I'm gonna start this video a little differently with a brief discussion about spoilers.
Regular viewers should know I tend to be pretty loose with spoiler talk,
and there are two reasons why. One: the statute of limitations on spoiler crime has long since
passed for the kinds of movies I cover; and two: I tend to believe that spoilers, generally speaking,
don't actually ruin one's enjoyment of a story.
However, I'm going to make an exception today, because I genuinely believe that this particular
movie works better when you don't know where it's going. If by some miracle you don't know what the
secret of The Stepford Wives is, I recommend you stop this video, put it on your watch later queue,
and then go see the movie, doing your level best to avoid any information about it whatsoever.
Oh, and make sure it's the original, not the remake.
And also, I'm going to partially spoil the more recent Get Out, so maybe see that too.
Now then, if you're still here,
that means you won't mind if the following video has spoilers. You've been warned.
Are you tired of the hustle and bustle of city life?
Why don't you settle down in the picturesque town of Stepford, Connecticut,
where you can let go of your troubles and embrace domestic tranquility? We have the best schools,
the finest homes, and grocery stores fit to bursting. Relax by the pool on a warm summer day
and never worry again about your unfulfilled dreams or abandoned personal pursuits. Instead,
devote yourself to a clean home with the best appliances, a tight-knit community of neighbors,
and above all, a happy husband. Come to Stepford, and you'll never have to feel unhappy again.
Before we go any further, I'll just die if I don't get your like.
I'll just die if I don't get your like. I'll just die if I don't get your like.
Sorry about that. If you really do like this video, be sure to subscribe as well.
Thank you in advance. With that out of the way, let's get back to the subject at hand.
1953 saw the publication of the novel A Kiss Before Dying, written by a fresh new writer
named Ira Levin. A dryly witty noir crime thriller, the book made waves in literary
circles and was quickly adapted into a modestly successful Hollywood movie staring Robert Wagner,
Joanne Woodward, and Mary Astor. Despite his promise as a writer,
Levin wouldn't publish another novel for well over a decade, though he did work as a playwright.
His sophomore novel was Rosemary's Baby, published in 1967, which was an even bigger hit than A Kiss
Before Dying. A year later, the film adaptation was released to critical acclaim to become one of
the greatest horror movies ever made, cementing Levin's reputation as a startling talent whose
work had enormous Hollywood potential. His third book was This Perfect Day, a by-the-numbers
dystopian novel that, while well-received in sci-fi circles and among modern-day libertarians,
didn't lend itself to the Hollywood treatment of the early seventies.
Then Levin decided to meld the feminist overtones and horror of Rosemary's Baby with the satirical
sci-fi spin of This Perfect Day to produce The Stepford Wives, published in 1972 to more critical
acclaim and commercial success. Needless to say, Hollywood wanted in on the action, regardless of
the controversy raging in academic circles over the novel's potential themes and ideas.
Specifically, it was up to producer Edward J. Scherick, who'd previously produced hits like
The Heartbreak Kid and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, to get The Stepford Wives on the big
screen. He hired the multiple-award winning William Goldman to write the screenplay.
At the time, Goldman was primarily known for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but he'd go
on to write such diverse and wonderful films as The Ghost and the Darkness and Misery, both personal
favorites of mine, not to mention the adaptations of his own novels The Princess Bride and Marathon
Man. Goldman interviewed several important figures in the feminist movement to prepare
for the assignment, with the expressed intent to make his script something of a feminist manifesto.
Next came the director, Bryan Forbes, a British writer, director, producer,
and actor known for adapting popular literary novels, with his biggest directorial credits
prior to The Stepford Wives being Whistle Down the Wind and King Rat.
Sherick chose Forbes as a fan of his work but also because he thought the material could use
the outside perspective of a non-American. He had originally considered Brian de Palma,
who was enthusiastic about Goldman's script, but Goldman was openly hostile to the idea.
In general, according to Scherick, Goldman became more and more hostile to everyone involved in the
production and annoyed when any revisions or changes were suggested to his script.
After Goldman refused to turn in a revised version, Forbes, the director, did some uncredited
rewrites of the script himself, changing or tweaking large sections, including the ending,
much to Goldman's consternation. Goldman was so infuriated by this that he never
wanted to speak to Bryan Forbes again, even though, in a fun twist of fate, Forbes,
as president of the Writer's Guild of Great Britain in the early 90's,
got to give Goldman a "Special Award for Contribution to Writing."
Casting proved to be unusually difficult. After interviewing
dozens of potential women for the lead role of Joanna Eberhart--including Julie Christie,
Anne Archer, Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Natalie Wood, Shirley MacLaine, Joanne Woodward,
Geneviève Bujold, Jane Fonda, and Jean Seberg, among many others--Diane
Keaton was intially cast, though she pulled out before signing the contract over "bad vibes"
from the script. Many actresses declined for various other political or personal reasons,
but finally, with time running out, Katherine Ross signed on. Ross was a hot commodity at the time,
following her roles in The Graduate and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and she was much
more enthusiastic about the script than most of the other actresses who had been offered the part.
