WHAT WERE THOSE GIRLS (women) UP TO? How females were presented in movies in the 50s and 60s, Part 1
Thinking about the ways Beverly in Serial Mom could appear benign while committing one atrocity after another got me thinking about how the film industry has presented women. I concluded that there are actually three perspectives: the way the movie industry defines what women were like in the past, the way it defined them at the time, and the way they actually were. To look at this more closely, I decided to focus on movies from the 50s and 60s because it was an era when women stood at the precipice of freedom thanks to 'the pill.'
To examine the perspectives, I turned to the movie Grease. I'm
not recounting the entire plot because it’s so well known (although for those
who have forgotten, you can use this link to refresh your memories: https://grease.fandom.com/wiki/Grease).
Instead, I focus on a couple of scenes that seem particularly relevant. If you
recall, the main characters in the movie are Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John),
a starry-eyed Australian girl, and Danny Zuko (John Travolta), a smitten
American boy, who meet when Sandy’s family comes to California on vacation.
After enjoying a brief romance, they say goodbye, not expecting to see one
another again. Then, at the last minute, the Olssons decide to stay in the
United States, and in the fall, Sandy enrolls at Rydell High, which just
happens to be where Danny goes to school.
Although Sandy is new in town, she’s not friendless because
big-hearted Frenchy (Didi Conn), a high school dropout who’s attending beauty
school, more or less adopts her. Frenchy, in turn, introduces Sandy to her
friends, the Pink Ladies, which consist of Jan (Jamie Donnelly), Marty (Dinah
Manoff), and their leader, Rizzo (Stockard Channing). Unlike the pristine
Sandy, the Ladies are a little rough around the edges, especially sharp-tongued
Rizzo, who is over the top sexy. When she hears Sandy’s story about her summer
romance, she immediately guesses who the boy was and brings the star-crossed
lovers back together as a joke. At first, Sandy is delighted to see Danny
again, but that's before she realizes that in his element, her soulmate is an
egotistical greaser who heads up a gang of hoodlums known as the T-Birds: Sonny
(Michael Tucci), Putzi (Kelly Ward), Doody (Barry Pearl), and Danny’s best bud
Kenickie (Jeff Conaway).
One of the scenes that is particularly pertinent occurs at a
sleepover that takes place at Frenchy’s house. After trying wine and a
cigarette, Sandy lets Frenchy pierce her ears. Unfortunately, the unfamiliar
combination makes her ill, and she leaves the room to throw up. While she’s
gone, Rizzo makes fun of her by singing a song that compares her to actresses
that portray “good girls,” especially Sandra Dee. However, the lyrics, which
describe Ms. Dee as a virgin who wouldn’t think of having sex before marriage,
overlook her role as Molly in the film A Summer Place, where she’s not
all that innocent. Another applicable scene occurs when Rizzo suspects that she
might be pregnant and isn’t even sure who the father is. You would think that a
girl in the nineteen-fifties would have viewed this predicament as a disaster.
However, rather than seeing her life as ruined, Rizzo stands strong, declaring
that being promiscuous doesn’t make her anywhere near as bad as girls who
judge, gossip, tease, lie, and steal.
An element in the movie that really intrigues me is the way
appearance reflects sexuality. Throughout much of the film, Sandy wears her
hair in soft, simple hairstyles, pulling it back with headbands or up into a
ponytail, and dresses like a child, donning pastel skirts over frilly
crinolines. The wardrobe symbolizes an era when men were the breadwinners who
set and enforced all the rules in a household. Since they regarded their female
counterparts as inferior, husbands treated them like children. (I still don’t
know how people missed the obvious, that a man who sleeps with someone he
regards as a child is symbolically a pedophile, but anyway...) In fact, a
running joke at the time was that a man wanted a wife who was an angel in the
parlor and a whore in the bedroom (eww).
