Synopsis
Tells the Men all about the Women!
An aging actress has a hard time admitting she is too old to play the ingenue role anymore.
Forever Female
1953 Directed by Irving Rapper
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Alternative Titles
Eternamente femmina, Por siempre mujer, Die pikanten Jahre einer Frau, 女人万岁, Entardecer da Vida
Genre
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Theatrical
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USANR
13 Jan 1954
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USA
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USA
28 Nov 1953
- TheatricalNR
13 Jan 1954
- Theatrical
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First time watch: July 2021
Source: Talking PicturesForever Female is the 1953 comedy directed by Iriving Rapper. Written by Julius and Philip Epstein the film stars Pat Crowley, William Holden, Paul Douglas and Ginger Rogers as Beatrice Page, an aging star of the stage who is reluctant to accept a lesser role.
Not funny enough as a comedy but not serious enough as a drama Forever Female fails to convince in any genre. With shades of All About Eve it doesn't quite meet the same quality or confidently promote the same themes, the cast that includes the always brillant Ginger Rogers couldn't help pull the feature away from being mediocre. It was Ginger Rogers that drew me to the film wanting to check out more of her non-musical titles and whilst I'm glad to have seen it there wasn't a particular standout out moment or element that will remain memorable.
Ginger Rogers Filmography List
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A backstage comedy-drama, with a pinch of Dodsworth, centring on a vain, ageing actress still playing 29 (Ginger Rogers), her producer and ex-husband (Paul Douglas), the headstrong young man who wrote her latest play (William Holden) - and who makes her feel young - and the ambitious, pretentious newcomer (Pat Crowley) trying to nab her role, and her man.
The script by Casablanca scribes Julius and Philip Epstein is predictable and rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but also enjoyable and pretty witty, with a fair Broadway flavour and an approach to attraction, relationships and middle-age that's perhaps erratic but also unusually mature.
The three big-name leads are in good if not tip-top form. Rogers never delivered on the comic or dramatic potential…
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More interesting than anything in this film is Ginger's relationship to the cast. She felt jilted by how much the marketing focused on her younger co-star, and iced out by the "cold" director. Further, she admired her older male co-stars and wanted to get to know them, but got the cold shoulder at every turn. By the end of production, she regretted "ever becoming involved" with the picture. There's a more thorough account in her auto-bio, which is a bit hard to scry through sometimes.
Point being -- no one seems to be having fun here, least of all Ginger. The script doesn't allow for it, and the stagnant, stifling sets don't make room for imagination. Comedy falls flat, and dramatic beats are thick slices of Virginia ham. A smug and condescending picture for pricks.
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deyassified All About Eve. go girl give us nothing!! i wanted to watch this movie because it looked fun and catty and it ended up being neither. literally how did this happen? good director, ensemble cast, a premise that racked up at the oscars three years previously… what on earth went wrong? i’m not even angry, i’m just SO bored, which is, in a way, worse. the writing was bland at best, and it felt suspiciously like everybody onset was phoning it in. William Holden was not serving here! neither was Pat Crowley, whose range seemingly extends from completely wooden to unbearably cringeworthy. and Ginger. oh god, poor Ginger. this was not the moment. i’m a Ginger apologist, and this…
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I liked the relationship between Ginger Rogers and Paul Douglas. I don't think I've seen him in a role quite like this before. The rest of the cast was fine but Pat Crowley became annoying after a while.
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I think i’m gonna need to revisit this one after awhile to have a better opinion on it but harry and beatrice were very cute
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"How many drinks have you had, Mr. Phillips?"
"Innumerable. And the fact that I can still say 'innumerable' suggests that that's nowhere near enough."Beatrice Page (Ginger Rogers) is an aging actress whose latest play was a flop. Desperate for a new hit, she finds one and convinces the writer, she can still play the role of the daughter in it. Meanwhile, young actress Sally Carver (Pat Crowley) is trying to get the same role as well ...
Forever Female is a drama directed by Irving Rapper.
There are certainly things I liked about the movie, especially Ginger Rogers. She plays a celebrated theatre actress who slowly but surely gets too old to play characters in their twenties. Rogers' performance…
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Another "Bill Holden is kinda old for her cinematic universe” but who wouldn’t fall for Bill he is kind of a hunk... Ginger Rogers is lovely as ever and boii the way they see a woman in their 50s, all they think is that they had grey hair and really old.. like good gawd pls! And the way they talk about Ginger's character like she was so old.
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Ginger was great as usual, Pat Crowley really took me for a ride, everyone cried really well and for goodness sakes what is it with William Holden playing writers that have hang-ups with aging actresses and Ginger Rogers playing aging actresses?
(W h e n w o r l d s c o l l i d e)
Either way i probably liked it more than it deserved and that’s ok.Like this:
(Similar William Holden roles)
- SUNSET BOULEVARD 1950
- BORN YESTERDAY 1950
- THE COUNTRY GIRL 1954
(Similar Ginger Rogers roles)
- BLACK WIDOW 1954
- THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY 1949 -
Irving Rapper’s comedy in which a writer sells his play to a Broadway producer who wants to transform it into a vehicle for his ex-wife. Starring Ginger Rogers, William Holden and Paul Douglas.
The story concerns mature Broadway phenomenon Beatrice Page (Ginger Rogers) who takes up a script by Stanley Krown (William Holden), a talented young writer, and anxieties that he re-envision the lead role – that of a teenager on the brink of adulthood – as a character nearer to Beatrice’s own age.
Stanley declines, reluctant to negotiate his apparition. Undeterred, the intelligent Beatrice gathers her confused previous husband, producer E. Harry Phillips (Paul Douglas), to persuade Stanley to approve to her uncertain terms.
Ginger Rogers gives a good…
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Giving Ginger Rogers her own "All About Eve" isn't a bad instinct, but this doesn't quite add up. Rogers and Crowley both overplay their characters, as if they're actually on the stage or as if this were more of a true comedy. And the whole thing gets stuck on act one, extending the build-up and keeping certain characters apart rather than letting the sparks really fly.
Fully watchable, just not one to remember.