The Strange Woman is a strange movie. The plot involves an “evil” woman who takes what she wants by any means necessary. She uses her feminine wiles to manipulate men to get ahead in life. Through a feminist lens, she could be considered a modern, empowered woman fighting against the patriarchy by acting like a man. Her manipulations are nothing more than what men do every day to get what they want, so why shouldn’t she? But the film, in part due to the constraints of the Production Code, smashes that lens to pieces.
Buy The Strange Woman Blu-rayFrom the very beginning, the film codes Jenny Hager (Hedy Lamarr) as evil. We see her as a young child taunting a boy because he doesn’t know how to swim. She pushes him into a creek and uses her foot to push him under. She’d probably have killed the boy were it not for an adult who just happened to be passing by. Immediately, Jenny changes her own history by pretending the other children pushed the boy into the creek and she is the one who has saved him.
The film is slightly sympathetic to Jenny, or at least it finds some excuse for her behavior by giving her an abusive alcoholic father. The film will have a lot to say about the evils of alcohol, but it is her father that becomes a symbol.
As a young adult, Jenny rushes to the docks of her small (but growing) town of Bangor, Maine. The ships have come in, and she wants to find a strong, handsome man whose company she can enjoy. When her father learns of this, he whips her. The Production Code turns this scene into a farce. Due to not being able to show real violence on screen, they have him grab her with one arm and then make a whipping motion with the other, but the whip is flailing more towards the wall than her. Despite her clothes remaining in perfect condition, she’ll be shown to have (non bleeding) cuts on her shoulders.
She’ll run from her father and into the arms of Isaiah Poster (Gene Lockhart), a local merchant who has been kind to her before. He is also rich, powerful, and single. His maid tends to Jenny’s wounds, and as she pulls her blouse down (but not too far down; we can’t offend those censors), Isaiah’s eyes grow wide with lust. He’ll call a meeting of the town leaders in order to discuss what to do with Jenny and then fix it so that the only true option is for her to marry him.
She’s agreeable and almost immediately writes to Isaiah’s son, Ephraim (Louis Hayward), who is off at college. They were sweethearts when they were young (well, sort of; he’s the kid she tried to drown), and she’s already got bright ideas for her future. She’ll seduce the son and try to convince him to kill Isaiah so she can control his fortune.
Later, she’ll meet John Evered (George Sanders), a strong, handsome man who works in Isaiah’s lumberyards. She’ll seduce him too, as a means to consolidate her authority over the lumberjacks. (Who don’t like taking orders from a woman?)
And so it goes. Jenny is a manipulative woman; that can’t be denied. She has no problem using the various men in her life to improve her conditions. But whether that makes her an evil woman or an empowered one fighting against the patriarchy is a question left up to debate. Certainly, the Production Code leans things towards evilness. This is especially true with an ending that must both end happily for the “good” characters, while having the “bad” ones meet retribution for the evil deeds.
Whichever way you lean on that issue, I think we can all agree Hedy Lamarr gives an incredible performance. She’s strong-willed and fierce, but she can put on a kind and generous face. It is fascinating to watch her change her demeanor depending on who she is talking to and what she needs from them.
Unfortunately, the film itself is not that interesting. I’m not sure if it would be any better if it ran with those feminist ideas and made her a true modern woman. Truth be told, she’s never all that nasty. I mean, yeah, sure, she manipulates these guys, and she did try to get one of them to murder his father, but there was no bite to it. She really does just seem like a woman who lived through an abusive childhood and has learned how to game the system. But there is no joy in watching it. At least not for me anyhow. Except for that performance. It is worth watching just for Hedy Lamarr.
Film Masters presents The Strange Woman with a nice looking transfer newly restored from archival film elements. Extras include the following:
- Audio commentary
- Illustrated booklet
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
- Limited O-card
