Female (1933)

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Ruth Chatterton (Frisco Jenny) stars as a powerful automobile executive who plucks young men out of her workforce to have sex with and vows never to marry. But when a rival businessman (George Brent) refuses her advances, she begins to wonder whether the busy, working life is really meant for her. Chatterton does a fine job with Female, a film remembered for its notorious depiction of a shrewd business woman with, shall we say, a very healthy sexual appetite. It’s an unusually progressive film in that regard, but the novelty wares off when Chatterton’s character eventually conjures her feminine side to catch the man who got a way.

Despite its trite resolution, the first two acts are enjoyable. Handsome Phillip Reed makes a supporting splash as one of the young lovers, and the sets of Chatterton’s palatial home are very impressive — including an enormous pool and a pipe organ installed halfway up an interior wall. How the organist gets up and down is left to our imagination. Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) won sole directing credit, but William Dieterle (The Devil and Daniel Webster) and William Wellman (Wings) also worked on the film.