While that archaic attitude might describe Sandy, it doesn’t come
anywhere near depicting The Pink Ladies, who flaunt their womanhood by wearing
tight skirts with snug sweaters under pink bomber jackets, outline their eyes
with black pencil, and tease their dyed hair. The plot doesn’t turn until Sandy
finally realizes she’s going to lose Danny if she continues acting like a
little girl because he’s not interested in dating someone underage (good for
him). Thus, with Frenchie’s help, she trades her soft tresses, saddle oxfords,
and frilly pastels for teased locks, stiletto heels, and skintight black
leather pants (that the actress had to be sewn into). Given that Grease
was written in 1971, Sandy’s transformation is obviously a metaphor for the
women’s movement. What I wanted to know was: did this film differ from films
made a decade earlier, and if so, how?
Based on the discovery that a lab could produce synthetic
progesterone, which prevents ovulation, by 1950, scientists succeeded in making
a reliable form of birth control. The only thing that stopped them from
marketing it was the Comstock Act of 1873, which defined all forms of
contraceptives as obscene, therefore forbidding the dissemination of any
information regarding a woman’s fecundity. Nevertheless, by 1960,
pharmaceutical companies had made the pill available for doctors to prescribe
to married women who complained of having problems with their menstrual cycles.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-timeline/
Five years later, the Supreme Court
made a momentous decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, (which has been in the
news lately thanks to Supreme Court Justice Thomas). The case stemmed
from Connecticut's arrest of Estelle Griswold, the director of Planned
Parenthood, for opening four clinics. Unwilling to let the state have the last
word, Ms. Griswold sued, and her case eventually made its way to the Supreme
Court. With a decision of 7 to 2, the justices ruled that the Connecticut law
violated a married couple’s right to privacy, meaning that they could employ
the pill for family planning if they chose to do so. The decision did not
include single women, however, and it took another seven years for the Supreme
Court to rule that denying single women the same freedoms as their married
counterparts violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees all citizens
of a state equal rights (Eisenstadt v. Baird). Thus, if married women could
take the pill as a form of birth control, single women could too.
But this post isn’t about Serial Mom, Grease, or the
birth control pill. The topic of this two-part series is an examination of four
movies that predate 1972 as a way to understand how the movie industry dealt
with the issue of premarital sex before the federal government stepped in to
protect the personal decisions of unmarried women.
A Summer Place – 1959
In the early 1950s, America fell under the spell of a 12-year-old
model from New Jersey. Her birth name was Alexandra Zuck, but most people knew
her as Sandra Dee. Already pulling in $75,000 a year by the time she was fourteen,
Sandra convinced her mother to move to California, so she could pursue an acting
career. Once there, she attended Hollywood Professional High School, and after
graduation, she began to perform in movies, and won a Golden Globe for New Star
of 1967 for her first film, Until They Sail. A couple of films followed
in 1958, and then in 1959 she carried starring roles as Susie in Imitation
of Life, Francie Lawrence in Gidget (which garnered her a nomination
for a Golden Laurel award), and Molly Jorgenson in A Summer Place,
acting opposite newcomer Troy Donahue. With a look that was wholesome and
fresh, Sandra played a wide-eyed teenager, and in many ways, this was true of
Molly as well. Although the character initially seems like a nice kid who obeys
her overbearing mother and worships her tender-hearted father, the girl’s
personality is multi-layered meaning that she’s not simply as “good.” In fact,
from the very beginning, Molly displays a dark side.
With a run time of over two hours, the movie’s plot is complex,
and reminiscent of The Great Gatsby. Like Gatsby, as a boy, the leading
male character, Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan), was poor and worked as a
lifeguard for the well-to-do Hunter family on their private island. While doing
so, he fell in love with Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire), the beautiful daughter of
the Hunter’s wealthy friends. Although Sylvia was also deeply in love with Ken,
she decided to marry Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy) because he was her social
equal. Devastated, Ken grabbed his few possessions and ran away. When the movie
opens, it is twenty years later, and Ken, who is now a millionaire, is bringing
his wife Helen (Constance Ford) and daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) back to the
island to spend the summer. Even though he adores his daughter, he despises his
wife, who is a hateful woman, and hopes to reconnect with Sylvia. Since Bart
has turned out to be a drunk who squandered his fortune and now has to rent out
rooms in the mansion each summer just to make ends meet, Sylvia's only joy in
life is her son Johnny (Troy Donahue). However, Ken’s impending arrival has
renewed her hopes for something better, and she is as anxious to see him as he
is to see her. A shrewd man, Bart knows exactly what Ken and Sylvia are up to,
but he has agreed to rent the bedroom suite to the Jorgenson family because the
money will provide funds to send his son to college.
