| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Katherine Ross | as Joanna Eberhart |
| Paula Prentiss | as Bobbie Markowe |
| Peter Masterson | as Walter Eberhart |
| Nanette Newman | as Carol Van Sant |
| Tina Louis | as Charmaine Wimpiris |
| Carole Rossen | as Dr. Fancher |
| William Price | as Ike Mazzard |
| Carol Mallory | as Kit Sunderson |
| Tony Reid | as Marie Axhelm |
| Judith Baldwin | as Patricia Cornell |
| Barbara Rucker | as Mary Ann Stravros |
| George Coe | as Claude Axhelm |
| Franklin Cover | as Ed Wimpiris |
| Robert Fields | as Raymond Chandler |
| Michael Higgins | as Mr. Cornell |
| Josef Somer | as Ted Van Sant |
| Paula Trueman | as Welcome Wagon Lady |
| Martha Greenhouse | as Mrs. Kirgassa |
| Simon Deckard | as Dave Markowe |
| Remak Ramsay | as Mr. Atkinson |
| Mary Stuart Masterson | as Kim Eberhart |
| Ronny Sullivan | as Amy Eberhart |
| John Aprea | as Young Cop |
| Matt Russo | as Moving Man #1 |
| Anthony Crupi | as Moving Man #2 |
| Kenneth McMillan | as Market Manager |
| Dee Wallace | as Nettie the Maid |
| Tom Spratley | as Charlie the Doorman |
| Patrick O'Neal | as Dale Coba |
| MPAA Rating: | PG |
| Production Companies: | Genre Pictures Good Machine |
| Distributors (USA): | Evergreen Entertainment Samuel Goldwyn Company |
| Language: | English |
| Release Date (US): | 2/12/1975 |
| Running time: | 115 minutes |
| Domestic Box Office: | $? |
| Foreign Box Office: | $? |
| Production Budget: | $? (Est.) |
| Crew | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRODUCED BY | |||||||
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| DIRECTED BY: Bryan Forbes | |||||||
| Writing Credits (WGA): | Ira Levin (novel) William Goldman (screenplay) |
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| Original Music: | Michael Small | ||||||
| Cinematography: | Owen Roizman | ||||||
| Film Editing: | Timothy Gee | ||||||
| Casting: | Juliet Teylor | ||||||
| Set Decoration: | Robert Drumheller | ||||||
| Costume Design: | Anna Hill Johnstone | ||||||
Walter and Joanna Eberhart are fed up with New York City: the noise, the traffic. Walter has bought a house in Stepford, CT and now is moving day. They pack up their daughters Amy and Kim, and Fred the dog, and head north. Settling in goes quickly and the people seem friendly. Joanna makes friends with Bobbie Markowe; she and her husband Dave have been there two months. But soon, things begin to seem strange. The men have an Association which meets most every night; wives are not allowed. None of the other wives mind a bit; they are concerned mostly with keeping their houses spotless. A man sketches Joanna's face, and she is asked to list every place she's ever lived and read a long list of words into a recorder.
Bobbie and Joanna try to liven things up by starting a women's club. No one aside from Charmaine Wimpiris, who's been there three months, expresses any interest; but she soon drops out and the club folds. Bobbie and Joanna grow increasingly convinced that something very wrong is going on in Stepford. Then comes the four-month point. Bobbie and Dave spend a weekend away. When they come back, Bobbie is changed; she is now a perfectly contented homemaker just like the others.
Joanna panics. She insists on moving again. Walter thinks she's nuts; he insists she see someone. She does, but finds someone outside of Stepford: a Dr. Fancher. The doctor believes Joanna, but has a two-day commitment she can't shake. She tells Joanna to take the kids and just drive — go anywhere safe. Joanna tries, but the kids are not at home. Eventually she attacks Walter and gets him to tell her they're in the old mansion where the Association meets. But when she gets there she finds it's a ruse. Can she avoid the fate that befell her friend Bobbie?
All the actors in this film do a creditable job. But the standouts are Katherine Ross and Paula Prentiss. Appearing in most of the scenes without makeup, they interact with each other as normal women do (and as Katherine Ross, as Joanna, interacts with her husband. It really is her film, and she does a good job of portraying a woman pushed to desperation.) The plot holds together well, given its premises. The production values are first-rate.
The premise, however, is where the film falls short — not so much in conception as in execution. Although it was outré enough to be sensational in 1975, I think it's rather tame now. In any case I doubt I'm spoiling it for anyone after so much time. The men of Stepford include some high-tech executives, and they have decided to create a community in accord with their dearest wishes: one where women devote themselves to cooking, cleaning, and raising children.1 To accomplish this, they stealthily replace their real wives with robotic duplicates.
So far so good, as film premises go. But these robots are incredibly fragile. A minor fender-bender so frazzles one that she can barely talk. Another, affected perhaps by the heat of a summer's day, begins repeating the same sentence over and over at a pool party. (Of course they never swim.) Pretending she's drunk, her husband hustles her away. This is one of two things that annoyed me about the film; I kept wishing the "robot reveal" had been handled better.2 I can't tell you the other thing that annoyed me. That would be a spoiler.
So this film works well overall. I'll give it an 8.
My Rating:
8 out of 10
Capsule review: Seeking tranquility for his family, Walter Eberhart moves them from New York City to the rural town of Stepford, CT. They find tranquility, all right — more than they bargained for.
Despite a somewhat shaky execution of the film's premise, it works very well overall thanks to good acting and a solid plot.
| IMDB Rating: 6.9 | Raters: 13,593 |
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