User reviews

THE FEMALE ANIMAL is unabashed melodrama, as if some afternoon soap opera were fashioned out of SUNSET BOULEVARD... BUT there is a big BUT. Despite the idiocies of her character and the milieu in which it is established, the wondrous surprise is Hedy Lamarr's performance. She had done good work in the past when given half a chance, but that wasn't often. Here, as her career was sadly waning, she offers a sensitive and truthful portrayal of a fading film queen. Only in the worst of the soap opera moments is she unable to rise above the situation. I've seen criticism of Jane Powell's work, but it is not bad at all, thwarted by that same Wagnerian plot line. She gives it a good try. George Nader looks good but has the most ill-defined role of all. He, too, tries. And, then, there is the marvelous Jan Sterling, here in a bitchy role that, if better written, could have merited her professional attention. Jan, we miss you. Keller's direction is somewhat okay, with unobtrusive camera work and backed with clean cinematography. THE FEMALE ANIMAL is not a waste of time when one watches glorious Hedy showing what she can done, and with the underlying wonderment of how a good script could have taken these four performers to great heights.

What Douglas Sirk, and a better chosen cast, could have done with this material!

Hedy Lamarr plays "Vanessa Windsor," an aging movie queen who falls hard for a handsome extra named "Chris" played by George Nader. Chris feels himself genuinely drawn to Vanessa but fears becoming nothing more than a "kept" man. Vanessa's adopted daughter Penny, played by Jane Powell, enters the scene. Penny suffers the usual problems experienced as the child of a famous, rarely-present person and has drifted into alcoholism and promiscuous behavior. She also falls for Chris and he feels himself attracted to her though he tries to keep Vanessa from learning this fact. The movie soon becomes a question of (1) what will Vanessa do when she finds out the truth, and (2) which woman will Chris wind up with?

Miscasting weakens this movie which isn't quite flamboyant enough to be "camp." Hedy Lamarr fits easily into her role but Jane Powell seems about 10 years too old to be the adopted daughter. Similarly George Nader's part might have been better filled by an actor 10 years his junior. Like Robert Mitchum, Nader usually declined to shave off his chest hair but he obviously made an exception here for his various shirtless scenes. Perhaps he felt this would make him look younger in a "beachboy" sort of way.

Jan Sterling receives third billing and wanders into and out of the plot but her character isn't well integrated into the story. (She's the counterpart to Ruth Roman in "Love Has Many Faces.") Like the other performers, her "smart, sophisticated" lines generally fall flat. The plot also suffers a bit from a flashback device which kicks in shortly after the start of the movie but which is presented in such an off-hand way that some viewers may not realize that a flashback is now in progress.

As for the ending, it appears to have been decided upon by a committee anxious to please as many people as possible. As a result, it'll probably please no one and its ambiguity is more annoying than stimulating.

George Nader's quiet, dignified performance -- and he isn't given much to work with -- almost holds the movie together. It's good to see him with his shirt off but one can't help feeling a bit sorry that he's sometimes relegated to just being a slab of "beefcake." Those viewers familiar with Nader's private life will appreciate the fact that his character is given the sexually-ambiguous name of "Chris."

This was not cast well at all. Hedy Lamarr was 44 and still ravishingly beautiful; her daughter is played by 29-year-old Jane Powell who does NOT look like a teenager with her bleached blonde hair and worldly air. George Nader at age 37 looks totally appropriate for Hedy! He does not look like a "boy toy" as the role calls for. He looks mature, weathered, tan, sort of like a Marlboro Man.

Since Jane's character is supposed to be a teenager, he is way too old for her! He looks like a teenager's dad!! The script is meant to make us think the boy toy character is more appropriate as a teenager's love interest, but the casting is wrong.

Hedy does what she can with the script and always seems warm and loving. Jane's character does not have any charm. It's hard to see why the male lead would be torn between the two.

Poor George Nader is also very wooden. When his agent says "You can't act yourself out of a paper bag" it's easy to believe, but we should believe the MAN in this role even if we couldn't believe him as an ACTOR. His face and voice are without variety. The role must have been cast by just asking actors to take their shirts off.