Much like Sylvia, Helen has lost all interest in her husband, and
actually hates him even more than he hates her. They haven’t slept together in
years, and she only agreed to this trip as a way to catch him cheating, so she
can demand a generous settlement when they divorce. She also has designs on the
island, which she plans to acquire by fostering a romance between her daughter
and Sylvia’s son. To make sure that the girl doesn’t do anything to spoil this
diabolical scheme, Helen watches her constantly, which is how she witnesses
Molly give Johnny a kiss when he shows the girl around the estate. Fearful that
her daughter could ruin everything, Helen waits for her like a viper, striking
the first chance she gets. “No decent girl lets a boy kiss and maul her the
first night,” she hisses.
Although Molly usually submits to her mother’s demands, she only
loves her father, who is kind and compassionate. Unafraid to be honest with
him, she confesses to some “bad” things she’s done, like undressing with the
curtains open to let the boy across the street watch or having “naughty” dreams
about sex. Ken thinks his daughter considering sex dirty is unhealthy and is
understandably troubled when she hysterically claims that she and Johnny had
been “good” when they became stranded on a nearby island overnight.
Concomitant with the ever-escalating tension between Molly and her
mother is the undeniable passion that is growing between Sylvia and Ken. It
isn’t long before they stop pretending that they are faithful to their spouses
and begin a torrid affair, meeting in the boat house every night to have sex.
Figuring that Bart’s handyman Todd (Martin Eric) knows everything that happens
on the island, Helen bribes him to spy for her, and it isn’t long before he
provides enough evidence to give her the ammunition she needs to file for
divorce. Although Molly appreciates that her father must hate having a wife
that “makes sex seem dirty” and causes his daughter to feel “ashamed of having
a body,” she doesn’t want him to leave. Hence, when her mother reveals that
Molly’s father is cheating with Johnny’s mother, the girl runs off, upset.
Knowing that Helen is somehow behind Molly’s disappearance, Johnny goes to her
room and threatens her, which Helen immediately reports to the police. When all
is said and done, Helen and Ken send Molly to an all-girls' school, Sylvia and
Bart enroll Johnny in college, both couples file for divorce, and the kids
secretly stay in touch.
As soon as they are free, Ken and Sylvia announce that they are
getting married. Since Molly and Johnny can't forgive them, neither one attends
the wedding. They attempt to get together over Christmas, and when that fails,
they hatch a plot they feel certain will work. Each accepts an invitation to
visit their newlywed parents, but they come separately, pretending to be little
more than acquaintances. Within hours of arriving, though, they reestablish the
fatally flawed pattern of Molly insisting that they "be good” then begging
Johnny to sneak off somewhere they can be alone. This inevitably leads to them
spending hours in hiding, and a few weeks after school resumes, Molly walks out
of a doctor’s office, calls Johnny, and tells him she is pregnant. She is so
distraught and "ashamed," that Johnny suggests they get married.
Unable to ask her mother for assistance, Molly says that they
should go to Johnny’s father, the only parent who never opposed their
relationship, but this is a terrible mistake. With no one to monitor him, the
man has been drinking non-stop and is just waiting for the coast guard to take
him to the VA hospital to die. As Bart is leaving, he caustically accuses Molly
of being a tramp and says that both of them have to pay for their sins. After
he’s gone, Johnny and Molly drive to a justice of the peace, who turns them away
because they are underage and don’t have parental consent. Thus, despite how
angry Ken and Sylvia were last time they visited, Johnny and Molly realize that
they are the only option left. If you want to know the ending, you’ll have to
watch the film.
