WEIRDLAND: "The Trouble with Women" (1947) & "The Imperfect Lady" - Ray Milland and Teresa Wright

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

"The Trouble with Women" (1947) & "The Imperfect Lady" - Ray Milland and Teresa Wright

The newspapers of a Midwest college town announce the arrival of psychology professor Gilbert Sedley (Ray Milland) to the school. Gilbert has just published a book based on his experiments in hypnosis that supposedly prove that women have an unconscious desire to be subjugated. Joe McBride (Brian Donlevy), city editor of the Globe , sends reporter Kate Farrell (Teresa Wright), with whom he is in love, to interview Gilbert. Kate writes an article under the pseudonym "Martha Motherly" and accuses Gilbert of advocating wife-beating. Gilbert sues the Globe for slander, and unaware that Kate is "Martha Motherly," begins to fall in love with her.

Kate enrolls in Gilbert's class and antagonizes him, hoping he will hit her in front of Globe photographer Herman Lupin. Gilbert, meanwhile, takes meticulous notes on his "animalistic" chemical reactions to Kate's womanhood. Gilbert finally gives in to his urges to kiss Kate, but Agnes spoils their romance by telling him that Kate is "Martha Motherly." Kate quits the newspaper and prepares to return to her home town of St. Paul, Minnesota. Upon learning that Gilbert plans to resign from the university, Kate appeals to the board of regents and confesses her part in the scandal. Joe also quits the newspaper so that Kate will marry him, but she refuses. After a colleague tells Gilbert that Kate came to his defense, he has her subpoenaed for his libel suit trial to keep her from leaving town. In court, Gilbert uses hypnosis to get Kate to agree to marry him but she revives and admits that it was not she but the judge whom he hypnotized. Seeing that Kate and Gilbert are in love, Joe returns to the Globe and writes a story about how a Svengali courted his girl in court. Source: www.tcm.com

Quotes by Teresa Wright as Kate Farrell in THE TROUBLE WITH WOMEN (1947):

-"Being a maid, sir, is womanly work. I like being subjugated."

-"I use Tippy's Toothpaste for that radiant smile, and Larson's Lotion is terribly kind to my hands."

-"I didn't get dressed up to meet a bank robber."

The Imperfect Lady is a 1947 American drama film directed by Lewis Allen and starring Ray Milland, Teresa Wright and Cedric Hardwicke, filmed in 1945 and not released until 1947. In the late Victorian Britain an aristocratic politician falls in love with a showgirl. The film is also known by the alternative title Mrs. Loring's Secret.

"Men and women are different, but if women are good enough to run homes and raise children, then their influence ought to be good for politics." -Teresa Wright as Millicent Hopkins in "The Imperfect Lady" (1947).

No comments :