User Reviews

There are two story lines in this film: A, the birth of a play; B, the love story between an actress(Bea) and a playwright(Stanley). I suppose B is the main line since the film is called Forever Female. But then Stanley struggle so much with the play, and Sally took up so many scenes(while the love line between Philip and Bea was relatively neglected), it seems A would be the main line? But then the story ended with Philip and Bea getting married again, so that means B is the main line?

But it's not really important as which story to follow as how well the characters are developed thru the story. All the characters in this film are wonderfully colorful:

Sally, a young actress with a lot of drive and passion, is one of the most annoying characters I've seen in movies. She has all the confidence/arrogance in the world god knows where she gets it. Then she changed to a complete different person in the course of 2 months? Less than that? And Stanley, a refreshing farmer turned playwright, a very strong character in the beginning of the film, fell in love with Sally for whatever reason, and didn't realized it until he saw her transformation, lost his character towards the end of the film. Both of the characters and their relationship seem impractical and irrational to me. (William Holden does fall for strange women doesn't he? Network 1976?)

On the other hand, Bea the amazing actress with a heart of gold and her ever so supportive husband Philip, are very likable people. Bea literally made Sally a star, even tho nobody mentioned it or thank her for it. She's sensual, understanding, a character made of blood and flesh(like the scene at the airport). Philip is always her guardian angel. It's corny that they got back together in the end, nevertheless their relationship is admirable.

In all, the film is packed with interesting refreshing details(strawberries, celery..) and some wonderful lines, the story is a bit disappointing, and definitely not enough Ginger Rogers (way too much Pat Crowley, whose acting could be improved largely too).

An aging Broadway star, Beatrice Page, receives an interesting proposal from an aspiring playwright, Stanley Krown. While loving the play Stanley has written with her in mind, the fact remains she is much older than what the role calls for. Unfortunately, she is put in a dilemma. Because of her position in the theater community, she cannot accept anything but a starring role.

Harry Phillips, Beatrice former husband, has remained in friendly terms with the actress. He sees the possibilities with the play, and although he realizes the basic age problem, he goes ahead with the plans for bringing it to Broadway for the next season, something that he has no idea of the problems he will encounter. For one thing, the piece needs a lot of reworking. One problem with Stanley, he is a working man, who must work for a living, making it even harder to work on the revisions.

When Beatrice falls in love for Stanley, Harry is beside himself. To make things worse, an aspiring actress, Sally Carver, who had auditioned for the younger woman part, keeps turning up uninvited, and she too has a strong opinion about Stanley's play, which she wants to see it gets the right production.

This comedy was written by Julius and Phillip Epstein, the authors of that classic, "Casablanca". Irving Rapper, the director, gives the film a good pace. Some of the comments compare the situation with the much better "All About Eve", something that is far from being the case. The take on the theatrical world of Broadway of that era offers a nostalgic trip back to when the New York stage presented more serious work, now dominated by musicals and Disney fare.

This was a Ginger Rogers' vehicle. Although not one of her best appearances, she makes us believe she was the star at a crucial point of her career, perhaps something Ms. Rogers was experiencing herself. Pat Crowley plays the perky young actress who gets on everyone's nerves. William Holden's Stanley was not exactly a great role for him; he is seen as the playwright being manipulated by the star and everyone else. The excellent Paul Douglas is seen as Harry, the patient man that loves his former wife in a peculiar way.

The supporting cast shows some of the best character actors working in movies at that time. James Gleason and Jesse White do their reliable contribution. Kathryn Grant, who went to become Mrs. Bing Crosby, has a small part; also Marion Ross, who made a splash on television in "Happy Days", plays a hopeful actress.

As someone who enjoys both live theatre and cinema I'm seldom disappointed by a film that features stage actors and New York theatreland and if Mank's All About Eve remains the one to beat there are still some fine also-rans out there and this is one of them. Apart from Mank's great writing and directing one of the strengths of Eve was the acting chops of Davis, Sanders, Ritter, Baxter, Holm , and though Female can only field three standouts that trio includes Paul Douglas who enhances everything he's in. Unlike most of those who have seen fit to post comments on imdb I wasn't offended by Pat Crowley, she was one of several young actresses who emerged in the late forties/fifties - Maggie MacNamara. Diane Varsi, Hope Lange, Carolyn Jones - who played a handful of leading roles and dropped off the radar and for my money Crowley was adequate in the role in a reasonably entertaining movie.