Where the Boys Are – 1960
Although this film was not in the same class as A Summer
Place, it is still significant because, unlike most so-called teen
movies of the era, it openly addressed the women’s movement and human
sexuality. In fact, it is particularly noteworthy that the studio released the
movie the year that doctors were able to prescribe “the pill” for the first
time. Although it is curious that the plot did not even mention unplanned (or
unwanted) pregnancy, it did an excellent job of pointing out the conundrum that
young women faced in 1960 regarding their futures. As college students, the
characters represent the first generation of American females that could attain
an education, giving them the option to have both careers and families. Since
there are four female characters and their male counterparts, I will provide a
brief overview of the actors who portrayed each of them. I also include links
to informative sites if you just have to know more.
The key female actresses in this film are Delores Hart (real name
Delores Hicks), Paula Prentice (real name Paula Ragusa), Yvette Mimieux, and
Connie Francis (real name Concetta Rosema Franconero). Starring as pretty Frosh
Queen Merritt Andrews in this film, as well as appearing in several other
movies, including two with Elvis Presley, Delores was a hot item in the fifties
and sixties. Then suddenly, in 1964, she quit acting to become a Benedictine
nun (check out God is the Bigger Elvis on HBO if you don’t believe me).
The part of Tuggle, a girl who is more interested in having a family than in
earning a degree, was Paula Prentiss’ first role on the big screen. She did so
well that the Laurel Awards nominated her as Top Female Personality after which
she went on to appear in numerous films. She was on her way to a great acting
career, but in 1965, while shooting What’s New Pussycat, she had a
nervous breakdown. After that, she decided to focus on her marriage to Richard
Benjamin, and only work sporadically, often on television. Her most recent
appearance was as Iris Blum in the 2016 horror flick, I Am the Pretty Thing
That Lives in the House.
Stunningly beautiful Yvette Mimieux only made a few movies before
she realized that the industry would always cast her for her looks. Thinking
she might attain more complex roles on television, she tried that, and when it
didn’t work out either she quit acting altogether. Like Paula Prentiss, Connie
Francis’ appearance in Where the Boys Are was her first cinematic
venture. Following it, she appeared in a couple more movies, then stopped
acting altogether in 1965 to concentrate exclusively on her singing career.
Sadly, in 1974, while on tour, a man broke into her hotel room raped her after
which she stopped performing in public altogether.
For reasons that become clear as the
story unfolds, the three important male characters in this film, portray the
love interests of Merritt, Tuggle, and Angie. Delores’ leading man, George
Hamilton, was already fairly well known for acting in B movies when he made
this film. For folks over the age of sixty, however, he is probably best
remembered for dating President Lyndon Johnson’s daughter, Lynda Bird. Paula
Prentiss’ costar Jim Hutton (the father of Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton)
started his career in television, then moved to the big screen, where he often
starred in comedies alongside Ms. Prentiss. He occasionally filled dramatic
roles like Sergeant Peterson in the movie The Green Berets, and his last
job was playing quirky Ellery Queen on television. Unfortunately, he died from
liver cancer at the age of forty-five. The most successful of these three men
was Angie’s heartthrob, played by Frank Gorshin, a much-respected impressionist
and comedian. Best known for his work as The Riddler on the 1960s television
series Batman, he was also a familiar guest on the Ed Sullivan show and
performed at high-end nightclubs. Although their characters only appeared in a
few scenes with Yvette Mimieux, Rory Harrity and John Brennan filled roles that
were pivotal to the story. Neither actor became celebrated for his acting, but
John had a successful career as a film editor, and Rory, a Harvard graduate,
was a free-lance writer who published articles in Esquire, Penthouse,
and Playboy magazines.
The movie opens on the sunny beaches
of Florida to the strains of Connie Francis singing the romantic theme song.
Her voice is lovely, the melody slow and wistful, and the last line, “Where the
boys are, someone waits for me,” encapsulates the hopes of the young women
heading south for spring break. Then the location shifts to a generic college
campus in the frigid Mid-West, where a blizzard has blanketed everything in
snow. In a small dorm room, three co-eds named Melanie (Yvette Mimieux), Tuggle
(Paula Prentiss), and Angie (Connie Francis) are trying to convince their
roomie Merritt (Delores Hart) to accompany them to Fort Lauderdale. Merritt,
who is suffering from a terrible head cold and is barely passing her classes,
begs off, saying that she needs to study and finish two term papers. Then,
realizing they are late for their class in “Courtship and Marriage,” the girls
rush from the dorm and slog across campus.
