The Stepford Wives

A film set in an American suburb. Joanna is a photographer. She moves with her husband and two children from New York to a small town called Stepford; the husband wants a quieter life. The town is too orderly. The gardens are kept, the houses are clean and all the women behave the same way: polite, always busy, content with their husbands and interested in nothing else. Joanna becomes friends with Bobbie, another newcomer. The two try to start a women's group in the town and cannot get anyone interested. The men have a club of their own. Women are not admitted to the meetings and what is discussed is unknown. After a while Bobbie changes. Her speech, her clothes and her interests are different overnight. Where the film goes is where that change comes from, and when Joanna will understand that she is next. The source is Ira Levin's novel; William Goldman wrote the screenplay. Katharine Ross plays Joanna and Paula Prentiss plays Bobbie. Peter Masterson and Nanette Newman are in the cast. Bryan Forbes directed. The title became a phrase, and the narrative was used for years as an example in arguments about the roles assigned to women. An important production for anyone who likes the thrillers of the 1970s and social satire. For a viewer expecting fast horror, the film builds slowly and saves its tension for the last section.