The Stepford Wives (1975)

Director: Bryan Forbes

Writers: William Goldman, from the novel by Ira Levin

Stars: Katherine Ross, Peter Masterson, Paula Prentiss, Nanette Newman, Tina Louise, Carol Eve Rossen

A married couple (Katherine Ross and Peter Masterson) moves to a seemingly peaceful suburban community where the wives are unusually committed to a traditional, subservient position, setting the stage for a terrible betrayal. 

This film, which was largely dismissed or derided at the time of its release, has rightfully gained some respect over the years for its examination of the shallow, egotistic foundation beneath patriarchal notions of proper family structure.

 

Contemplating the implications of this theme lends a chilling, haunting quality to the film, but Bryan Forbes’s pedestrian movie-of-the-week presentation holds it back from being the chiller that it could have been.

 

Ross and Paula Prentiss are very good, but the rest of the cast give rather bland performances. 

This actually works to the film’s advantage, emphasizing the banality of this “idyllic” existence. 

William Goldman wrote a good script.