ABSTRACT
In 1989 the actress Virginia McKenna recalled her experience of working on the 1956 British film A Town Like Alice as one of the most positive experiences of her career; delighting in a film which offered ‘a cast full of marvellous actresses’ some substantial film roles at a time when they were in short supply in mainstream cinema (in McFarlane 1997: 382). This film is unusual because the narrative centres on a small group of women of different ages and with different life experience, that are drawn together as a result of extreme circumstances. As the story unfolds the women’s relationships with each other assume priority in contrast to those with men, which are comparatively small-scale. Films that focus on groups of women are relatively rare in mainstream cinema so how might we account for this scarcity? Certainly patriarchal structures play a part, requiring women to be individualised – that is, disconnected from other women – their social embeddedness deriving from heterosexual processes such as marriage that position them in relation to individual men and the family. Popular film can play a role in this process. Classic narrative cinema typically prioritises a (male) hero-protagonist on whom narrative interest can centre. Hollywood’s star system favours star vehicles, which clearly work against group dynamics. As Yvonne Tasker has argued, ‘glamorous stars … in spectacular isolation’ are the norm in Hollywood, particularly for female stars, a strategy that has effectively ‘marginalized representations of female friendship’ (1998: 139), a dynamic that emerges when groups of women are portrayed. For Jeanine Basinger ‘[t]he notion of a group of women working together is a film rarity’ with the more common representation of women as ‘petty rivals’ (1986: 224) clearly fulfilling patriarchy’s requirement for individualisation. Women in groups, where they do appear in mainstream cinema, seem to do
so under particular social circumstances. William Wellman’s Westward the Women (1951) for example, which follows a group of Chicago women travelling to California to meet prospective husbands, highlights female solidarity and independence and concludes with the women’s right to enter into marriage on absolutely equal terms with men. Despite its nineteenth century setting the film is clearly a response to changes in the way that ‘the family’ was understood in American society in the post-war period.1 Within a British context the Second World War gave rise to a crisis in gender roles with women increasingly
replacing men in the workforce. British cinema produced a number of female group films during this period of ‘crisis’: Millions Like Us and The Gentle Sex (1943), 2,000 Women (1944), Great Day (1945). These films responded very directly to changed social circumstance and the reality of female conscription, internment and the demands of a female-dominated Home Front. Given the relative paucity of what might be termed ‘the female group film’,
the fact that it emerges under particular circumstances and the pull of patriarchal structures, the question arises: how does popular film represent groups of women, and at a particular point in time? This chapter will explore these questions through a case study of 1950s British cinema with a particular focus on two popular group films: A Town Like Alice (1956) and The Weak and the Wicked (1954). Both films were commercially profitable, achieving box office success at a time when British cinema was struggling to respond to both rapid social change and declining cinema audiences. Clearly there are points of connection between films which deal with groups of women, and the ‘woman’s film’. For Maria LaPlace the latter is ‘distinguished by its female protagonist, female point of view and its [engagement with] love, emotion and relationships’ (1987: 139). Certainly these are all elements that are readily applicable to the female group film, which is populated by female characters and where events are presented from a female perspective. On closer inspection, however, the two are not exactly synonymous. The idea of a solo protagonist that gives the ‘woman’s film’ its individualistic slant would appear to be antithetical to the premise of the group film. Further, to what extent is the ‘traditional realism’ of women’s experience shaped or extended by the particular social circumstances that gave rise to the female group in the first place? A film such as The Gentle Sex, which emerged during the crisis of war, is less concerned with depicting ‘love, emotion and relationships’ than the rigours of military training as experienced by a group of female conscripts. In this respect it seems likely that films that deal with groups of women have an affinity with, but are not reducible to, the ‘woman’s film’, and I aim to tease out some of the differences in my subsequent analysis. Within the British context, domestic cinema has proven rather more hospi-
table to the female group film than Hollywood. In part this can be explained by the tradition of ensemble-playing in British cinema. Britain’s lack of a star system (relative to Hollywood) and the close relationship between theatre and cinema, has meant that ensemble pieces have historically been a mainstay of indigenous film production – a vehicle for showcasing the breadth of Britain’s ‘great acting’ talent.2 Although typically this has favoured men (the war genre being the most obvious example) women occasionally benefit from the tradition and rather more space is found in British cinema for groups of women. For example, films such as She’ll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas (1985) and Bhaji on the Beach (1993) are more contemporary instances of the female ensemble film that emerged in response to the particular social circumstances of, respectively, second wave feminism and multi-culturalism. In this respect a case can be made for the female group film as a type of ‘woman’s film’ that finds particular expression in mainstream British cinema.
