"Female" released in 1933, offers up Ruth Chatterton as an aggressive and powerful CEO of an automobile company. Brave stuff in 1933. Chatterton plays Alison Drake...she is tough and demanding. Her underlings cower and jump to her barking commands. But when Alison sees a man she wants to bed, she invites them over to her home to go over "business." Silent star Johnny Mack Brown is one of her victims, among others. What is startling here is the film does not try to hide the fact that Alison is out for sex and nothing more! When the men get too close, she dismisses them. As Alison tells a friend "I treat men the same way they have treated women." Another man she tries to snare is gay -- or we assume so -- as when Alison asks him if he likes women, he says "not really." So she sends him off to art school in France! A CEO with a heart. But Alison meets her match with Jim, played by George Brent, who must be in just about every movie made at Warner Brothers during this time period. Jim is a hot-shot automobile designer she has lured away from a rival company. But Jim isn't so easy to snare, and doesn't fall into line as Alison demands. This drives her nuts, so she sets out to get him. Alas, the film then starts getting silly, with Alison basically deserting her CEO role to chase after the man she loves. Hey, it is 1933, after all, pre-code or not! Likely the studio knew that audiences of that era would only except a female CEO to a degree. Very clever, those studio bosses.
