Monday, January 22, 2018

The Female Animal (1958)

Director: Harry Keller

Writers: Robert Hill, Albert Zugsmith

Composer: Hans J. Salter

Starring: Hedy Lamarr, Jane Powell, Jan Sterling, George Nader, Jerry Paris, Gregg Palmer, Mabel Albertson, James Gleason

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It is said that when a woman fights for a man, she is like an ANIMAL!

Plot: An aging film star and her alcoholic daughter compete for a handsome extra.



My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I think I have face the fact that I have a man crush on George Nader.  Good lookin' bastard.  And that physique!  Geez.  I need to exercise.  The cast does a fine job and it's a good looking film.  Everything is going all nicely until the last few minutes when the story starts to wrap up and they resolve it too quick.  It seems to me that there should've been something more to the story to create more drama and tension.  The ending is a disappointment to say the least.  Chris (Nader) falls too quickly for Penny (Powell).  They do a decent job of Chris' falling out of love with Vanessa (Heddy) but having yet another relationship that's love at first sight gets tedious.  At least that trope has died down for the most part over the decades.  I dig the setting of behind the scenes Hollywood.  I watched this sooner than later because I was in the mood for a film noir and I dig the cast but THIS IS NOT a film noir as stated on IMDb.  The IMDb users can be so dumb.  There is no criminal element to this film at all.  It's a love triangle that doesn't work out for one person and that's as dark as it gets.  This was Lamarr's final film...before she died 42 years later.



2 comments:

  1. George Nader – YUM! – see him shirtless in Robot Monster to add sugar to your man crush. And then read his 1978 gay sci-fi novel Chrome, if you can find it anywhere. But really: who in their right mind would exchange a 44-year-old MILF as delicious as Hedy Lamaar (see her run around nude in her first flick Ecstasy) for a blonde as generic as Jan Sterling?

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  2. I know, right? Ideally, finding a way to keep both of them would get the best of both. It'd make the holidays more awkward but exciting as hell. I've been meaning to watch Ecstasy for ages. I should correct that. I've seen the Hedy clips (ooh-la-la) but that's it.

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