The Stepford Wives is a 1975 American satirical psychological thriller film directed by Bryan Forbes. It was written by William Goldman, who based his screenplay on Ira Levin's 1972 novel of the same name. The film stars Katharine Ross as a woman who relocates with her husband (Peter Masterson) and children from New York City to the Connecticut community of Stepford, where she comes to find that the women live lives of unwavering subservience to their husbands.
Filmed in Connecticut in 1974, The Stepford Wives was released theatrically by Columbia Pictures in February 1975. It grossed $4 million at the U.S. box office, though it received mixed reviews from critics. Katharine Ross was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film. The film was shot entirely on location in Connecticut, primarily in the towns of Darien, Westport, and Fairfield, with no sets built for the production.. Reaction from feminist activists was also divided at the time of its release; Betty Friedan dismissed it as a "rip-off of the women's movement" and discouraged women from seeing it, though others such as Gael Greene and Eleanor Perry defended the film.
The Stepford Wives has grown in stature as a cult film over the years, and the term Stepford or Stepford wife has become a popular science fiction concept. Several sequels to the film were made, as well as a remake in 2004 that used the same title.
Plot Joanna Eberhart, a young wife and aspiring photographer, moves with her husband Walter and their two daughters, Kim and Amy, from Manhattan to Stepford, Connecticut. She finds that the women in town all look flawless and are obsessed with housework but lack intellectual interests. The men all belong to the exclusionary Men's Association, which Walter joins to Joanna's dismay. Joanna is also bewildered by her neighbor Carol Van Sant's sexual submissiveness to her husband Ted and her odd, repetitive behavior after a minor car accident.
Joanna befriends Bobbie Markowe, with whom she finds common interests and shared ideas. Along with trophy wife Charmaine Wimperis, the three organize a women's liberation meeting, but the gathering is a failure when the other wives continually divert the discussion to cleaning products. Joanna is also unimpressed by the boorish Men's Association members, including the intimidating president, Dale "Diz" Coba. When Charmaine returns from a weekend trip with her husband as a devoted wife who has fired her maid and destroyed her tennis court, Joanna and Bobbie start investigating the reason behind the submissive behavior of the other wives. They discover that all the women were once strong, assertive, independent, and staunch advocates of liberal social policies.
Bobbie and Joanna start house hunting in other towns. Later, Joanna wins a prestigious contract with a photo gallery. When she goes to tell Bobbie, she is shocked to find that Bobbie has abruptly become another conformist housewife with no intention of moving. She visits a psychiatrist, to whom she voices her belief that the men in the town are in a conspiracy that involves altering the psyches of the women. The psychiatrist recommends that she leave town until she feels safe. Joanna returns home to pick up her children only to find that they are missing and Walter is evasive about their whereabouts. The two get in a scuffle when she refuses her husband's demands to lie down in her bed. Joanna sneaks out to Bobbie's house but grows frustrated when Bobbie refuses to engage with her in a meaningful way. Desperate and disturbed, Joanna cuts her hand before stabbing Bobbie with a kitchen knife. Bobbie does not bleed but instead malfunctions, revealing that the real Bobbie has been replaced by a robot.
Joanna returns home and bludgeons Walter with a fire poker, demanding to know where their children were taken. He tells her that the kids are at the Men's Association. She sneaks into the mansion that houses the Men's Association. However, she is confronted by Dale, who says that her children are really with Charmaine. He remotely locks the front door, explaining that the men of Stepford replace their wives "because they can.” He takes the poker from her, at which point she flees, coming upon her own robot replica that calmly approaches her to strangle her.
Some time later, the android Joanna placidly peruses the local supermarket among the other glamorously dressed wives. As the wives make their way through the store, they vacantly greet one another, while an African American couple argue about their recent move to Stepford. The camera pans in on Joanna's eyes, signifying that the robot now has the eyes of its original human counterpart.
During the end credits, photographs show a smiling Walter driving the family car and picking up his new "Stepford wife" from the supermarket with their children in the back seat as they become another "perfect" Stepford family.
Cast
Analysis
Film scholar John Kenneth Muir interprets The Stepford Wives as "a film essay about what it means to be part of an unspoken 'underclass.'"
Production Development Film rights to the novel were purchased by producer Edgar Scherick, who ran Palomar Pictures. Scherick said the novel "titillated me. That men would order women to get bigger tits."
He hired William Goldman to write the script. Goldman said "I've always avoided doing movies that had many central, crucial female roles. But I don't think I write women very well. And when I read the Levin novel, I thought, 'Hey, I can make this play'... The reason I did it, besides liking the novel, was that I thought it was an opportunity for me to try and write two women that I could make real."Brady p 108
Brian De Palma was initially going to direct, as Scherick had admired his film Sisters. However the producer says Goldman threatened to leave the film if this happened.
