A Woman Rebels

I had looked for this movie for years! I had seen it in the 1980s and thought it had a good story line. As the title would suggest, it is a woman who rebels, but for all the right reasons. The father of her child married for money instead of love. Her sister, a young war widow raises the child as her own. It's the era where women do not get even a secretarial position because "women can't be secretaries, everyone knows that!" She persists and becomes a successful writer and magazine publisher. It's a schmaltzy, feel-good ending.

I saw this movie one day on TCM and just loved it. I love the older black and white movies. I personally think they are so much better than the color ones.

A bit melodramatic - but an excellent example of Hepburn playing someone very like her own mother - a suffragist and free-thinker. It's a shame it got panned, because there's a lot of good stuff in this movie.

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In Victorian England women did not work nor did they have children out of wedlock without paying a price. In the 1930's in the US -- things hadn't changed much -- having a child out of wedlock was still uncommon and shameful and women in the workforce was also not a common occurrence. The fact that both issues are tackled in this movie was quite unusual. Hepburn is perfect as the independent woman who when she finds herself pregnant decides she will go on without a husband and will support herself. It's a good and thoughtful story. Herbert Marshall is perfect as the gentleman and gentle man who loves her through the years. The costumes by Walter Plunkett are superb and excellent examples of the time period. I like black and white films BUT it would be lovely to see the costumes in color that Katharine Hepburn wears throughout the film.

Amazon's reviews for this movie, as of this date, are all good, but searching Google I came across some reviews that claim this was a bad movie. I'm not a film scholar, just looking to enjoy a good movie after a day at work, and this was (is) a good movie. Katharine Hepburn plays a woman in England during the Victorian era (1800s) when times were different and women were really second class citizens (at least as portrayed in this movie). With that as the backdrop the story develops until a pretty unique situation arises in the last half hour. Anyhow, I enjoyed it and would watch it again (assuming I ever have the time).

First of all, this is NOT an illegal copy, hence the higher price. WB is selling it for about $20, and actually creates the video on demand. Price is still way too high for an unpopular 1936 film though. Having said that, I must say it is one of my all-time favorite movies, way ahead of its time. My only complaint, and it's a big one, is that this video is playable only on playback-only machines, which means that if you watch a lot of DVDs on your laptop, as I do, you will need to use something else. You won't know that until you get the film and read the fine print on the back of the box, and it's pretty annoying.

This is a wonderful movie. I just watched it on TCM and I am thinking I will buy it. For 1936, this movie addressed issues not usually dealt with in films then, A great film, unlike so many that are made today. I'll take a good black and white movie over all the special effects movies made today!