Female (1933)

The female head (Ruth Chatterton, DODSWORTH) of a major automobile corporation has no time for a relationship. Like many a male counterpart, she uses her power to sexually use her underlings and casually tosses them aside when she's through with them. But when she meets a new employee (George Brent), she discovers he's not like the others and he'll be a harder nut to crack. At first, the film seems to be an early feminist film with a strong woman who treats men they way they treat women and those portions of the film are the most interesting. But, this being 1933, like Kate in TAMING OF THE SHREW, she must be tamed and transformed into a good little housewife. Her male secretary admonishes her toward the end of the film, "You're just a woman, after all". But the director Michael Curtiz doesn't dwell much on any cultural or gender implications in the material and gets the job done in a tight 60 minutes. Fashion hasn't got up yet with Chatterton which is too bad. She's really quite a good actress and very appealing here. With Johnny Mack Brown, Douglass Dumbrille, Gavin Gordon and Ruth Donnelly.