Goldman recalled "Stepford was a troubled production—we’d had difficulty finding a director. Preliminary casting had turned out to be a bitch."Goldman p 223 Scherick recruited English director Bryan Forbes to direct the film. Forbes later recalled "Scherick called me up and said, “Do you want to direct The Stepford Wives? I want an Englishman to do it, to get a new slant on it.”... I had a lot of fun doing it, and I never took it too seriously." The director claimed Scherick later told him the producer offered Forbes the job because he admired Forbes' Seance on a Wet Afternoon.Forbes, 1998 p v Forbes said he saw the novel "as a savage put down of men".
Clashes with Goldman According to Goldman "Bryan rewrote all of Stepford, until the last twenty minutes of the film, which is mine. He would have rewritten that, too, but he didn't have any time. I'm not saying that it would have been better if it had been mine; but I'm saying it isn't mine, and I wanted my name off it, and they didn't take it off."Brady p 109 Forbes admitted to rewriting the film, but says he changed the ending from Goldman's version which Forbes claims was too horrific. Bryan Forbes later wrote: Between visits to his analyst, he [Goldman] was reluctant to change a single word of his adaptation, despite frequent urgings from Edgar Scherick and myself since we both felt it required improvement. Goldman has subsequently revealed his aversion to directors, especially directors who are also screenwriters and, in particular, British directors. He treated any script revisions from me as an affront to his dignity, for he had a monopoly of reverence for himself. With the first day of principal photography looming every closer without any real progress, we eventually came to an acrimonious parting of the ways. The final script that reached the screen was mine, and it differed greatly from Goldman’s.Forbes, 1998, p vi Forbes noted Goldman did not take his name off the script, suggesting it was because "that would have deprived him of his residuals."Forbes, 1998 pp vi-vii
Tension between Goldman and Forbes was further exacerbated by conflicts over casting (see below).
Casting Forbes later wrote that casting was difficult, in part because he needed to get approval from the chief executive of Palomar. He claims he interviewed and considered twenty-one actresses and "cast the film several times, only to have my choices rejected by the front office."Forbes, 1998 p v
Forbes met with Diane Keaton to play the lead role of Joanna but says the morning after their meeting she turned down the part because her analyst did not like the script. The part was then offered to Jean Seberg who declined. Tuesday Weld initially accepted but cancelled a week before filming began. Forbes later wrote "I obtained agreement for another star and had her costumed, only to be told that she had failed the medical examination and therefore could not be insured."Forbes, 1998 p vi He did not reveal if this was Seberg, Weld or another actor. The lead role eventually went to Katharine Ross.
Joanna Cassidy was cast as Joanna's friend and ally Bobbie but was fired after two weeks of production - Forbes claims this was the producer's decision - and replaced by Paula Prentiss. The movie would be Prentiss' sole hit from the 1970s.
Tension developed between Forbes and screenwriter Goldman over the casting of Nanette Newman (Forbes's wife) as one of the wives. Goldman felt that the 40-year-old Newman's appearance did not match the young provocatively-dressed model-like women he'd scripted for. "She destroyed the reality of a story that was only precariously real to begin with," Goldman wrote.Goldman p 222 However Goldman did not complain to the producer because "the last thing Edgar needed was a hysterical writer predicting Doomsday because a good actress was suggested to appear in the movie. Besides, being his wife meant security for Bryan, his family would be around, he wouldn’t be as much a stranger in a very strange land." Forbes later took exception to Goldman's criticisms of his wife.
Mary Stuart Masterson (daughter of star Peter Masterson), Dee Wallace and Franklin Cover appear in very small supporting roles. Tina Louise was cast as another doomed wife.
Filming Scheduling difficulties delayed the filming from 1973 until 1974.
No exterior sets were built for the film, which was shot on location in several Connecticut towns. The climax was filmed at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion in Norwalk. Forbes purposefully chose white and bright colors, attempting to make a "thriller in sunlight". With the exception of the stormy night finale, it is almost over-saturated to emphasize bright lights and cheerful-looking settings.
Nanette Newman claimed Forbes had deliberately filmed the ending "in an unreal way, so they were almost like a ballet moving in and out, up and down the aisle." The grocery store was a Grand Union in Darien. It was operated as a Grand Union until 2000, when it was bought by Shaw's. It operated as a Shaw's until 2010, when it was purchased by Stop & Shop and still operates as such today.
Actor Peter Masterson secretly called his friend Goldman for input on scenes. Goldman later claimed the film "could have been very strong, but it was rewritten and altered, and I don't think happily." He added, "It was such an unpleasant experience."
Release The Stepford Wives premiered in the United States on January 22, 1975, in two cities, before a nationwide release on February 12, 1975. Goldman said the film " was probably released badly as far as the people involved in the making of that movie are concerned. It has some exploitable elements, but it wasn’t Halloween. The best way to release it would have been slowly, praying for favorable word of mouth. The studio threw it on the market in hundreds of theatres" because "right then Columbia needed cash flow badly—dollars, and now. Stepford got them some dollars. It was gone in a month, but it served the studio well."Goldman pp70-71
Box office
The film grossed approximately $4 million in North America.