The Trouble with Women

"The Trouble With Women" is a film that sat on the shelf for two years...a sure sign that the studio had little confidence in this movie. When I began watching, I could see why....as it seems to be pro-wife beating! Yes, Professor Gordon Sedley (Ray Milland) has written a book entitled "The Subjugation of Women" and it argues that women what to be dominated. It also says that women who hit their partner only do it because they actually want to be hit themselves! These arguments sure make it sound like the film is pro-violence against women...and not a rom-com from the golden age of Hollywood. And, it sure makes it hard to like the Professor!!

Kate Farrell (Theresa Wright) is a newspaper woman. She and the paper are in hot water because they've been attacking the Professor's work and now he's threatening to sue. So, to try to hurt the Professor's case and get something on him, Farrell enrolls in one of the Prof's new classes. He is soon smitten by her and her sharp mind....and perhaps by a bit more.

Considering that the film was pretty sexist in its day, it's enough to give most 21st century women a heart attack! I don't advise watching this one without being warned first! Poorly written and pretty dumb...it's proof that they knew how to make bad films back in the day.

Ray Milland, a professor of psychology, returns to town and campus. He spouts some theories about how women want to be dominated, which reporter Teresa Wright comments on, much to the approval of her editor, Brian Donlevy; however, it earns the paper a libel suit. To dig up dirt, Miss Wright goes undercover into Milland's classes, with the usual romcom complications.

None of the leading players seem to be willing to put much into their roles, with the exception of Donlevy, who pretty much plays a stinker. There are several fine players here, mostly reduced to bit parts, like Rose Hobart, Lloyd Bridges, and Frank Faylen. Iris Adrian offers some oomph as a burlesque dancer, but it's pretty much a rote effort under director Sidney Lanfield.

It's a push to give this comedy romance seven stars. Not because the plot is far out, because it isn't. It does have a few unusual situations, that all put together in one film require a superb script. But that's where this film falls down. It needed a much better screenplay to incorporate the various oddities into something with great humor. The most glaring place it misses with that is in the dialog that has very little humor. It's too bad, because a plot of such a mixed bag had potential to be a very funny film. And, it has the cast to make it so.

It's only because of the cast, with a couple of very good performances, that I rate this above five stars. I think the superb actor that he was, Ray Milland sensed the lack of sufficient humor in the script. So, his portrayal of a thoroughly wrapped up researcher-professor in his field is very good. It's overboard, or exaggerated at times - in his daydreaming gazes, or looking off into space and pondering the psychology of the situation. His Prof. Gilbert Sedley and Rose Hobart's Prof. Agnes Meeler are all business and psychology analysis in his growing attraction to Kate Farrell. So, there is humor in that. Especially, since Meeler and Sedley were engaged. That's a piece of one of the oddities. They've only been together a couple of times, the last time two years ago, and they are now engaged. He has come to take a teaching position at the college where she teaches. And he didn't even recognize his fiance when he walked past her at the trainn station. Well, that engagement will soon end, although the couple won't realize it until near the end of the film.

Then, Teresa Wright, as Farrell, is a columnist with the local morning newspaper. But, she's full of life and sparkle. Her persona is one of much more than a news hound at all costs. She has interest in life, and why this professor wrote what he did, and what he meant by it, in his book, "The Trouble with Women." Sedley insists that the media and others have taken one statement out of context, and that using it alone paints the wrong picture.

The next piece in this mixed bag is a conniving, sensationalist city news editor, Joe McBride, played by Brian Donley. He does a superb job portraying the cheap news hound who would manufacture the news and frame someone to get a headline. We of the audience have no qualms about disdaining that character. He gives Kate the assignment to enroll at the college where Sedley has just come to teach. She's already a college grad and is glad to enroll in Sedley's psychology course. She's in her mid-20s and the professor is maybe 30. Still, the idea of professor and college student having a romance is the last of the oddities.

The plot is a Little wacky as McBride tries one scheme after another to get a picture of the professor taking a swing at a woman. It become harder as Farrell falls for the professor, and as he slowly awakens to his humanity and the feelings he has been trying to analyze from when he is around Kate

A couple of fiascos toward the end have the principals in court with some light humor. The ending has a very funny twist that just has to be a satirical swipe at the judicial system. This is a far cry from the superb comedies that Milland made. And, he made 35 in his career. Some of the best were "Easy Living" and "Wise Girl" of 1937, "Say it in French" of 1938, "French Without Tears" and "The Doctor Takes a Wife" of 1940, "The Major and the Minor" of 1942, and "A Woman of Distinction" of 1950. Both he and Wright won Oscars for acting. And, although most of her films were dramas or mysteries, Wright showed her talent in being able to play the range of genres very well.

Here are some favorite lines from this film.

Kate Farrell, "You know, this reminds me of the hay rides I used to go on back home." Prof Gilbert Sedley, "Yes?" Kate, "Mm hmm." Gilbert, "Well, we never had hay rides at Harvard - no hay."

Ulysses S. Jones, "I took it from Edgar Allen Poe." Kate Farrell, "He won't miss it."

Rita La May, "Listen, you slob. I'm a respectable woman. I knit. I cook. I crochet. I've been a good wife - five times."