The topic of aging actresses seemed to be in the Hollywood air of the early fifties, perhaps because the great generation of thirties' actresses had reached middle-age by then, an age poisonous to their career arcs whether justifiably so or not. There are many parallels between the real life of Ginger Rogers and the character that she plays (Beatrice Page) in FOREVER FEMALE, a real Hollywood rather than a fictional Broadway female. Ginger was then in her early forties, had often played younger than she was but was at the point where that wasn't plausible anymore, had just married a considerably younger man (Jacques Bergerac), would retreat to her ranch in Oregon to rest and recuperate from the pressures of stardom, and had no intention of retiring from the acting profession even if she realized that things would be different for her in the future. The similarities could hardly have escaped her attention when she studied the script.

However, on a deeper emotional level she probably wasn't playing herself. As I recall it, Ginger played divas at least three times, in WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF, FOREVER FEMALE and BLACK WIDOW. They are variations based on a similar template, and she seems to have approached these characters from the outside, as if they were the products of her observations and mimicry abilities, which were considerable. The chorus girls and radio singers and shop girls of her earlier career she seemed to grasp from within; in any event, she seemed more suited to such roles. But like for Beatrice Page, those days were over for Ginger whether she wanted them to be or not. There's a sense of vague desperation to her performance here, and genuine emotional depth is only reached towards the end, a rather greater depth than the Epsteins provided in their writing, I think.

The script and the production of the film are marred by a lot of odd contradictions. Rogers intentionally plays Beatrice somewhat over- the-top, as is mandatory for any proper diva, but the hammiest performance by far comes from Patricia Crowley, who practically shouts her way through every line. Between her idiotic 'Siamese' this and 'Siamese' that, and her repeated silly name changes, she is, indeed, about as irritating a character as I have ever come across. Trying to sell that character as a great young actress was as impossible as trying to sell Patricia Crowley as Paramount's hottest new star. FOREVER FEMALE probably never had the 'oomph' to be a major success, but the publicity campaign that it received concentrating on Crowley's prowess surely served as a final nail in its coffin.

William Holden played the kind of naive doofus that he'd been saddled with for most of the 1940s, but after SUNSET BOULEVARD such roles seemed terribly inappropriate for him and I believe that he's miscast here. In fact, Holden was much closer in age to Ginger Rogers than he was to the much younger Patricia Crowley, so how is Ginger making a fool of herself in going after him while he winds up naturally paired to Pat? The casting works against the themes of the film. Paul Douglas, however, is rock solid as always.

I'm really being too hard on FOREVER FEMALE, wishing for what it might have been rather than appreciating it for what it is. The writers of CASABLANCA, a trio of leads with enormous accomplishments, an interesting subject which is handled with some wit, FOREVER FEMALE is a decent movie. It's just that it should have been a whole lot more than decent.

Playwright William Holden finds he can't handle leading lady Ginger Rogers, whom he miscasts in his play, presenting her as a 29 year old when she should play the character's mother instead. Rogers is an aging actress who won't face the music about the age while promising actress Patricia Crowley is anxious to play the role Holden had originally conceived to be 19. Crowley, who sounds amazingly like Ginger, tries to win Ginger's love (and the part) while Rogers' producer ex-husband Paul Douglas fights his undying feelings for her (admitting that their marriage was horrid) while keeping her career going.

The obvious comparisons to "All About Eve" (complete with Broadway archetypes such as press agent Jesse White) can't be avoided (much of the story is set in Sardi's), but this is more of a spoof of that great drama with obvious camp moments. Hollywood doesn't always do justice to its presentations of what life in the theatre is like, but this one manages to be acceptable. Like he did in 1950's "Sunset Boulevard", Holden plays a writer, but this character is as far from the role of Joe as you can get; In fact, his character works part-time in a grocery store! Rogers, still beautiful and charming (as her actress on screen is constantly referred to as), seems to enjoy spoofing her image, but is much less caustic than Bette Davis's Margo Channing in "All About Eve", and Crowley's starlet (who does refrigerator commercials) is no Eve Harrington. Crowley, later a star of sitcoms ("Please Don't Eat the Daisies") and soaps ("Generations", "Port Charles") is a promising ingénue (getting special billing as the film ends), but is far too young for Holden.