Hedy's a star in crisis, at a crossroads in her career, too fond of the bottle and adrift without a man. Enter big strong George Nader who saves her from an onset accident and she's swept off her feet but there's trouble ahead especially in the personage of her daughter.

Sound familiar? If it doesn't you haven't seen many latter day Joan Crawford movies. Miss Lamaar's last feature is a low budget affair but that doesn't mean that it doesn't offer high grade fun for its target audience, namely people who enjoy sudsy melodrama with MOVIE STARS of a certain vintage.

Hedy looks great though it's obvious that she's either had a face-lift or some sort of surgical tape applied since her eyes are definitely different from her glory days. The real stretch of credibility comes in the casting of Jane Powell, also looking great, as Hedy's daughter. True they are 15 years apart in age so it's conceivable that they could be mother & daughter but at 44 and 29 respectively they look more like sisters plus Jane's character is clearly supposed to be much younger. She give an okay performance but she's miscast nonetheless.

As for the story it careens around not making a whole lot of sense, nor does it need to, but it's far more entertaining than many "good" films it would be considered inferior too.

This movie was Hedy's last. It was intended as her comeback film but her time had past. The plot was a rip off of Sunset Blvd. Hedy plays a aging, movie star named Vanessa Windsor who has a party girl brat adopted daughter. Ms Lamarr was 45 years old when this movie was made and she aged well. This movie is pure late 50's in theme and fashion. If you can find this film on TV which it seldom appears, ( I found a pirated copy on Ebay ) it is a worthwhile film but it pale's to Hedy's glory days of the 40's. It is always fascinating to see the stars of the silver screen of the 30's and 40's in their more mundane later work.

The movie was filmed in Cinescope b and white, a rarity in those days of large screens. Hedy was perfect as a woman fading from the limelight and ageing, but turning to alcohol. That is why she looked and acted like she was supposed to. Jane Powell looked too old to be Hedy's daughter and way overacted her dramatic scenes. She should of stuck to musicals. George Nadar, looked the part, but his acting was wooden. jan sterling was good for the small part she had in it.

Director Harry Keller and cameraman Rusell Metty were both fresh from working on 'Touch of Evil' for producer Albert Zugsmith (for which Keller had directed additional scenes) when Zugsmith reunited them on this shameless rehash of 'Sunset Boulevard', which in turn anticipates 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane' and 'Mommie Dearest'.

Although still a handsome woman at only 42, Hedy Lamarr in her screen swansong suffered the added indignity of being given a grown-up adopted daughter played by Jane Powell (herself nearly thirty although supposedly playing "a rebellious kid trying to find out about life"); while Jan Sterling completes this trio of feisty femmes as a poisonous former child star who has had her fill of "local, sunburned pseudo-virile types". Like George Nader. After Nader left Hollywood he was perfectly open about his homosexuality, which may have been an in-joke on Zugsmith's part, as well as enabling him to keep his head amid such alluring company (as when vamped in one scene by Powell in a polka dot swimsuit).

The 1950s brought to Hollywood a new sort of movie...the trashy soap opera film. The movies were quite salacious for their day and subtlety is NOT something you associate with the movies. Lana Turner and Susan Hayward made a bunch of these films. In this case, Hedy Lamarr tries her hand at the genre...and soon retired from acting! It's not that it's a bad film...it just isn't exactly artistic or something you might feel proud for having appeared in it.

The film finds aging actress Vanessa Windsor (Lamarr) falling for a gorgeous young hunk, Chris (George Nader). At the same time, Vanessa's daughter, Penny (Jane Powell*), is a mess....a drunk party girl who is on the road to destruction. When Penny learns that mom loves Chris, she makes her next task to seduce the handsome stud. Not surprisingly, this results in bad stuff...heart ache, hysteria and more.

Through the course of this movie, just about every lady throws herself at handsome Chris...which is ironic considering Nader soon left Hollywood after he was outed for being gay. Regardless, he really was the best thing about the movie...solid, an excellent actor and incredibly handsome. And, it was nice to see women chasing the guy this time! Overall, a trashy but thoroughly enjoyable soaper. Not for everyone's taste...but a film lovers of the genre will no doubt enjoy.

