The Female Animal

What Douglas Sirk, and a better chosen cast, could have done with this material!

Hedy Lamarr plays "Vanessa Windsor," an aging movie queen who falls hard for a handsome extra named "Chris" played by George Nader. Chris feels himself genuinely drawn to Vanessa but fears becoming nothing more than a "kept" man. Vanessa's adopted daughter Penny, played by Jane Powell, enters the scene. Penny suffers the usual problems experienced as the child of a famous, rarely-present person and has drifted into alcoholism and promiscuous behavior. She also falls for Chris and he feels himself attracted to her though he tries to keep Vanessa from learning this fact. The movie soon becomes a question of (1) what will Vanessa do when she finds out the truth, and (2) which woman will Chris wind up with?

Miscasting weakens this movie which isn't quite flamboyant enough to be "camp." Hedy Lamarr fits easily into her role but Jane Powell seems about 10 years too old to be the adopted daughter. Similarly George Nader's part might have been better filled by an actor 10 years his junior. Like Robert Mitchum, Nader usually declined to shave off his chest hair but he obviously made an exception here for his various shirtless scenes. Perhaps he felt this would make him look younger in a "beachboy" sort of way.

Jan Sterling receives third billing and wanders into and out of the plot but her character isn't well integrated into the story. (She's the counterpart to Ruth Roman in "Love Has Many Faces.") Like the other performers, her "smart, sophisticated" lines generally fall flat. The plot also suffers a bit from a flashback device which kicks in shortly after the start of the movie but which is presented in such an off-hand way that some viewers may not realize that a flashback is now in progress.

As for the ending, it appears to have been decided upon by a committee anxious to please as many people as possible. As a result, it'll probably please no one and its ambiguity is more annoying than stimulating.

George Nader's quiet, dignified performance -- and he isn't given much to work with -- almost holds the movie together. It's good to see him with his shirt off but one can't help feeling a bit sorry that he's sometimes relegated to just being a slab of "beefcake." Those viewers familiar with Nader's private life will appreciate the fact that his character is given the sexually-ambiguous name of "Chris."

The movie was filmed in Cinescope b and white, a rarity in those days of large screens. Hedy was perfect as a woman fading from the limelight and ageing, but turning to alcohol. That is why she looked and acted like she was supposed to. Jane Powell looked too old to be Hedy's daughter and way overacted her dramatic scenes. She should of stuck to musicals. George Nadar, looked the part, but his acting was wooden. jan sterling was good for the small part she had in it.

This was not cast well at all. Hedy Lamarr was 44 and still ravishingly beautiful; her daughter is played by 29-year-old Jane Powell who does NOT look like a teenager with her bleached blonde hair and worldly air. George Nader at age 37 looks totally appropriate for Hedy! He does not look like a "boy toy" as the role calls for. He looks mature, weathered, tan, sort of like a Marlboro Man.

Since Jane's character is supposed to be a teenager, he is way too old for her! He looks like a teenager's dad!! The script is meant to make us think the boy toy character is more appropriate as a teenager's love interest, but the casting is wrong.

Hedy does what she can with the script and always seems warm and loving. Jane's character does not have any charm. It's hard to see why the male lead would be torn between the two.

Poor George Nader is also very wooden. When his agent says "You can't act yourself out of a paper bag" it's easy to believe, but we should believe the MAN in this role even if we couldn't believe him as an ACTOR. His face and voice are without variety. The role must have been cast by just asking actors to take their shirts off.

At one point in the film, a character professes to Hedy Lamarr, who plays an actress: "I always thought you were a better actress than the roles they gave you." The character might as well have been speaking about Lamarr herself, because this film typifies the substandard material that the actress was handed throughout most of her career.

While there were some highlights in Lamarr's career, such as the wonderful H.M. Pulham, Esq., The Strange Woman, and Dishonored Lady, there was also a lot of fluff. It seems Lamarr was always treated as a glamorous beauty rather than a great actress, although she was smart and talented.

