Summary

Word to the Wives, A

Source Archive Films by Getty Images
Title: Word to the Wives, A
File Number: PA-0088 Beta SP
Color: Color
Type: Educational Industrial
Year: ca. 1955
Subjects: Sexism Gender stereotypes Houses and homes Appliances Cooking Spouses Husbands Wives Couples Marriage
Description: Word to the Wives, A Producer: Edmund M. Tate. Director: Norman Lloyd. Writer: Jerome Brondfield. Camera: William Steiner. With Darren McGavin (George Peters). A comical film where one housewife devises a plan for another to get a new kitchen. It is a happy age of shopping, but Jane's husband George doesn't understand the urgency in their need for a new house with a new kitchen. Much of the film is a VO by the housewife with the ideal kitchen -- who shows off her counters, clothes washer and dryer and invites Jane for a shopping spree, experiencing the "freedom to go shopping when the urge hits you" instead of being stuck in the kitchen. She devises a plot for Jane to leave George to take care of himself for two days and therefore win Jane a new house and kitchen. The husband George goes through a sequence of kitchen adventures: Mixing and overcooking on the stove, manly lemon squeezing for lemonade, wrestling with an overcrowded refrigerator, garbage bag breaking as he struggles to take it out, yelling a tirade at the son for using the hot water while he was doing dishes, and struggling to open the kitchen cabinets which need to be tapped underneath with a hammer. The other housewife invites them over for dinner and the husbands discuss the garbage incinerator and the hot water heater and sell George on the idea of a new house. Good ideal kitchen shots Shots of cars driving up to homes Ends with George's narration about being tricked or not and encouraging the viewer to have "Happy Homebuilding!" Ken Smith sez: Svelte, perfect-looking Jane Peters and her equally svelte, perfect-looking friend are sipping coffee in their Paris original housedresses in the unnamed friend's modern kitchen. "I'm so proud of it it's almost indecent!" Jane's friend proclaims, wiggling one of her perfectly-shaped nails. She suggests that Jane go shopping with her on a spur-of-the-moment "small spree" (to buy more stunning housedresses, no doubt), but Jane sadly refuses. "I haven't got a dream kitchen to make things easier," she sighs. "Mine's strictly the nightmare-type." Jane's friend is shocked, arching her perfectly-shaped eyebrows, shaking her perfectly-coiffed hair, and turning the corners of her perfectly-shaped lips down into a pout. Why doesn't Jane's husband move her out of that "older house" of theirs and into a freshly-built new one?, she asks, one with a modern kitchen that offers "freedom from uneccesary drudgery to go shopping when the urge takes you"? He certainly should, they agree, and the two women concoct a "plot" to make it happen. Jane has to visit her sick mother in Cleveland she'll be gone for a couple of days. "Don't get TOO far ahead in your housework," Jane's friend winks. "Oh, no!" Jane replies. "I COULDN'T...." Now we cut to George Peters as he struggles in Jane's kitchen. George -- brilliantly played by Darren McGavin -- is a slack-jawed mouth-breather who prefers to communicate either through grunts and ughs or by yelling at the top of his voice. His Neanderthal nature is understandable after all, George doesn't have the priviledge of working in a kitchen "designed for efficiency and convenience." After two days of battling an outdated stove and water heater, sticky cabinets and ice cube trays, and a garbage disposal system that isn't automatic, George not only buys Jane her new kitchen, but a whole new "dream house" to go with it! The film ends happily for all, and Darren encourages viewers to visit a representative of their local homebuilder's association. "Believe me," he chuckles, "a few minutes now can lead to a whole lifetime of happiness. Happy homebuilding!" Features appliances and equipment from Republic Steel Kitchens, Caloric, Whirlpool, Ruud Manufacturing Company, and The Formica Company. Promotes an all-gas kitchen and laundry. American Gas Association offered prints of this film for sale to gas utilities to help them coax builders to incorporate kitchens into their new homes.
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