For her fleeting best friend in the town of Stepford, the character of Bobbie,
Scherick initially insisted on Joanna Cassidy. However, a week into shooting, Cassidy was fired,
with Scherick himself admitting that she had been completely wrong for the part.
To replace her on short notice, they brought in Paula Prentiss, an actress who did primarily
comedic roles but had done a fair share of dramatic ones as well, appearing in diverse
films like What's New Pussycat, Catch-22, and The Parallax View. She had just given birth at the
time and was happy to get back to work, and she lent her comedic and dramatic chops to the role
to make Bobbie perhaps the most memorable and likable character in the entire film.
In a case of life imitating art, Ross and Prentiss became good friends on set, to the point that,
when it came time to film the scene where Joanna stabs the robot version of Bobbie, Ross was unable
to go through with it due to her hand shaking. As a result, director Forbes shaved the back of his
hand, put it through the arm of Ross' costume, and did the close-up of the stabbing himself.
One of the most consequential casting decisions was Nanette Newman as the Stepford Wife
Carol Van Sant. Newman was married to Forbes, and according to rumor, Bryan Forbes, in his contract,
reserved the right to cast her in any role he saw fit. In both the novel and early drafts
of the screenplay, the Stepford Wives were described more like Playboy bunnies than the
more conservatively-dressed housewives seen in the film, and some of that change can be attributed to
Newman. While not even remotely an unattractive woman, Newman was uncomfortable with the idea
of showing off her forty-year-old, pasty white skin. Most likely as a direct result of this--at
least according to Goldman, who admittedly is not the most reliable source of information on the
matter--the depiction of all the Stepford Wives was changed from oversexualized to overdressed,
with most of them wearing long, frilly dresses and ornate sunhats rather than bikinis and miniskirts.
However, in my opinion at least, this is not a bad thing. From the cultural perspective of the film,
I think the conservative dresses make a lot more sense and are more reflective of the
stereotypical 1950's housewives being satirized. Whether by accident or by deliberate intent,
this change is an improvement over the source materials that works perfectly well.
Also, for the record, Nanette Newman does a great job as Carol Van Sant,
who is a wonderful epitomization of the robotic, repressed housewife that brings casseroles to
the new neighbors and apologizes profusely for any violation of unspoken social niceties. Her
American accent is so flawless that I didn't even know she was British until I started my research,
and the scene in which her character malfunctions is one of the best bits of the whole movie.
"I'll just die if I don't get this recipe."
As for the male characters, Joanna's husband Walter is played by Peter Masterson,
known for Von Richthofen and Brown and The Exorcist. His real life daughter,
Mary Stuart Masterson, makes her feature film debut as Walter and Joanna's daughter Kim.
For the primary antagonist, the evil former Disney Imagineer Dale "Diz" Coba,
they cast Patrick O'Neal, known for In Harm's Way, The Kremlin Letter, and El Condor,
in addition to appearing in Bryan Forbes' King Rat. O'Neal's Diz is a fun,
mustache-twirling villain who manages to deliver the film's creepiest line without skipping a beat.
"I like to watch women doing little domestic chores."
Other actors worth pointing out are Josef Sommer as Mr. Van Sant,
Ginger Grant--I mean, Tina Louise--as Charmaine, George Coe as Claude,
and Judith Baldwin--who would also become Ginger Grant a few years later--as Patricia.
"Get it down here right away, in the parking lot!"
Filming took place over the summer of 1974 entirely on location in New
York and Connecticut, with not a single set built for the shoot.
The climax was filmed at the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion, a museum made out of an absurdly
large home built for the mid-Nineteenth Century banking and railroad magnate LeGrand Lockwood.
Throughout the production, many of the cast and crew, including Forbes and his family,
lived in rented houses in Westport. In some respects,
they were living similar lives to the ones seen in the film as they ate outside with
long lunch hours and relaxed on well-manicured lawns in the suburbs of the Long Island Sound.
It was reportedly an easy-going and relatively trouble-free shoot, with many of the cast and
crew calling it one of the most relaxing filming experiences of their careers.
The Stepford Wives was released in February of 1975 to relatively poor reviews, knocked for
its slow pace, lack of humor, and deviations from the novel. William Goldman was very vocal in his
dislike of the film, and it generated quite a controversy within the feminist movement.
Early screenings specifically for feminists were met with jeering audiences,
and Feminine Mystique writer Betty Friedan called for a boycott of the film, which she described
as a shallow rip-off of feminism. One woman even assaulted the director with an umbrella.
