Joanna Eberhart (Katherine Ross) and her husband Walter (Peter Masterson) move with their two children to the small idyllic town of Stepford, Connecticut. Joanna is a wanna be photographer and is use to city life. She quickly gets lonely, especially since Walter joins the men’s association in town where he spends most nights. When she begins to meet some of the women she finds that not only do they have nothing in common with her, they all seem to be obsessed with cleaning and primping for their husbands. They are always perfectly manicured and their houses sparkle.
Joanna finally meets Bobbie Markowe (Paula Prentiss). Bobbie is gregarious and slightly unorthodox. To Joanna she is a breath of fresh air. The two get along great and quickly become fast friends. Bobbie has also noticed the unusual way the other women of Stepford behave. They are very subservient to their husbands and frankly rather bland.
They try to start a woman’s liberation association to try to get the other wives interested in thinking for themselves. The only other woman in town they find that doesn’t seem to be under her husband’s thumb is Charmaine Wimperis (Tina Louise). Charmaine is a trophy wife. The idea fizzles at their first meeting. Instead of complaining about oppression they talk about cleaning. The next time they see Charmaine she has turned into the same type of woman as the others in town.
Bobbie begins to think that there is something in the water that is affecting all the women of Stepford. The town is surrounded by chemical plants and electronics companies. Perhaps something is leeching into the water. They take a sample to Joanna’s old boyfriend Raymond Chandler (Robert Fields) but he finds nothing unusual with the water in Stepford.
Joanna agrees to take care of Bobbie’s kid while she and her husband go away for a romantic weekend. When she comes back Bobbie has also changed into a robotic Stepford wife. Joanna now knows that it’s only a matter of time when she too will lose herself in the nightmare of Stepford, Connecticut.
“The Stepford Wives” was released in 1975 and was directed by Bryan Forbes. The movie is based on the book by Ira Levin. It is a horror film that has developed a cult following over the years. Since the book and movie came out the term Stepford Wife, in the American lexicon, has come to mean a dutiful, compliant and servile woman who submits to every whim of her husband in a robotic manner.
The film has gotten a lot of flak for being anti-women. It seems to me to be more anti-men. The film shows the male self-esteem and intelligence as a fragile thing since their egos can’t handle a smart, self-assured independent woman. The proof is in the fact that every Stepford Wife has the same ugly hair-do and pretentious Southern Belle frilly dress. Men in Stepford seem to lack, not only self-esteem but taste as well.
One thing that intrigues me about the movie is the fact that, like in films with a similar theme, the human as a creature of emotion is replaced with something that has no emotion or independent thinking. Our feelings and individuality is what makes us human. Replaced with something that does not have any of those qualities and humans are empty shells. Robots on command.
This theme is also evident in films such as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” 1956, “Invaders From Mars” 1953, just about every zombie movie ever and even Star Trek’s Borg. The thought of a loved one that is not who they were and that someone else or something else is in their body, or even just looks like their body, is frightening. More than that the thought that you could be replaced by someone or something else is even more frightening. Of course the fact that your loved one would prefer an unfeeling robot in your place is unsettling too.