Stream Career Women
His Girl Friday 1940 Directed by Howard Hawks. Star reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) is about to retire to marry insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant), also her ex-husband, needs Hildy professionally and still loves her. He goads his ex into covering an execution (that turns into an escape), confident she’ll get drawn back into the business.
Dirty politics run hand in hand with hapless comedy. Needless to say, the couple reunite – on piqued terms. During auditions, Hawkes’ secretary read the role of Hildy giving him the idea to cast a woman. Free with Amazon Prime.
Woman of the Year 1942 Directed by George Stevens. (Eventually made into the Broadway musical Woman of The Year by John Kander and Fred Ebb). One of nine appealing films made by Tracy and Hepburn, four of them romantic comedies: Desk Set, Pat and Mike, Adam’s Rib are, if formulaic, also great fun.
International newswoman Tess Harding, aka Woman of the Year, is all work all the time. When she declares that baseball should be abolished during the war, sportswriter Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) angrily comes to its defense. Both work for the fictional New York Chronicle whose editor will not stand for public feuding. Called into his office, attraction is immediate and, to both, surprising. Tess is cultured, multilingual; Sam is a singularly knowledgeable, rough cut gem. After awkward courting, they marry. While he pursues their partnership, she continues as if nothing has changed, leaving her new husband in the dust, provoking him to at last leave.
It takes the wedding of Tess’s father and aunt (a long suspended love) to bring her around. Though reconciliation finds her attempting to master the kitchen, she decides to change her name to “Tess Harding Craig” and ostensibly continues to work. Rent on Amazon Prime.
All About Eve 1950 Based on the 1946 short story, The Wisdom of Eve which, in turn, was inspired by a story told to author Mary Orr by an actress who’d experienced just this kind of ambitious assistant betrayal. Written and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Bette Davis in all her claws-out, rip-roaring glory. Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Garry Merrill, Thelma Ritter.
Turning 40 at the top of her game, Margo Channing begins to wonder about her future on and off the stage. When abject fan, Eve Harrington (Baxter), sees every performance of her latest effort and is brought in out of the rain to meet the star. Her sad sack story is believed. Margo hires the doting girl as secretary and general dogsbody. She seems to do a great job.
In truth, Eve is undermining her employer while making a play for the successful playwright attached to many of Margo’s projects. She has everyone snookered but the star’s loyal maid (Ritter) and critic Addison DeWitt (Sanders). Step by Machiavellian step, Eve gets closer to realizing her ambition with lots of human fallout, then succeeds in spades. Before the film ends, however, we see glimpse’s of the next cyclical chapter where the proverbial worm turns. Not to be missed by anyone who has let it slip by up till now. Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Working Girl 1988 Directed by Mike Nichols. Ambitious Staten Islander Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) has business ideas which her snobby, stockbroker boss, Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) dismisses, but actually steals. After Tess finds her boyfriend, Mick (Alec Baldwin) in bed with a rival, she moves into her boss’s townhouse. (Katharine has gone on an extended ski trip.) Dressing in Katharine’s designer clothes, Tess transforms herself, hoping someone with influence will listen to a merger plan she’s been working on.
At an industry party, Tess meets Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford), not knowing he’s Katharine’s boyfriend. A combination of Valium and alcohol lead to Tess waking up in Jack’s bed without learning his name. Turns out, he’s the M&A guy she has a meeting with the next day. Through chutzpah and sincerity, Tess manages to sell what turns out to be a money-making scheme, rise in the industry, and get the guy. Dated, but has charm. Carly Simon’s theme song, “Let the River Run,” won an Academy Award. Free with Amazon Prime.
Erin Brockovich 2000. Dramatization of the true story of Erin Brockovich who fought against the energy corporation Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) regarding its culpability for the Hinkley groundwater contamination incident. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Unemployed single mother of three, Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts), has recently been injured in a traffic accident with a doctor and is suing him. Her lawyer Ed Masry (Albert Finney) loses the case. Erin shows up at his office insisting he give her a job. He reluctantly does just that.
Curious about medical records she finds in files for a real estate case, Erin takes up the trail ingratiating herself to Hinkley residents as no lawyer could, doggedly (and compassionately) following up, creating what becomes one of the biggest class action suits in the country. She acquires a boyfriend, a whopping check, and a career. Roberts won Best Actress Academy Award. An inspiring and entertaining film. With Marge Helgenberger, Peter Coyote, Cherry Jones, Aaron Eckhart. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Mona Lisa Smile 2003 Directed by Mike Newell. In 1953, 30 year-old graduate student Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts), takes a position teaching History of Art at prestigious Wellesley College. Her cocky students have already memorized the textbook, so Katherine decides to focus on modern art hoping to get them to ask questions about how they see, judge, and think, rather than concentrating on simply securing husbands. There is, of course, a class nemesis named Betty (Kirsten Dunst) and a lover-with-a-roving-eye, Bill Dunbar (Dominic West).
Like a short-term Mr. Chips, Katherine changes lives with her approach affecting not only Betty, but Joan Brandwyn (Julia Styles), Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and Constance “Connie” Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin). The traditional college, however, wants her to stick to the syllabus. Also with Marcia Gay Harden. Earnest. Rent on Amazon Prime.
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