*This film was a very huge departure for Powell. Previously, she mostly played sweet roles or young girl parts. Here, however, she is thoroughly screwy...and mesmerizing.

Jane Powell had sad adieu to MGM and her perpetually cheery self in those musicals she made there. In The Female Animal she plays quite the little sex kitten.

Jane is Hedy Lamarr's daughter and she's playing a movie star just like Hedy Lamarr. Her life gets saved on the set by hunky extra George Nader. Quite by accident he meets Powell, saving her from a drunk masher and soon he's involved with both. And these two have lots of itches that need scratching.

Powell did a great job as a vixen, but apparently the movie going public wasn't ready to accept her. Lamarr was good at playing the older film star feeling her age.

Best in the film is Jan Sterling playing a cheerfully hedonistic film star who has a string of Naders available. Never leave home without one.

The Female Animal was code restricted. Might have been better done ten years later without the Code.

offbeat bit of insanity with Jane Powell far too mature to be playing the "adopted daughter" of Hedy Lamarr -- though pert, she has the voice and manner of a seasoned broad. Hedy Lamarr can barely say her lines, she acts like a confused Pekingese. Some may find George Nader a pretty decent hunk; he spends much of the film shirtless. this film tries to imitate sunset boulevard in its way. lines are mock-sophisticated fast-talk delivered in throwaway style. Jan Sterling does a good job as usual. film is not believable in its depiction of gigolos and gigolees in any realistic sense. this film tries for both drama and humor (hedy makes humorous remarks which fall flat due to the fact that she doesn't appear to understand english), but it only succeeds as camp -- jane powell is a raving alchy who acts like she's playing a susan hayward "Oscar" role, george lovable and passive as a lamb somehow incredibly is in love with her after she acts like a non-stop banshee and he has to sober her up by throwing her in the shower. The finale is right out of "Sunset Boulevard" with hedy slipping into drunken madness and almost plunging to her death. The hatred of jane for her mom hedy is kind of interesting, the vitriol, the emotions. hedy is supposed to be a very shallow movie star who comes to her great moment of enlightenment only when her daughter steals her latest boytoy. One other thing to mention-- this film is in a gorgeous looking black and white, and all the shots are beautiful.

At one point in the film, a character professes to Hedy Lamarr, who plays an actress: "I always thought you were a better actress than the roles they gave you." The character might as well have been speaking about Lamarr herself, because this film typifies the substandard material that the actress was handed throughout most of her career.

While there were some highlights in Lamarr's career, such as the wonderful H.M. Pulham, Esq., The Strange Woman, and Dishonored Lady, there was also a lot of fluff. It seems Lamarr was always treated as a glamorous beauty rather than a great actress, although she was smart and talented.

The Female Animal was one of those fading star vehicles that Universal seemed to specialize in at the time (others included Female on the Beach with Joan Crawford, and The Price of Fear with Merle Oberon). By 1958, Lamarr had not been the leading actress in a film for a few years, but she was still youthful and beautiful. It's curious that she was not offered more roles, although back then the shelf-life of a glamorous star was even shorter than it is today.

The Female Animal is a somewhat trashy and sordid melodrama. It is perhaps the only film I have ever seen in which Hedy Lamarr was not the object of desire. Here she plays a more aggressive woman who is not ashamed to take in a house boy. The idea that Lamarr, even at the advanced age of 45 (*eye roll*), would need to pay for handsome male companionship is beyond absurd. She was still very sexy and could have probably had her pick of men. I agree with the other reviewer who said, to some effect: "Hedy past her prime was any other woman's peak." She is widely considered the most beautiful actress of all-time (interchangeably with Gene Tierney).

The film overall leans more toward camp classic than art house. You have drunk ladies, aging starlets out "hunting" for young studs, and of course glamorous Hedy, who has trouble speaking some of her lines. It's all kind of a mess, but it somehow hangs together, and it's a lot of fun. Jan Sterling is entertaining in a supporting role.

