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Female  /  The Strange Love of Molly Louvain

The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
January 6, 2018 - 7:30 pm
In-person: 
Alan K. Rode will sign copies of Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film beginning at 6:30 p.m.


Female  (1933)

Ruth Chatterton stars as the high-powered and sexually liberated CEO of an automobile company who is romantically waylaid by straight-arrow George Brent. One of the more explicit of the pre-Code films was assigned to three different directors (William Dieterle, William Wellman and Curtiz) and would be denied a reissue certificate by the MPAA due to its lurid content. This seldom-seen gem co-stars Lois Wilson, Johnny Mack Brown and Ruth Donnelly. 

35mm, b/w, 60 min.  Production/Distribution: First National Pictures, Inc.  Producer: Robert Presnell Sr.  Director: Michael Curtiz.  Screenwriter: Gene Markey, Kathryn Scola.  Cinematographer: Sid Hickox.  Editor: Jack Killifer.  Cast: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Lois Wilson, Johnny Mack Brown, Ruth Donnelly.

The Strange Love of Molly Louvain  (1932)

Pre-Code siren Ann Dvorak owns the title role in this quintessential period parable about a woman being forced into bad choices. A pregnant Molly is jilted by her upper-class boyfriend and hits the road with a low-life grifter (Leslie Fenton). It all goes downhill from there.  Based on the play Tinsel Girl by Maurine Watkins (Libeled Lady, Chicago), Curtiz instills a rapid-fire tempo that is complemented by saucy dialogue between Dvorak and avian-voiced newspaper reporter Lee Tracy.  The film co-stars Richard Cromwell, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh and Charles Middleton.

35mm, b/w, 73 min.  Production/Distribution: First National Pictures, Inc. Director: Michael Curtiz. Cinematographer: Robert Kurrle. Editor: James Morley. Production Designer: Robert Haas. Cast: Ann Dvorak, Lee Tracy, Richard Cromwell, Leslie Fenton, Guy Kibbee.

Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.