Just Watched: Forever Female

...OK - I know a lot of y'all have not seen this one yet, so I will keep this one as 'basic' as possible...

Generally, it is a pretty neat tale, set 'on Broadway'...it does have a kind of 'Barkley's of Broadway' feel, w/o the dancing and singing, so that may help the movie description as much as anything...rehearsal scenes, lots of 'shop talk' at the bar on Broadway with the pictures of all the actors...otherwise known as _____ (can't think of it...anyway, y'all know where I mean)... and your typical penthouse views... seems to capture the New York scene of the early 50's pretty well.

Ginger plays a 'seasoned' stage actress (Beatrice Page), who can do no wrong (natch), but somehow keeps landing in bad plays... a 'novice' playwright (William Holden) crosses paths with her and her manager/producer/ex-husband (played well by Paul Douglas), and gets them to try out his 'life's work' script, which shows promise... meanwhile, a 'starving' actress ( 'introducing' Pat Crowley...who was good, but really never heard of her...sure she was in more stuff...) basically throws herself into the fray, trying to land a role in the play, which she just had happened to read while working at a 'typing agency' (not too many of THOSE around anymore)... aaannddd, that's probably about as far as I will go - it has a few turns here and there, but no 'major woahs' (technical term for plot twists).

As usual, plenty of cool outfits for Ginger - maybe none in the all-time 'Top Ten', but very nice. From memory (I watched it late last night), most were 'basic black and/or white' numbers, not much in the way of patterns, feathers, etc... The amount of 'Ginger Time' in this one is fair, but there are a couple of other 'storylines' working, too...but overall cannot complain.

Ginger's role is quite 'refined' (but in a very nice way), as many of her 'later' roles were... in a way, it almost seems how she would be in real life... And, I realized she was in her early 40's in this one, where I happen to be right now... and as I have said before, IMO she is quite fetching at this 'stage' in her career. So, this one rates pretty high for me. There is one scene where she is 'away' from Broadway, a retreat, if you will, and is just in work clothes and hair all messed up and stuff, doing sculpture, or casting, or something (she did a lot of that in real life) - well, for some reason, I think she just looks very cool in that scene (well, other than a part in this scene where she cries, which I really don't EVER like to see from Ginger)... can't explain it, other than she has a 'real, just everyday person (but DEFINITELY still Ginger)' look to her, if you get the idea.

Anyway, this one falls in the 'top half' of things, I would say (gotta love my scientific grading scale!) - worth the effort to find. P.S. - check out the friend of the 'young actress' (her name keeps getting changed throughout the movie) - the friend is Marion Ross, better known as Mrs. Cunningham on the 70s' sitcom 'Happy Days'...well, I bet a few of you have seen it...otherwise, ask your parents... oof, I'm getting old...
JW