Author and humorist James Thurber was alive when this film was made. One can imagine that he saw "The Battle of the Sexes" and approved its rendition of his 1942 short story, "The Catbird Seat." Not only do the two main protagonists of the film resemble those of his story - they even have the same names - Mr. Martin and Mrs. Barrows. And, Peter Sellers and Constance Cummings bring to life these two characters who first brought laughter to readers of The New Yorker magazine in November 1942.
The setting is different, and the makers of this British comedy expanded and built on Thurber's story. By setting it in Scotland, it added laughs with gender and culture differences. And, the focal base for the battle couldn't be better - a traditional Scottish tweed firm.
The humor here is in dialog and situations. After an opening scene in the board room of a London corporation, the credits run and the tone is set by a narrator introducing the film: "Mr. James Thurber, America's great chronicler of man's losing battle, has warned us all. We are living at a time when in a moth-proof closet dwells... the moth." No one can miss the inference here - the tweeds are wool, and nothing is more destructive of wool than moths.
As scenes appear on the screen of Scots in kilts marching, playing the bagpipes, dancing and walking, the narrator continues. "So, destiny sent Mrs. Barrows to carry the sex war into one of the last bastions of man's supremacy - Scotland. A man's world. A world in which the shortest skirts are worn by man. A world in which even the can-can is danced by man. This was to be the battleground." The last scene is hilarious - a tall Scot wearing a kilt above the knees and beside him walks a much shorter woman with a skirt below mid-calf.
All of the cast are excellent. Sharing the lead with the protagonists is Robert Morley as Robert Macpherson. It's "himself" who has taken over the reins of the Macpherson Company after his father dies. But, Robert was off in America and couldn't even make his father's funeral. On his way from London, he meets Angela Barrows on the train, who was being sent to Scotland by those men in the opening corporate scene - to get her out of their hair. But Robert encourages her to come to work for him.
Morley is in a sort of referee role - between the protagonists. But he is pretty clueless about everything, making it all the more hilarious. Mrs. Barrows plans to modernize, upgrade, expand, and in essence redo the staid, top quality tweed company into a mass producer of modern cloth - synthetics.
As the narrator says, closing out the opening scenes, "Mr. Martin may not be cast in the heroic mold, but he is a hero just the same." And, that's because of one thing - he's in the catbird seat. As Mrs. Barrows explains, it is a baseball term that means he holds an advantageous position. Macpherson introduces him as the man who knows the whole operation and controls the purse strings.
Angela Barrows is the double "villain" in this film - as the woman charging forward into the business world of men, and as the modern, progressive "time and motion" efficiency expert. She is the picture of power, bigger is better, greed and get ahead at all costs. She's the corporate guru who is the management expert with no common sense. She doesn't need to learn the ropes of the trade. She wants to retire the 700 weavers who work from their homes spread across the Hebrides off the shores of mainland Scotland. In their place will be a centralized factory with new people who don't need to learn to weave wool because the company will go into more modern fabrics - synthetics.
But the irony works both ways, because when she enters Mr. Martin 's shop of pen and ink clerks, it's apparent that the Macpherson Company probably missed the last two generations of business practice improvements. There is no filing system at all. If Mr. Martin goes, so goes the knowledge of where anything is.
As Mrs. Barrows convinces Macpherson to modernize, the company gets an intercom system, noisy adding machines, and filing cabinets, But, with the plans for a new factory and product changes, Mr. Martin has had enough. Having promised the late Sir Macpherson that he would guide the gullible and green young Robert in the business, he must now find a way to stop Mrs. Barrows. And that's when the very funny antics commence.
One of the funniest scenes of its kind is when Martin tries to knock off Mrs. Barrows. He gets the idea from a movie he attends, and then tries to emulate the plot of the film. It turns around into a hilarious fiasco that will have Macpherson thinking Mrs. Barrows has lost her marbles.
A few favorite lines give a hint of what to expect in this film.
Robert Macpherson, "Nobody understands the workings of the departments better than Martin here. He holds all the purse strings." Angela Barrows, "Oh, I see. Well, you ARE in the catbird seat. Baseball term - means, sitting pretty."
Angela Barrows, "Oh, ho, ho, come now, Rip Van Winkle. Don't tell me you've never heard of mechanization."
Angela Barrows, "Oh, for heaven's sake, ask Mr. White. Mr. White saw him." Robert Macpherson, "Who's Mr. White?" Barrows, "The blind man." Macpherson, "What?' Barrows, "I mean, he would've seen him. His dog sniffed his trousers." Mr. Martin, " I have no dog, sir." Barrows, "I mean, Mr. White's dog. Don't listen to him, Robert." Macpherson, "You mean Martin was seen by a blind dog?"
