The Stepford Wives
Joanna (Katherine Ross) and Walter Eberhart (Peter Masterson), parents of two children (one played by Mary Stuart Masterson in her feature film debut), move from their noisy life in New York to a quiet and small surburban town in Stepford, Pennsylvania. When they arrive, Walter joins a mens' club, but doesn't really fill Joanna on what the association's all about. Joanna finds the wives of the Stepford husbands to be very wholesome and welcoming, but they all act very odd.
One day, Joanna meets another woman new to the town, Bobbie Markowe (Paula Prentiss), who's the only other seemingly-normal person Joanna's met. Joanna and Bobbie become immediate-friends and set out to uncover the weird happening of the town. They discover that there are no womens' clubs, only for men, so they have a discussion with other wives of the town. Obviously not getting anywhere, most of the women would rather talk about cleaning tasks and meal preparations. They come to the conclusion that Stepford's water supply might be contaminated. They seek the advice of a scientist, but they're still unsuccessful in uncovering anything.
Walter's been acting very strange lately as well, spending too much time with the mens' club, and Joanna and Bobbie decide to move out of the town as-soon-as-possible, but Walter needs to stay in town for awhile on some sort of business. Bobbie suddenly becomes like all of the other wholesome Stepford wives, and Joanna's the only one left to discover the shocking, chilling secret.
This 1975 PG-rated film, based on the novel by Ira Levin (author of Rosemary's Baby, which was also made into a film), is pretty slow-moving, but the premise turns into a suspenseful and shocking end that sent chills down my spine. The direction is by Brian Forbes, with William Goldman writing the script, which produced a film that received a cult following, even the title widely known by many.
It didn't hold my interest very much at all, but I just had to watch it, because I sit through pratically everything! I kept on wondering who Joanna Eberhart was played by, because the actress looked very much like Meredith Baxter of the '80s TV sitcom Family Ties, but I learned it was Katharine Ross, who delivered a fine performance, up to the last minute, when she goes through sheer madness and disbelief. Followed by many made-for-TV sequels (which I yet have to see), this is recommended to anyone, but it's pace is just a bit too slow (running at 115 minutes). Give it a look, as it's recently been re-released by Anchor Bay Entertainment to VHS and DVD.