The ending redeems the film. Lamarr gives a rather poignant speech about determination, and we are reminded of what a remarkable actress she was. We think about how sad it is that her career was cut so short by...ageism.

While I viewed this on TCM last night I was often tempted to switch to something else. But I JUST HAD TO FIND OUT HOW THE DRAMA ENDED for the three lovers. It was all so dated of course and now seems very campy. But I feel the three leads did a good job. And I was taken aback by Jane Powell's vixen and George Nadar's HUNKness. She was 'stacked' and he looked virtually nude much of the time. All they all needed was to have the 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' arrive at the beach house!

Fading movie star Vanessa Windsor (Hedy Lamarr) is saved from a filming accident by extra Chris Farley. She takes an immediate interest in her rescuer. Penny (Jane Powell) is her grown troubled daughter.

In a fitting coincidence, this is Hedy Lamarr's final movie. I don't think George Nader is quite charismatic enough. He needs to be a true hunk. He's too stiff and too conservative for this to be a steamy romance. A modern version would have a younger and more willing man. At times, he comes off as self-righteous. This has lots of potential. I just don't think he's that much of a prize. The obvious comparison is Sunset Boulevard. It has similar tones but it doesn't reach those heights.

Were a regular movie watcher to dismiss "The Female Animal" as cheap trash, they would not be wrong. However, for movie buffs there's much enjoyment to be had, despite the glaring weaknesses

It's certainly not the plot that holds our interest, nor the dialog, though there are a couple of memorable lines; it's simply the somewhat miscast headliners Hedy Lamarr, George Nader and Jane Powell - whose ages hardly approximate the characters they portray. One needs to have some awareness of their personal lives and careers in order to perceive the added layers of meaning their very presence lends to the film.

Forty-four-year-old Hedy Lamarr still lovely to behold, apparently much aided by various surgeries, was coming to the end of her career, so playing an older movie actress in what seem to be B movies adds much resonance. Her beauty is legendary, but alas not her acting talent which was always a couple of notches below her contemporaries. However she turns in one of her better performances in what would be her last screen role. In the final scene, a nurse tending to her says, "Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I've always thought you were a much better actress than the roles they gave you." It's hardly a line you would expect from the character but clearly something probably Lamarr herself wanted aired. She thanks her and the nurse goes on: "Because the one great thing you have on the screen is believability". She then turns out the light and exits. Hedy rolls over and says, "Believability; I certainly hope so". Hedy's swan song.

George Nader was one of the hunks from the Universal stable. It's widely rumoured that he left Hollywood after being outed by the notorious Confidential magazine in some sort of deal the studios made to save Rock Hudson, his lifelong friend, from the same fate. Some sources claim it was to save Rory Calhoun's career. However in later years Nader emphatically denied all that, though he did say "every month when Confidential came out, our stomachs began to turn. Which of us would be in it?" Whatever the case, he realised he wasn't making much headway in Hollywood and turned to Europe where he enjoyed much success in a series of German films. He was a fairly competent actor and an extremely good-looking one. Physically he was at his very prime at this particular point in his career. He spends much screen time bare-chested, uncharacteristically waxed. Other scenes show him off in elegant evening wear and an extremely tight T-shirt. All in all, his film career was hardly a distinguished one and "The Female Animal" is certainly one of his better moments.

Former MGM star Jane Powell totally discards her effervescent girl-next-door image and plunges into fifties misunderstood daughter a la Rebel Without a Cause, acting out, boozing it up and flinging herself at men. You get the picture. A brave move for Powell, sometimes bordering on the ludicrous.

Jan Sterling in a bit part with some delightful lines also deserves special mention.

What gives "The Female Animal" a certain veneer of class is the work of master cameraman Russel Metty, Douglas Sirks favorite DP. Even someone of lesser talent could hardly go wrong with the likes of Lamarr, Nader and Powell, but Metty, as always, makes them luminous.

Put your critical faculties on hold and join this somewhat odd ride, one I find I enjoy more and more each time I take it.

