Forever Female

- PLOTCrux of plot hinges on efforts of a Broadway producer and playwright to find ideal actresses to star in a play about a troubled mother/daughter relationship.

Yet when the pair attends a summer stock production of the play, large poster outside theatre only includes photos of actress playing daughter and two male co-stars - completely ignoring actress who plays crucial mother role that's been talked about throughout entire film.

The framed caricatures that line the walls of the Sardi's set are black and white sketches that include at least one movie star (Charlie Chaplin); in reality, the caricatures at the actual restaurant in New York are in color and, because they only honor celebrities connected with the Broadway stage, would certainly not have included Chaplin.

As someone who enjoys both live theatre and cinema I'm seldom disappointed by a film that features stage actors and New York theatreland and if Mank's All About Eve remains the one to beat there are still some fine also-rans out there and this is one of them. Apart from Mank's great writing and directing one of the strengths of Eve was the acting chops of Davis, Sanders, Ritter, Baxter, Holm , and though Female can only field three standouts that trio includes Paul Douglas who enhances everything he's in.

As an actress I have often admired Ginger Rogers. I am one of the few who think the films she made after the musicals she made with Fred Astaire are better than all that Art Deco Camp that still in some quarters has dominated her reputation.

A young and cynical writer (William Holden) criticises a stage star who is advancing in years but still popular (Ginger Rogers). In time he begins a relationship with her after he sells his own play to her ex-husband (Paul Douglas).

An aging stage star tries to hold on to ingénue roles. The screenplay is by the Epstein twins (Casablanca) based on a play by Barrie (Peter Pan).

With a trio of hugely talented actors (Rogers, Holden and Douglas) and a script written by the Epstein Brothers (who wrote Casablanca) this viewer was expecting a delightful comedy. Alas, alas, alas, this is a clunker of monumental proportions with an AWFUL script (adapted from a play by J.

There are two story lines in this film: A, the birth of a play; B, the love story between an actress(Bea) and a playwright(Stanley). I suppose B is the main line since the film is called Forever Female.

This film was made in the shadow of ALL ABOUT EVE, and paints a more benign view of that film's central situation. Ginger Rogers plays a leading Broadway star, who retains a close relationship with her former husband (Paul Douglas), and works closely with playwright William Holden (possibly a softer build-up for his play director in Bing Crosby's/Grace Kelly's THE COUNTRY GIRL).

An aging Broadway star, Beatrice Page, receives an interesting proposal from an aspiring playwright, Stanley Krown. While loving the play Stanley has written with her in mind, the fact remains she is much older than what the role calls for.

Playwright William Holden finds he can't handle leading lady Ginger Rogers, whom he miscasts in his play, presenting her as a 29 year old when she should play the character's mother instead. Rogers is an aging actress who won't face the music about the age while promising actress Patricia Crowley is anxious to play the role Holden had originally conceived to be 19.