A Woman's View

August 2, 1993
Full of sharp and entertaining insights, this exhaustive study analyzes dozens of ``women's films''-- The Man I Love , My Reputation , Women's Prison , etc.--which presented the contradiction of covert liberation and overt support for women's traditional roles. Basinger, chair of the Film Studies Program at Wesleyan Univeristy, mostly avoids citing interviews and fan magazines, relying instead on her own perceptions. She offers clever epigrams--the constrained choices of the woman's world are a ``Board Game of Life''--as she explores issues including men, marriage, motherhood and fashion. The film Jezebel , the author suggests, deserved a subtitle: ``How Society Forces Bette Davis to Conform by Making Her Change Her Dress.'' Basinger's gimlet eye generates several schema, from the basic rules of film behavior to the four kinds of mothers. And while observations like one that finds similarities between women in prisons and in department stores are amusing, they also hit home. Photos not seen by PW.

September 15, 1993
Basinger (film studies, Wesleyan Univ.) has written a knowledgeable and entertaining study of the woman's film genre. With examples from hundreds of films, she demonstrates that these movies offered women the contradictory message that other roles were accessible to them, while simultaneously reaffirming their roles as housewives and mothers. Basinger covers every facet of the genre, including stars, the role of fashion, fan magazines, men, marriage, motherhood, and women in a man's world. She describes the "woman's world" in these films as "a series of limited spaces with the woman struggling to get free of them" and explores four typical settings: the prison, department store, small town, and house. Her lively analyses and amusing comments make this volume interesting to the fan of old movies as well as the film student. For most serious film collections.-- Marcia L. Perry, Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Mass.

Copyright 1993 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 1993
Movie buffs will adore this insightful and knowledgeable study of one of Hollywood's oddest genres, "the woman's film" of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Basinger defines this quirky brand of movies as "strange and ambivalent" creations full of passion, anger, and deception. As she deftly and entertainingly analyzes dozens of these often absurdly plotted melodramas, she demonstrates how slyly, if subconsciously, they presented the mixed messages of "covert liberation" and "overt repression." While these films placed strong women "at the center of the universe," retribution for independence and ambition was swift and decisive, reaffirming the belief that the only truly legitimate roles for women were directly related to their gender and "love," i.e., marriage and motherhood. But up until the frequently hasty and ridiculous conclusions, audiences basked in the radiance of Hollywood's most gorgeous and powerful heroines. Played by such unforgettable actresses as Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Ginger Rogers, and Myrna Loy, these indomitable women were intelligent, capable, calculating, fearless, sexy, determined, fascinating, resourceful, and dynamic. And dressed to the nines. Some of Basinger's most inspired writing is on the subject of Hollywood fashion and glamour, but whatever her focus, she is consistently discerning, funny, and wise. ((Reviewed Sept. 1, 1993))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1993, American Library Association.)