Other notable feminists did defend the film, including Gael Greene and Eleanor Perry,
and the novel's writer, Ira Levin, was pretty happy with it. Still, despite it all,
the film wasn't given a wide release and subsequently only grossed around
$4 million at the domestic box office, a disappointment for the studio,
which had hoped to replicate the $33 million success of Rosemary's Baby.
The film did remain relevant, however, and quickly developed a cult following throughout the rest of
the decade and well into the next. It has had a slight critical reappraisal in recent years,
with a handful of notable critics applauding the movie as ahead of its time,
but its Rotten Tomatoes score for both critics and audiences remains in the sixties.
There were a few television adaptations, including pseudo-sequels like 1980's Revenge
of the Stepford Wives and reimaginings like 1996's The Stepford Husbands, and there was
also a remake of the original film in 2004 that most of us can agree is pretty terrible.
In terms of my own opinion, I do like the original movie and think it's aged remarkably well,
but as I said at the start of this video, it works better when you don't know where it's
going. When you do know, the tension is deflated a bit, and the movie drags its feet in ways that
aren't particularly entertaining, especially upon multiple viewings. As a counterpoint,
look at Jordan Peele's Get Out, which is such a similar movie you
can consider it a better remake of The Stepford Wives than the actual remake.
Get Out--which Jordan Peele has openly admitted was heavily inspired by The Stepford Wives--does
a better job filling its runtime with memorable moments and more humor that
doesn't detract from the story, so it doesn't lose its luster upon multiple viewings.
Both movies, however, integrate timely sociopolitical messages inside a suspenseful,
mysterious, slow-burn psychological thriller with a sci-fi twist that takes aim at the disturbing
undercurrents of modern upper-class suburbia, and both deserve the praise they've received
over the years for their genre-defying artistry. I do think Get Out is the better film overall,
but The Stepford Wives deserves credit for at least doing it first.
As for the sociopolitical messages, The Stepford Wives isn't exactly subtle, but it can be a little
enigmatic. As previously mentioned, it was both defended and derided in its day by the
feminist movement, with many people having completely opposite takeaways from the film.
Is this a film that tells women everybody would be happier if they just let go of
their independence and embraced the lost housewife ideals of the 1950's,
or is it a film that demonstrates how doing so is tantamount to destroying one's very nature?
I think the disconnect comes from people who don't recognize that the ending is supposed
to be horrific, that Joanna's assimilation isn't supposed to be seen as a happy ending.
Part of the problem is that the novel is more ambiguous and open to interpretation than the
film, which is clearly trying to satirize outdated views of domesticity. Sure, it might have a more
exaggerated view of men--as represented by the evil, monologuing Diz, who isn't quite
as cartoonish in the book--but given the gender politics of the time, the gross charicature of men
as clinging desperately to their domineering power over women clarifies the story's central theme.
Underneath that is a more subtle secondary theme about the banality of consumerism.
While hardly a groundbreaking commentary on the matter, The Stepford Wives does do a good job
showing how excessive consumerism can be a powerful brainwashing tool of its own--
"Easy-On Spray Starch. It must save me
half an hour a day at least. You'll never run short of time again."
--with even the feminist heroes, Joanna and Bobbie, showing how enslaved they already
are to brand marketing and the allure of consumer culture.
"Two things I always carry: Tampax and Ring Dings. And I don't even want to think what that means."
The movie is rampant with product placement, highlighting the fact
that the women themselves are ultimately turned into products rather than people.
Regardless of how its themes are interpreted,
though, The Stepford Wives is a sci-fi classic that has had enormous cultural staying power.
The term "Stepford Wife" became a common phrase after the novel was published,
and it was practically ubiquitous in the years after the film adaptation came out.
It has become shorthand for the totally submissive woman, a person who might as well be a robot.
I could go into the many reasons the 2004 remake failed, but it all boils down to the
fact that the 1975 version came out at the right time and treats the subject matter seriously.
It was a brilliant reflection of the sexual revolution when it was at its peak,
and it showed us that there was no going back, that the urge to enslave women to
the dual forces of consumerism and patriarchy is a dark and twisted desire. I'm sure nobody
is in my comments section right now calling me a socialist beta male for saying that.
And that's all for today, my fellow Earthlings. What's your favorite sociopolitically-charged
horror/sci-fi? Let me know in the comments, and while you're there, don't forget to like
and subscribe if you haven't already. If you'd like to support what I do even more,
consider joining my Patreon to get access to bonus content, vote on future video topics,
and more. You can also check out my website at emagill.com, where you'll find written
reviews of plenty more sci-fi classics in both film and literature. Until next time, though,
when a little giant will sacrifice itself to save us from the storm, this is The Unapologetic Geek,
telling you to never be ashamed of what you love, as long as you're not hurting anybody.
"Daddy?" "Uh-huh?" "I just saw a man carrying a naked lady."
"Well, that's why we're moving to Stepford."