When they enter the classroom, the
professor, an older woman with a dowdy hairstyle and wearing a frumpy suit, is
lecturing the students that they need to be careful since adult men have
different expectations about sex than their high school boyfriends did. Merritt
scoffs that the advice is ridiculous because no guy will date a girl who
doesn’t put out. Incensed by her cavalier attitude, the professor challenges
Merritt, asking if she believes it is okay to “play house before marriage.”
When the pretty co-ed unequivocally responds yes, the professor sends her to
the dean’s office. Having already encountered Merritt many times during the
school year, the dean warns her that due to her poor grades and bad attitude, the
school might expel her. Her final words to the student are that she should
think seriously about her future over the upcoming break. Though terrified that
the school will expel her, Merritt is disgusted with the faculty’s
old-fashioned values, and by the time she gets back to the dorm, she has
decided to go on the trip.
As the four women drive south in
Merritt’s rusted jalopy, they bask in the sunshine and share dreams of meeting
someone special while on holiday. Melanie, a country girl who grew up in a poor
family, naively says that lots of the boys at the beach will be from schools
like Harvard or Yale, implying that this could be a good way to meet a rich guy
with a bright future. Suddenly, they spy an odd young man (Jim Hutton), dressed
in unconventional clothes, hitchhiking. They pick him up, and he introduces
himself as TV, explaining that he got the nickname as a kid because he watched
a lot of television, and says he attends Michigan State University. Although
he’s friendly with everyone, he takes a real shine to Tuggle. Feeling he’ll
reject her when he sees how tall she is, Tuggle, who is 5'10", stands up.
To her delight, however, TV isn’t deterred in the least because he is even
taller (Jim Hutton was 6’5”).
Down in Fort Lauderdale, the chief of
police (Chill Wills) is trying to prepare his troops for the upcoming invasion.
He warns them that twenty thousand kids, eighty percent of whom will be male,
will descend on their ordinarily peaceful town. Although this will cause
traffic jams and a plethora of underage kids drinking and getting into trouble,
he reminds the officers that these are (paying) guests that they are to treat with
respect. What he does not say is that the males come there anticipating
unbridled debauchery, while females like Merritt, Tuggle, Melanie, and Angie
will be looking for someone to go out with. This is not only because they want
to find love, but also because they are short on money and will need someone to
feed them. Over the upcoming week, the differences in these expectations
will play out in a variety of ways between the women and the men that they
meet, and in some cases, the results will be disastrous.
Once they have settled in, the women
dress for the beach, but as they walk out, Melanie attracts a group of handsome
students who claim to be from Yale. Obviously attracted to the pretty blonde,
they convince her to stick around and hang out with them. The others go on, and
as they spread their towels and sit down, TV arrives and plops down beside
Tuggle. She attempts to discuss things that will help them become acquainted,
but he keeps trying to introduce sex into the conversation. Thus, Tuggle finds
herself in the uncomfortable position of having to successfully sidestep a
topic that she considers inappropriate without chasing a suitor away. Still
single, Merritt and Angie have to rely on their own meager funds to get by, so
they go to a restaurant and order hot water for tea bags that Angie carries in
her purse. They open some crackers, and while they’re eating, boys approach
them, and ask offensively whether they are “good girls.” Fortunately, when they
both reply that they are, the admirers quickly move on. Back at the hotel,
Melanie has already had sex with one of the guys from Yale named Dill (John
Brennan). Hoping that he will respect her wishes, she asks him to keep what
they did secret. He promises not to tell anyone, and she feels that he must
really like her, but when she goes to his room later, his buddies tell her he’s
not there (he is). Disappointed, she starts to leave, but another boy named
Franklin asks her out, and flattered, she accepts.
