WOMEN IN BONDAGE
US, 1943, 72 minutes, Black-and-white.
Gail Patrick, Nancy Kelly, William Henry, Tala Birell, Gertrude Michael, Alan Baxter, Maris Wrixon, H.B.Warner, Anne Nagel, Mary Forbes.
Directed by Steve Sekely.
This is a 1943 title, a film of war propaganda (and later to be used in a different sense for sadomasochistic exploitation films).
The film, as with these small budget propaganda films, is interesting to look at in retrospect and to wonder about its impact on the American audiences of that time and what the American audience knew. In one sense, the screenplay presents something of a cosy attitude of some of the Germans, not rabid Nazis. On the other hand, in the film, there are plenty of rabid Nazis.
Gail Patrick plays a woman whose husband is fighting on the Russian front and who returns to her in-laws after 10 years away from Germany. She is a woman of the world, gradually asserting a more humane approach to life, even when she is appointed local commander of young women, training, first-aid, listening to radio propaganda. Gertrude Michael is her severe superior. She is compassionate to a young servant, member of the squad, who is in love with an SS man but, compelled to take a physical test, she is judged unfit to marry the perfect German, the SS man. There are complications in her having a baby, the care of the baby, her escaping, being pursued, tortured, eventually shot.
The film, as with the title, has a particular appeal to a women’s audience and, at the end, there is a brief summary of the key women and the bondage they experience in Hitler’s Germany.
1. A World War II film? Release in 1943? American audience knowledge of Germany at the time?
2. Small budget film, propaganda, especially for a women’s audience identifying with the situation of the women? The title? Women in Germany in the 1930s and 40s?
3. Margot and her story, her marriage, her husband at war in Russia, her return to Germany after 10 years, her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, the welcome? Expectations?
4. The presentation of life in Germany, those completely devoted to Hitler and Nazism, those who seem to be neutral? Organisation of women? Districts? The District Commander? Margot and her appointment, reluctant, accepting, inspecting the girls, more friendly approach, listening to the propaganda broadcasts, first aid training?
5. Margot at home, Toni as servant, the blackouts, Margot reaching out? The contrast with the girl out on the town, the old woman and her reprimands, eventually being arrested and imprisoned, and the young girl praised as an Aryan woman with Aryan men?
6. Tony, in love with Heinz, his status in the SS, her examination, the criteria for marriage, her failing the eyesight test, to marry anyone else but SS? Heinz and the break, the other girl? Toni, her pregnancy? Support from Margot? The shop owner and her caring for the baby? Margo concealing Toni in the boot of the car, her escape? The pursuit through the forest, her arrest, her torture, not revealing the truth? In the street, seeing Heinz, her running, her death?
7. Margot and the clashes with the district commander? Her personality, complete dedication, suspicions of Margot? The torture of Toni? The interview with Margot and the suitability of marriage, even when her husband was impotent?
8. At home, her sister-in-law and her dedication, her husband? The mother, her deciding to leave the house? Margot and her husband, the tenderness, his illness, the Strauss music, his shooting himself?
9. Margot, her disillusionment, the planes flying over, opening the curtains, her defying the authorities, the patriotic speech? The bombardment, the destruction of the house? And the final summary of the central characters and what they had experience, women in bondage?
