Forever Female (1953)

In Forever Female, Ginger Rogers is a Broadway star, still at the top of her game, but not realizing that the times are a changing. Like Norma Desmond she won't believe that there's nothing wrong with being 50 unless you try to act 25.

As this is a comedy, the consequences are not quite as tragic as they are in Sunset Boulevard. Forever Female is however Ginger's reality check.

New playwright William Holden has written a play that's got Ginger excited, a great role for her, maybe 10 to 15 years ago. She insists the role by revised from a 19 to 29 year old. She hasn't lost hold on reality that much.

There's a young ingénue on the scene who might be right for the part and she proves it in a way you have to see Forever Female to find out about. That would be Pat Crowley who was 'introduced' here. Though she never became the bright star of tomorrow, she plays a kinder, gentler Eve Harrington here. Pat Crowley's greatest success would be in the television version of Please Don't Eat the Daisies in the part Doris Day did in film.

All this is proving quite amusing to Rogers's ex-husband and producer Paul Douglas who has some of the best lines in the film.

There's nothing earth shattering about Forever Female, but it did no harm to any of the folks associated with it and still has some laughs for today's audience.