THE STEPFORD WIVES

STARRING: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman, Patrick O'Neal, Tina Louise, Carol Rossen, William Prince, Joanna Cassidy, Dee Wallace

1975, 115 Minutes, Directed by: Bryan Forbes

Description: Based on Ira Levin's novel about forced conformity in a small Connecticut town. Katharine Ross stars as a city woman who moves with her husband to Stepford and is startled by how perpetually happy many of the local women seem to be. Her search for an answer reveals a plot to replace troublesome real wives with more accommodating fake ones (not unlike the alien takeover in Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she faces--not to mention the likelihood that the men in town intend to replace her as well. — Amazon.com

Suburbia encroaches in a small American town where all the women seem to be taken directly from those dreadful washing soap advertisements on television. (You know the ones in which housewives seem to take little interest in life except for small domestic details and chores.)

SPOILERS AHEAD! At the end we find out that an ex-Disneyland employee is making robot replicas of the women for the husbands of Stepford. END SPOILERS!

This feminist film based on the Ira Levin best-seller could have done with a faster pace and more humour. Of course, the film is quite interesting to watch in the 1990s when feminism is as extinct as the little spotted owl and we are witnessing the final victory of suburban blandness . . .

Remade in 2004 also as The Stepford Wives.