Even though they’ve only been there
for a day, the women are already developing the misconception that what have
only been chance encounters are the beginnings of serious relationships. Like
Melanie, Tuggle overthinks what is happening with TV, and she confides to Merritt
that she has to make him fall in love with her “the chaste way” (without sex)
because she wants him to respect her enough to marry her. Her parents raised her
to have kids, not earn a degree. Merritt, who has dated more than her friends,
is in no hurry to meet anyone, so when a handsome man named Ryder (George
Hamilton) approaches her, she is wary at first. However, the man’s demeanor
suggests that, unlike the destitute TV, he’s not looking for a handout, an
impression that he confirms when they go to his grandfather’s mansion and
invites her aboard the family yacht. Like Tuggle, Merritt feels obliged to play
the tricky game of keeping her date interested while avoiding sexual contact.
Noting her standoffishness, Ryder asks what she thinks of men, to which she
expertly summarizes that they are either sweepers, men who come on strong and
sweep girls off their feet, or strokers, guys who move in subtly by gently
caressing a girl’s hair or cheek. It really doesn’t matter because either type
is only looking for sex. This Merritt is starkly different from the rebel who
championed casual sex at school. In fact, she is actually very skeptical about
men because of the way they treat women. "No girl enjoys being considered
promiscuous, even those who might be," she tells Ryder.
By their second day in Florida, the
roommates already have strategies for dating. Tuggle, who believes that TV is
the best she can do, deals with his constant pressure for sex with passive
resistance. Intent on finishing her education, Merritt struggles to fight the
feelings that she’s developing for Ryder, while avoiding his sexual overtures.
Melanie, who is desperate for a more comfortable life than her parents, trades
her body to Dill, then to Franklin, for a chance at upward mobility. The last
holdout is Angie, but only because no one has shown interest. Then they meet
some jazz musicians, and she is immediately attracted to the eccentric band
leader, Basil. She probably would ‘put out’ just to get his attention, but
since he’s only interested in music, she wins his heart with her singing
instead.
The guys' constant pressure for sex
and the women's' firm resistance to their advances continue all week. Finally,
on their last night, the plans that they have for the evening really amplify
the differences between how Melanie and her friends have spent their time.
While Merritt, Tuggle, and Angie accompany Ryder, TV, and Basil to a nightclub,
Melanie slips away to the seedy motel where her assignations with the Yalies
take place. Because they are leaving in the morning, Merritt and Tuggle
anticipate that their guys will finally commit to a relationship. However,
hyperaware that this is their last chance, Ryder and TV are also looking
forward, not to making Merritt and Tuggle their girlfriends, but to getting
laid. Angie just hopes that something good will happen with Basil, but she
isn't counting on anything specific. Lastly, Melanie is waiting impatiently for
Franklin to arrive and pop the question. Overall, it seems as if everyone lost
all sense of reality the minute they arrived in Florida because nothing is
going to go the way they want it to, and it’s crazy for them to think that it
will.
With time running out, rather than
making a commitment, Ryder once again asks Merritt for sex, and when she turns
him down, he politely disengages. Tuggle also rebuffs TV, and tired of her
refusals, he turns his sights on the large-busted Lola Fandango (Barbara
Nichols), who is swimming in a tank on stage, scantily clad as a mermaid. Only
interested in himself, Basil, who doesn’t care how Angie feels about anything,
simply ignores her. And back at the sleazy motel, when there is a knock at the
door, Melanie excitedly opens it to find Dill standing there. As she softly utters
no, he barges in and rapes her. Back at the bar, TV, now heavily inebriated,
plunges into the tank to assault Lola’s breasts. Terrified that he’ll drown,
the group scrambles onto the stage to save him and falls on top of him. Fed up
with their shenanigans, the maître rounds up the entire bunch and kicks them
out, after which they go separate ways.
Once Dill has left, a disoriented
Melanie calls their room for help, but before anyone can get to her, she
wanders into traffic, and a car hits her. She is taken to the hospital, where
everyone gathers, and Merritt, devastated about what happened to her friend and
angry over the way the men behaved, bitterly accuses them of thinking that “a
girl is just put here for your personal kicks.” Shaken and ashamed, Ryder and
TV remain mute because they know that her accusation is true. And this is where
I stop. If you want to know whether Melanie survives, and what happens between
Merritt, Tuggle, Angie, and their guys, you’ll have to watch the movie.
https://www.outofthepastblog.com/2017/08/where-boys-are.html
Delores Hart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Hart
Paula Prentiss https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0696038/
Yvette Mimieux https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0590796/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Connie Francis: https://www.biography.com/musicians/connie-francis
George Hamilton https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/hollywood-flashback-george-hamilton-once-867601/
Jim
Hutton: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001380/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Frank
Gorshin https://www.last.fm/music/Frank+Gorshin/+wiki
John
Brennan https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0107319/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm; Rory
Harrity https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0365962/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Summary
As is true for all of us, the characters in these movies reflect
social norms, and, more specifically, the role models they grew up with.