Tame tale of a mature movie star embroiled in a romantic rivalry with her rebellious teen-age daughter over a handsome extra. Nothing much happens but the basic scenario does seem to predict the Lana Turner/Cheryl Crane/Johnny Stampanato scandal later that same year. Joan & Christina Crawford would take things a lot further in the near future and since the story's by schlockmeister Albert Zugsmith, it could have been an in-joke since it doesn't work as anything else. Hedy Lamarr (in her last film) looks OK in a plastic way (all her surgeries were beginning to show) but she's an awful actress and can't even play one. One review I read is spot on with its observation that Lamarr looks like a Pekinese whose one or two witty lines seem beyond her understanding. Jane Powell as her daughter is a bit better but too old for the role and an inanimate George Nader as the passive pawn between them thankfully spends most of his time either shirtless or in swim trunks. Jan Sterling's has-been cougar comes off best in this rather tepid mess that unfortunately falls short of camp.

This was a very tough film to digest. The first half moved at a pace slower than a tortoise. It's a shame that this is the way Hedy Lamarr went out because she deserved much better than this. George Nader was not a good match in my opinion. The worst part might have been the attempted recreation of the From Here to Eternity scene on the beach. Another missed opportunity for Powell, who also deserved a better script and role at this point in her career.

Somehow this might have had more impact had the squabbling women been arguing over Errol Flynn or Clark Cable. George Nader, well he just doesn't really cut it as the hunky object of the desires of the fading Hollywood star "Vanessa" (Hedy Lamarr) whom he has saved from an accident at the studio. Quickly, his allure extends to that women's dipso daughter "Penny" (June Powell) whom he also manages to rescue - this time from a guest at a party who has wandering hands. What now ensues sees poor old "Chris" try to juggle the affections of both women whilst keeping safely distant from some hungry man-eating flowers. It probably isn't quite fair to describe this soap, but it isn't far off. The plot has the odd, semi-comic, twist as we head down a well travelled road of familial discord, a little bit of familial rivalry before an ending that offers little by way of innovation. There is something honest about Lamarr here, though. Perhaps her role suited her actual declining status in Hollywood, so she maybe felt free to let the badger loose a bit. Also worth noting is Jan Sterling's rather acerbic contribution as "Lily" - a woman never far away from her next put-down. Oddly enough, I found myself wondering how much better this might have been had it been made pre-code, and the strong - almost salacious - sexual elements of the plot been permitted to develop a bit more, bit as it is, it is all rather procedural. Watchable, though.

Somehow, the film that comes closest to my mind seeing this one, is Chaplin's last great performance in "Limelight". Somehow they are parallel cases. Both made these their last films as their final and definite masterpiece, not without sadness, perhaps more with grief than anything else, and what speaks oceans of feelings in this one is Hedy's eyes. After this film at only 44 she stepped back never to make another film, which puts her in a similar situation as Greta Garbo, who also stopped suddenly at her peak, but her last film was no masterpiece but rather her only shallow comedy. Still she retained her almost divine status for the rest of her life, and so did Hedy. But Hedy was a greater actress. As the nurse tells her in the end, "I always thought you were a better actress than the roles they gave you", and in this film she proves what a sovereign actress she was, in her pathetic awkwardness as desperately looking for love and friendship in her extreme loneliness as the greatest star, a difficult role to realize in believeability, while her humanity and urgent sincerity shines thorugh all the way, while actually everyone supports her, the handsome and sympathetic George Nader, the flimsy but almost equally pathetic Jane Powell, and all the others, which is not enough, for the great character she makes. The music by Hans Salter is also excellently suited, while you never heard of the director Harry Keller in any other film, (he mainly made westerns,) almost as if a director was unnecessary for this film that naturally had its own life from the beginning by its leading character. Although the dialog isn't much, it's a well written script anyway, for the realization of the triangle of a handsome second man in relationship with both the mother and the daughter without their being aware of it until later, gradually or by shock. It's an interesting chamber play in structure - and a marvellous film, all because of Hedy Lamarr making her last and final bow.