The Female Animal was one of those fading star vehicles that Universal seemed to specialize in at the time (others included Female on the Beach with Joan Crawford, and The Price of Fear with Merle Oberon). By 1958, Lamarr had not been the leading actress in a film for a few years, but she was still youthful and beautiful. It's curious that she was not offered more roles, although back then the shelf-life of a glamorous star was even shorter than it is today.

The Female Animal is a somewhat trashy and sordid melodrama. It is perhaps the only film I have ever seen in which Hedy Lamarr was not the object of desire. Here she plays a more aggressive woman who is not ashamed to take in a house boy. The idea that Lamarr, even at the advanced age of 45 (*eye roll*), would need to pay for handsome male companionship is beyond absurd. She was still very sexy and could have probably had her pick of men. I agree with the other reviewer who said, to some effect: "Hedy past her prime was any other woman's peak." She is widely considered the most beautiful actress of all-time (interchangeably with Gene Tierney).

The film overall leans more toward camp classic than art house. You have drunk ladies, aging starlets out "hunting" for young studs, and of course glamorous Hedy, who has trouble speaking some of her lines. It's all kind of a mess, but it somehow hangs together, and it's a lot of fun. Jan Sterling is entertaining in a supporting role.

The ending redeems the film. Lamarr gives a rather poignant speech about determination, and we are reminded of what a remarkable actress she was. We think about how sad it is that her career was cut so short by...ageism.

Were a regular movie watcher to dismiss "The Female Animal" as cheap trash, they would not be wrong. However, for movie buffs there's much enjoyment to be had, despite the glaring weaknesses

It's certainly not the plot that holds our interest, nor the dialog, though there are a couple of memorable lines; it's simply the somewhat miscast headliners Hedy Lamarr, George Nader and Jane Powell - whose ages hardly approximate the characters they portray. One needs to have some awareness of their personal lives and careers in order to perceive the added layers of meaning their very presence lends to the film.

Forty-four-year-old Hedy Lamarr still lovely to behold, apparently much aided by various surgeries, was coming to the end of her career, so playing an older movie actress in what seem to be B movies adds much resonance. Her beauty is legendary, but alas not her acting talent which was always a couple of notches below her contemporaries. However she turns in one of her better performances in what would be her last screen role. In the final scene, a nurse tending to her says, "Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I've always thought you were a much better actress than the roles they gave you." It's hardly a line you would expect from the character but clearly something probably Lamarr herself wanted aired. She thanks her and the nurse goes on: "Because the one great thing you have on the screen is believability". She then turns out the light and exits. Hedy rolls over and says, "Believability; I certainly hope so". Hedy's swan song.

George Nader was one of the hunks from the Universal stable. It's widely rumoured that he left Hollywood after being outed by the notorious Confidential magazine in some sort of deal the studios made to save Rock Hudson, his lifelong friend, from the same fate. Some sources claim it was to save Rory Calhoun's career. However in later years Nader emphatically denied all that, though he did say "every month when Confidential came out, our stomachs began to turn. Which of us would be in it?" Whatever the case, he realised he wasn't making much headway in Hollywood and turned to Europe where he enjoyed much success in a series of German films. He was a fairly competent actor and an extremely good-looking one. Physically he was at his very prime at this particular point in his career. He spends much screen time bare-chested, uncharacteristically waxed. Other scenes show him off in elegant evening wear and an extremely tight T-shirt. All in all, his film career was hardly a distinguished one and "The Female Animal" is certainly one of his better moments.

Former MGM star Jane Powell totally discards her effervescent girl-next-door image and plunges into fifties misunderstood daughter a la Rebel Without a Cause, acting out, boozing it up and flinging herself at men. You get the picture. A brave move for Powell, sometimes bordering on the ludicrous.

Jan Sterling in a bit part with some delightful lines also deserves special mention.

What gives "The Female Animal" a certain veneer of class is the work of master cameraman Russel Metty, Douglas Sirks favorite DP. Even someone of lesser talent could hardly go wrong with the likes of Lamarr, Nader and Powell, but Metty, as always, makes them luminous.

Put your critical faculties on hold and join this somewhat odd ride, one I find I enjoy more and more each time I take it.