Although she adores her father because he is loving and open-minded, Molly’s frigid
mother also influenced her. A selfish woman who believes that the female
anatomy is a weapon, Helen has taught her daughter that sex for its own sake is
“dirty,” that desire is “naughty,” and that even kissing a boy is “bad.” This
has resulted in Molly becoming a “tease” who undresses in front of her bedroom
window, to titillate the boy across the street. It also causes her to drive
Johnny crazy by taking him to spots where they can be alone, pressing herself
up against him, then telling him not to touch her because it is “bad.” More
like his mother than his father, Johnny is a gentle person who respects Molly's
wishes, pulling away then returning to try just once more, again and again and
again. When she finally does give into her desires and becomes pregnant, Molly
is most concerned, not with what they will do with a baby, but that people (her
mother) will know that she and Johnny were naughty.
This same perception of sex as something bad and shameful runs
rampant through Where the Boys Are. Rather than expressing concerns
about pregnancy, the women worry that losing their virginity might ruin their
reputations and make it hard for them to find husbands. Tuggle feels she has to
refuse sex with TV so that he'll marry her. Merritt refuses to have sex with
Ryder because she wants him to respect her. Lastly, even though the men she had
sex with were virtual strangers, Melanie convinces herself that having sex with
Dill meant he was falling in love with her, and having sex with Franklin meant
he was going to marry her.
When you look back at Rizzo’s stance on premarital sex in Grease,
you see that not only do her attitudes differ from those of Sandy, but they
also differ from those of Molly in A Summer Place and from those of the
four female characters in Where the Boys Are. Those women adhere to an
archaic edict that a girl must wait until after she's married to have sex.
Thus, it’s not pregnancy in and of itself, but pregnancy as evidence of what
they’ve been getting up to with boys, which causes concern. Rizzo, on the other
hand, has already joined a sexual revolution that won't exist for a couple more
years. Unconcerned with what others think, she unapologetically has sex any
time she wants to with anyone she pleases and brags about it. The only
complaint she has is that her ‘free love’ lifestyle might have resulted in a pregnancy,
but she seems capable of figuring things out if that’s the case. Deep down,
Rizzo believes that the greatest sin a woman can commit is not to have sex with
a man, but to tease him to get her way and then fail to “see it through.”
One final thing to consider is that men wrote these three movie
scripts. It's hard to say whether the focus on virginity rather than pregnancy
would have been different if women had written them.
Conclusion
Overall, audience reviews of A Summer Place are 70% on both
IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, although critics liked it better (83%). Right now,
you can stream the movie on Amazon, Apple TV, and VUDU for around $3. If you’d
like to buy it, Amazon has the DVD for twelve and a half bucks or the VHS for
around fifteen dollars. eBay's sellers are charging around $10 for a used
version.
Even though it has a less
star-studded cast than A Summer Place, Where the Boys Are has
similar ratings. The overall score on IMDB is 65%, and the audience score on
Rotten Tomatoes is 70%. Interestingly, the Rotten Tomatoes’ critics actually
gave the movie a respectable score of 88%. Over time, this film became
something of a cult classic and actually made Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale a
big event. Apparently, students never went there before the movie came out.
Right now, you can stream it on services like Amazon, Apple TV, and Spectrum if
you have a subscription. Plex and Pluto claim to be showing it for free, but
that’s the ’84 version, which, pardon the expression, totally sucks. You can
buy the DVD new on Amazon or eBay for around $13 or pay a little less for one
that's used. Just be certain to get the one made in 1960.
I worked on this all summer, so I'm taking August off, but I
should be back with Part 2 of this series in late October. See you later,
alligator.
Comments
Post a Comment