fans should see as a companion piece to her 1937 classic, STAGE DOOR. In that one, Ginger gave one of her best film performances as the wisecracking Broadway hopeful living in a New York City boardinghouse for actresses.
It was kind o' cool to see Rogers and Holden as sweethearts. FOREVER FEMALE was a Paramount release and runs about 95 minutes.
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