Film buffs who relish movies about movies will appreciate "The Female Animal." However, this low-budget effort is no "Sunset Boulevard," "The Bad and the Beautiful," or even "The Carpetbaggers," although the writer and director most likely aimed for something akin to the last-named picture. Unfortunately, writer Robert Hill's screenplay, which attempts to coin some deliciously bad dialog, comes up short, and whatever aspirations to cult status were intended, the film misses the mark. The concept is appropriately pulp fiction; three predatory women mark a handsome movie extra for conquest and set out to trap and seduce him. A beautiful aging star, her alcoholic daughter, and a faded actress compete for the same prey, an athletic wannabe actor, whose best prospect is co-star to a giant orchid in a Mexican horror flic.

In her final film role, Hedy Lamarr was still lovely in her mid-40's as the aging star Vanessa Windsor, who is rescued from a swinging arc light by an extra and rewards him with a job as caretaker of her beach house. Lamarr is cooly adequate in the role, but neither credible enough to be good, nor inept enough to be camp. However, in a break from her goodie-goodie roles in MGM musicals, Jane Powell is quite good as Penny Windsor, Vanessa's neglected daughter, a sex kitten on the make; Powell is quite a dish and should have displayed her gifts for these roles more often. The third female animal is Jan Sterling as Lily Frayne, an over-the-hill actress who has taken to consorting with gigolos. The tall good-looking extra, Chris Farley, is played by George Nader, whose appeal to the three women, beyond lots of hair and rippling muscles, remains a mystery. Nader's performance is just short of wooden, and no heat or chemistry is discernable between him and any of the three man-hunters. However, viewers familiar with Nader's closeted personal life will understand the actor's evident lack of interest in his female co-stars.

Among the film's major assets is Russell Metty's velvety black-and-white cinematography, which flatters Lamarr and makes Powell glow, while creating shadowy film sets, desolate beaches, and cozy interiors worthy of film noir. Director Harry Keller, a veteran of westerns and television episodes, lacked the sensitivity to raise this Hollywood potboiler to the trashy excess necessary for a cult camp classic. Some of the lines come close, such as Sterling's comment that her men are "scallopini with sideburns," but most of the dialog is flat and unmemorable. Casting Lamarr could have paid off if she had over-played the part instead of her nearly expressionless take, which rivals Nader's low-key performance for blandness. Not good enough to join the classics and not trashy enough for camp, "The Female Animal" just plays out as a passable curiosity in between.

Star Hedy Lamarr falls in love with George Nader and overwhelms him. Little does she know that her daughter, Jane Powell, is already his girlfriend.

It's a tawdry sex story without sex, even if Miss Lamarr wears expensive-looking jewelry in every scene. She looks utterly gorgeous and speaks her lines well in this, her last movie. Miss Powell's career was also on the downslide, and had been since she had left MGM three years earlier. The movie musical was out of favor, even if the Freed unit released GIGI and won the Best Picture Oscar. She would make one more picture in 1958, and then four more in the final quarter of the 20th Century, more stunt casting than serious work.

Although there is lots of onscreen glamor, largely provided by Russell Metty's keylit cinematography, it all comes off as a sad end to a couple of good careers. Universal and producer Albert Zugsmith try to use their stars, caught on the cheap, to buttress a sad script. Alas, they simply reveal the sadness of the declining industry.

In her final film appearance, Hedy Lamarr plays an aging movie star (she was only 42 at the time of filming) who is nearly killed by a freak accident on set, but is saved by handsome extra, George Nader, who is oddly named, for modern audiences, Chris Farley. Lamarr falls in love with Nader, but so does her adopted daughter, Jane Powell, who hides the fact from Nader that she's Lamarr's daughter. Maybe there was something in this tawdry material that Douglas Sirk could have salvaged, adding a subtext about class and conformity as he did with "All That Heaven Allows," but director director Harry Keller is no Sirk and the film ends up being a waste of Lamarr's talents and a sad coda for her film career. There's a rather poignant moment near the end of the film when a nurse tells Lamarr's character she always felt she was a better actress than the movies she was given, which is sadly true for Lamarr's own film career. FUN FACT! The Female Animal was the "A" picture that was distributed as a double-bill with the "B" picture being Orson Welles's "Touch of Evil."