Female (1933)

57% of users liked it
(272 ratings)

Ruth Chatterton tears up the screen in this fast-paced, lusty comedy. Alison Drake is an automobile magnate, a hard-nosed, hardboiled business woman making dozens of important decisions a day. In her private life, however, she is passionate and bold in her pursuit of male companionship, which she… More Ruth Chatterton tears up the screen in this fast-paced, lusty comedy. Alison Drake is an automobile magnate, a hard-nosed, hardboiled business woman making dozens of important decisions a day. In her private life, however, she is passionate and bold in her pursuit of male companionship, which she frequently finds among the ranks of her own employees and executives; the problem is that these men can't abide the fact that back at work, she's all business again; and she keeps having to get their long, mopey faces out of her presence by transferring them elsewhere. Then she meets Jim Thorne (George Brent), a gifted engineer who is attracted to Drake but isn't a callow, cowtowing yes-man, and isn't awed by her millions. After a few awkward encounters, they find a balance in their lives together, or so she thinks, until he proposes marriage. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr.
Directed By: Michael Curtiz
Written By: Gene Markey, Kathryn Scola, William A. Wellman
Genres: Drama, Romance, Classics, Comedy

In Theaters: Oct 11, 1933 Wide
On DVD: Mar 17, 1993

Critic Reviews

Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
This slick romantic comedy offers 'the before its time sophisticated concept' that a woman can run a large company.
Matt Bailey, Not Coming to a Theater Near You
Female is more than just a museum piece from that short era after the introduction of sound and before the enforcement of the Hays Code; it's a strangely involving, patently absurd, wildly entertaining movie.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Randy T

Ruth Chatterton is a trail blazing feminist with the hots for George Brent. An atypical romance that becomes decidedly typical as it progresses.
AJ V

A woman runs a factory after her father's death, which was highly unusual for the 30s. She treats men the way men treat women, which to her means with little respect and only to get what she wants from them. That part of the movie was interesting, but then she falls in love and… More
A woman runs a factory after her father's death, which was highly unusual for the 30s. She treats men the way men treat women, which to her means with little respect and only to get what she wants from them. That part of the movie was interesting, but then she falls in love and the movie ends in a predictable manner.
Veronique K

"female" is directed by michael curtiz in his early days in warner bro. before he thrives at errol flynn swashbucklers. it's casted with ruth chatteton and george brent as the leads, and it's a story about a businesswoman's convert to her femininity by a… More
"female" is directed by michael curtiz in his early days in warner bro. before he thrives at errol flynn swashbucklers. it's casted with ruth chatteton and george brent as the leads, and it's a story about a businesswoman's convert to her femininity by a dashing masculine hunk with conventional maschismo. the flick is shot at pre-code area, naturally it has its indulgence of sexual insinuations to some degree... it could be very feministic when it comes to the plots of chatterton's female boss seducing her male employee as sex-mates at night for fun then dismiss them next day in the morning. it might be considered gritty at that time, but it might also reflect the primitive gender revolution at 1920s by terming the feminism as refusal of womanhood and being phallic to emulate the men. but eventually this flick is stil reversed back to the bourgeois track of female virtue since the real man who is not willing to compromise just appears to tame the shrew. george brent is often casted as the ideal man who softens tough females like bette davis and barbara stanwyck(babyface) in warner's flicks. he does have a mass angular bone structure and a georgeous face as gears of romantic lead, espeacially when he smiles with his radiant dimples.