Overall, the film is interesting, basically a well-written sitcom with some nice character performances by veteran James Gleason as Holden's Broadway pal and Maidie Norman ("Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?") as Rogers' maid.

Ginger Rogers made this film at Paramount just before she did BLACK WIDOW at Fox. In both productions she's an aging actress struggling to stay on top. In BLACK WIDOW she commits murder, but in FOREVER FEMALE she doesn't resort to such drastic measures. Of course, she is still deeply in denial, unable to face the facts that she can no longer convincingly play ingenue roles.

Because FOREVER FEMALE is a romantic comedy, there are plenty of amusing and sincere moments. The best relationship in the story is the one between Miss Rogers' theatrical character and her producer slash ex-husband (Paul Douglas). They're still connected to each other, and he still owes her thousands in unpaid alimony, which is a running joke in the movie.

At the same time Rogers develops a relationship with a rising playwright (William Holden). His new play is good enough for Douglas to produce, though it needs a bit of polishing. More importantly, it could be Rogers' next triumph on Broadway. While things turn romantic between Rogers and Holden, to the consternation of Douglas, another character pops up.

It is an aspiring actress (Pat Crowley) who gains work as Holden's typist. She thinks she should have the lead in the new play, not Rogers- who is clearly too old to be playing 19 or even 29.

The other relationship that we see in the story is the one that Rogers has with her adoring public (shades of Tallulah here). She is constantly on the go, always playing to others, but secretly wanting to be more down to the earth and acting her own age. The way she comes across is commented on by everyone else, including an assortment of local NYC theater types who add flavor to the proceedings- played by Marjorie Rambeau, James Gleason, Marion Ross, Jesse White and George Reeves.

But key to the story is the way Rogers' behavior affects Holden as a writer. In a way Holden covered some of this in his earlier film for the studio, SUNSET BOULEVARD. In that production, Gloria Swanson was the over-the-hill star, with Holden ensnared in her grandiose plans for a comeback. Since Rogers doesn't chew the scenery as much as Swanson, this is a more relatable story about growing older and it is grounded in reality.

Supposedly Miss Crowley's part was intended for Audrey Hepburn, who had just scored a hit with ROMAN HOLIDAY. But Miss Hepburn was unavailable (she would team up with Holden a year later in SABRINA). So a talent search was conducted that led to Paramount discovering Crowley. While Crowley is certainly above average and does a nice job, I think Hepburn's inimitable charm would have worked better. Mostly because the neophyte actress role is intended to come across as annoying in spots, and Hepburn would probably have made her more likable than Crowley does.

The story's resolution is not very surprising. The older actress must concede her moment in the sun is over and graciously relinquishes the main role in the play to the newbie. This is a kinder version of ALL ABOUT EVE. She also decides to give up the hunky author and remarry her ex-husband.

But what makes FOREVER FEMALE forever good is the truthful performance that Ginger Rogers provides. It becomes a semi-autobiographical "workshop" where she is able to confront her own aging in an industry that values youth. She wisely turns it into a winning character part, while still retaining her status as the star.

Any one of the the following actresses (Pat Crowley contemporaries) would have been better than than Pat Crowley:

Mona Freeman Nancy Olson Ella Raines Ann Blyth Ann Baxter Maggie McNamara

Especially Nancy Olson, who had excellent chemistry with William Holden.

That aside, the film suffers from incredulity: it takes the players the full extent of the drama to figure out that Ginger should suck it up and play the mother.

In All About Eve (1950)--referred to in many User Reviews of this film--there is no such lack of logic or coherence that keeps the viewer asking him/her self, "When are they going to figure it out?" This is too bad because while we're waiting for the charterers to figure it out, we're are exposed to many minutes of Pat Crowley screen time.

It seems I'm not only reviewer to be critical of Pat.