In widescreen glorious Universal black-and-white, this very '50s melo has an unusual angle amid all its conventional suds: What if the man couldn't decide between a mother or daughter? Tough choice, because the mom's Hedy Lamarr, in a relaxed performance as a slightly fading movie queen, and the (adopted) daughter is Jane Powell, a spoiled drunk Hollywood rich kid who becomes more likable as the script progresses. Faced with the difficult decision: George Nader, with a shaved chest, but looking mighty fit, and it's a real performance, not just the eyelash-batting he got away with in some other Universal product. He must have liked the screenplay: A lot of it is just the women talking about how handsome he is. There's also Jan Sterling, always underrated and absolutely splendid here, as the nasty-obnoxious even-more-faded movie queen saying sarcastic things to everyone else and making a pathetic play for Nader. It's ludicrous, but it's entertaining, and you may chortle at the '50s morality that says, no, ladies, you'd better not attempt to be cougars, youth shall seek youth and anything else is wrong, wrong, wrong. Not badly written, and, in a fun and budget-conscious touch, the pre-credits sequence later shows up again, with new connotations. Jane, in her first big non-musical, seems to enjoy all the luridness, and she's good enough to suggest maybe she should have tried more of these roles and fewer sunny-MGM things.
Review of The Female Animal
