1975 The Stepford Wives

• Directed by: Bryan Forbes
• Written by: Ira Levin, William Goldman
• Stars: Katherine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh9yM00r9JQ

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A family moves to the small town of Stepford, Connecticut, where the wife and mom start noticing a sinister undertone and some strange behavior from the wives of the town. It’s a good slow-burn thriller and a time capsule of the society and life of 1975. It’s very dated and very entertaining.

Spoilery Synopsis

Joanna looks depressed at moving out of her big-city apartment. She, her husband Walter, and the two kids are moving to a small town named Stepford. It’s a huge house, much bigger than what she’s used to.

Carol, one of the neighbors, comes over and brings a casserole and an offer of assistance if they need it. Walter is impressed. After sending the kids to school, Joanna is almost immediately bored.

The lady who runs the newspaper comes over and has lots of questions for Joanna. She notices how romantic the couple across the street are. Walter comes home and talks about being invited to the Men’s Association, where all the important men in town get together.

The family witnesses a minor fender-bender at the grocery store, and everyone freaks out. They call an ambulance for the woman who isn’t even hurt. Joanna notices that the ambulance drives off in the opposite direction from the hospital.

Walter goes to the Men’s Club meeting and when he comes home, something has him very disturbed.

Joanna meets Bobby, who’s also a new transplant from the city. She’s very plainspoken and energetic, almost pushy.

The men from the group come over that night, and Joanna meets Dale Coba, Diz, a multimillionaire who used to work at Disneyland. As the men make summer plans, one of them draws a creepy sketch of Joanna– especially detailed in certain parts of her face.

Diz throws a party, and Joanna and Bobby make jokes about the other women there; the women are weird. Carol gets especially weird, wandering around repeating herself. Diz catches on and so does her husband, who chastises her for drinking too much and leads her back inside.

The next day, Carol comes around and apologizes for being an alcoholic. Joanna comments that this town needs some more Women’s Lib. Marie and the other local women aren’t at all interested in that. Between ironing, baking, and gardening, the women are all too busy to join a movement. Eventually, they come to Charmaine, who seems normal and is interested in joining the two women. She also has only just recently moved here.

Claude comes over, also wanting to interview Joanna for no particular reason. He wants her to read a bunch of stuff into a tape recorder for voice sampling. She refuses unless the Stepford wives come to her Women’s Lib meeting, so the husbands all make sure their wives attend. All the women then show up, but they don’t participate at all. They do like talking about housework.

Joanna goes out to walk the dog, and the local policeman warns her not to go out at night. It’s a tiny, quiet town, so that seems odd to her.

The next day, the old newspaper lady comes around bragging that a black family is going to move into town soon; Stepford is such a liberal town! She mentions that there used to be a big Women’s Lib group in town, but interest in that all just suddenly dried up. Carol, of all people, used to be the president of the group.

Joanna and Bobby drive by Charmaine’s house and notice them tearing up the tennis court. Charmaine explains that her husband always hated tennis, and all she cares about now is pleasing him. She seems very different now. She’s fired her maid and now likes to do all the housework herself.

Bobby literally thinks there’s something in the water in this town. There are so many computer, technology, and chemical companies in town, they could be doing something. They take a water sample to one of Joanna’s old boyfriends, but he says there’s nothing wrong with the water.

Bobby doesn’t like this answer and says she plans to leave town. Joanna asks Walter about moving, but he likes it here. Still, he agrees to move in the fall. Joanna and Bobby start looking for houses in a nearby town. Bobby mentions that her husband has a weekend getaway planned for them this week.

After Bobby gets back from her weekend, she’s dressed differently. She looks and acts differently. She loves housework, just like Charmaine!

Joanna tells Walter all about Bobby, and he says she’s going crazy. He goes on and on about how their house is a dump; when is she going to start fixing up the house? He makes a logical argument, and she’s not sure what to say or think.

Joanna goes to a psychiatrist, and the doctor knows that Stepford is “unsocial.” Joanna tells the doctor her suspicions, but what can she do? She doesn’t want to become like one of those robots in Disneyland.

Joanna goes home to find the kids are away; only Walter is there, and he’s been drinking. She runs to Bobby, gets into an argument with her, and stabs the other woman. Bobby doesn’t bleed. Bobby does start glitching out in strange ways.

Joanna goes to “The Association’s” building to find her children, but the place looks deserted. She runs into Diz there, and he says she’s had the wrong idea all along. “It’s just another stage,” he explains. “Why? Because we can.”

She runs down the hall, into an exact replica of her bedroom; even her dog is there. So is she– an exact copy of her, but with weird eyes and bigger boobs. The robot approaches Joanna menacingly…

Some time later, we see the various women at the grocery store, interacting with that new black family. All the women are there, including Charmain, Carol, Bobby, and yes, even Joanna is there now, doing the happy shopper things. She’s one of them now..

Brian’s Commentary

I saw this on network TV when it was first released, probably around 1976 or so, and I’d heard it was about robots. I was expecting something like “The Six Million Dollar Man” and was sorely disappointed– I was way too young to be entertained by this.

So many wood-paneled station wagons.

“Women’s Lib” and equal rights for women were the big topic when the film came out, and the whole film is basically pointing that out, contrasting “free” women from the subservient types. The whole thing is a little comical today, but it was a big deal back in the day.

It’s very dated, but I was still entertained.

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s said in trivia that the original screenplay by William Goldman included an ending where the Joanna robot violently kills the real Joanna. Director Bryan Forbes didn’t like that and did some rewriting, which angered Goldman, and they never spoke again.

As I was watching this, I realized I saw this at the theater when it came out (OVER FIFTY YEARS AGO?!?). And I read the book quite a while ago. So this was a refresher.

Katherine Ross is great in the role, I especially liked her scene talking to the therapist.

I’d consider this a classic. It’s great.