John Ford's last feature film 7 Women marks an abrupt departure for the male misogynist director to direct a cast of primarily women. It had the makings of a classic, but it was in the hands of the wrong director.
Maybe George Cukor should have directed it. Or maybe this story should have been done a few years later when the production code was finally lifted. A lot of things could have been made more explicit.
Anne Bancroft, inner American city female doctor, gets assigned to a Christian mission in China in the early Thirties. This was when the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-Shek was trying to put down the Communist insurgents and various warlords and having mixed results to say the least.
One real bad warlord is Tunga Khan played by Mike Mazurki and during the course of the film he's having a lot of military success forcing the Kuomintang garrison to flee, leaving the mission helpless.
The mission is run by Margaret Leighton who's a walking rule book and a repressed lesbian to boot. She's crushing out big time on young Sue Lyons who's also a fairly new missionary assigned there. Others assigned are Mildred Dunnock and married couple Eddie Albert and Betty Field. Fleeing Mike Mazurki and his army and staying there temporarily are Flora Robson and Anna Lee of a nearby British mission.
Anne Bancroft is upsetting everything in Margaret Leighton's little satrapy. She smokes, she swears, she drinks and engages in all kinds of improper behavior for a missionary. She's not a believer though, in fact she's fled the USA after a bad love affair with a married man. She's lived in other words, not like most in the mission.
Of course Mike Mazurki and his troops take the mission and the lives of the 7 Women are hanging in the balance. What's to happen?
Anne Bancroft is the best one in the film and Margaret Leighton runs a close second. They have to be or the film would be unwatchable from the gitgo. It's their rivalry that drives the film. But they're good actresses.
That couldn't be said for Sue Lyon. Now maybe it was just Sue Lyon's part to look wide eyed and innocent, but she read her lines like she was in a high school play. Maybe she was the reason Ford quit after this film.
Eddie Albert and Betty Field are an interesting couple. They got married late in life and are now having a baby. Albert wanted to be a minister, but for financial reasons couldn't get married to Field and couldn't go to a seminary. So he's taken his wife out to China and they've conceived a child in her menopausal period of life. And the baby is born while the women are captive of Mazurki.
The warlord and his troops come off like Indians in a John Ford western. And I mean the Indians in The Searchers as opposed to those in Fort Apache. At least in that other famous flop film about missionaries in China, Satan Never Sleeps, Leo McCarey at least cast oriental players in the principal oriental parts. You'd never get away with casting Mike Mazurki as the warlord.
It's sad because there were a lot of interesting themes in 7 Women about the role of missionaries, repressed homosexuality, the politics of Kuomintang China in the film and none were really developed. Maybe John Ford wanted to show the critics he could direct a picture with a majority of women in the principal parts. He didn't make it.
Do our intrepid missionaries escape the clutches of the rampaging Tunga Khan. Well if you're interested, all I can say is think about A Tale of Two Cities.
Maybe George Cukor should have directed it. Or maybe this story should have been done a few years later when the production code was finally lifted. A lot of things could have been made more explicit.
Anne Bancroft, inner American city female doctor, gets assigned to a Christian mission in China in the early Thirties. This was when the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-Shek was trying to put down the Communist insurgents and various warlords and having mixed results to say the least.
One real bad warlord is Tunga Khan played by Mike Mazurki and during the course of the film he's having a lot of military success forcing the Kuomintang garrison to flee, leaving the mission helpless.
The mission is run by Margaret Leighton who's a walking rule book and a repressed lesbian to boot. She's crushing out big time on young Sue Lyons who's also a fairly new missionary assigned there. Others assigned are Mildred Dunnock and married couple Eddie Albert and Betty Field. Fleeing Mike Mazurki and his army and staying there temporarily are Flora Robson and Anna Lee of a nearby British mission.
Anne Bancroft is upsetting everything in Margaret Leighton's little satrapy. She smokes, she swears, she drinks and engages in all kinds of improper behavior for a missionary. She's not a believer though, in fact she's fled the USA after a bad love affair with a married man. She's lived in other words, not like most in the mission.
Of course Mike Mazurki and his troops take the mission and the lives of the 7 Women are hanging in the balance. What's to happen?
Anne Bancroft is the best one in the film and Margaret Leighton runs a close second. They have to be or the film would be unwatchable from the gitgo. It's their rivalry that drives the film. But they're good actresses.
That couldn't be said for Sue Lyon. Now maybe it was just Sue Lyon's part to look wide eyed and innocent, but she read her lines like she was in a high school play. Maybe she was the reason Ford quit after this film.
Eddie Albert and Betty Field are an interesting couple. They got married late in life and are now having a baby. Albert wanted to be a minister, but for financial reasons couldn't get married to Field and couldn't go to a seminary. So he's taken his wife out to China and they've conceived a child in her menopausal period of life. And the baby is born while the women are captive of Mazurki.
The warlord and his troops come off like Indians in a John Ford western. And I mean the Indians in The Searchers as opposed to those in Fort Apache. At least in that other famous flop film about missionaries in China, Satan Never Sleeps, Leo McCarey at least cast oriental players in the principal oriental parts. You'd never get away with casting Mike Mazurki as the warlord.
It's sad because there were a lot of interesting themes in 7 Women about the role of missionaries, repressed homosexuality, the politics of Kuomintang China in the film and none were really developed. Maybe John Ford wanted to show the critics he could direct a picture with a majority of women in the principal parts. He didn't make it.
Do our intrepid missionaries escape the clutches of the rampaging Tunga Khan. Well if you're interested, all I can say is think about A Tale of Two Cities.