Alison Drake, the tough-minded executive of an automobile factory, succeeds in the man's world of business until she meets an independent design engineer.
Acting
Ruth Chatterton's steel spine and smoky confidence. Absolutely owns every frame.
Direction
Curtiz crams a feature's worth of scandal into one tight hour.
Writing
Dialogue so suggestive you'll need to fan yourself. 1933 was WILD.
Director
Michael Curtiz
Ruth Chatterton
Alison Drake
George Brent
Jim Thorne
Lois Wilson
Harriet Brown
Johnny Mack Brown
George P. Cooper
Ruth Donnelly
Miss Frothingham
Ferdinand Gottschalk
Pettigrew
Phillip Reed
Freddie Claybourne
Gavin Gordon
Briggs
Kenneth Thomson
Red
Douglass Dumbrille
George Mumford
Spencer Charters
Tom
Rafaela Ottiano
Della, Alison's Maid (Uncredited)
Robert Greig
James, Alison's Main Butler (Uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made just before the Hays Code crackdown, 'Female' is a time capsule of Depression-era anxieties about women in power. Audiences loved Alison's independence even as the ending 'corrects' her.
Ruth Chatterton was Hollywood's highest-paid actress when she made this. She and George Brent were married in real life — their chemistry wasn't acting.
US
