The 'daring' subject matter - eight girls live life, i.e. abortions, marriage, sexual experimentation, flirtations with - ooh! - left-wing politics, alcoholism, professional struggles, art etc. - is filmed with a lot of cinematic huffpuff, that cannot conceal its Beatrix Potter-like cuddly quaintness. A real grapling with female experience in heady times - from Roosevelt's election to the outbreak of World War Two - is jettisoned in favour of caricature, stereotype, Eugene O'Neill-type melodramatics, shrieking, timidity, evasion, and pretty pastel colours.