7 Women

John Ford's last film is a real head-scratcher. 7 Women (1966) is a gender-bending anti-Western, with a mostly-female cast fending off savages in 1930's China. A film that will interest auteurists and feminist-inclined critics, it doesn't live up to its interesting premise, providing a well-acted but inert drama.

Seven Christian missionaries are operating in 1930's China under the strict control of the fanatical Mrs. Andrews (Margaret Leighton). The tough American Doctor D.R. Cartwright (Anne Bancroft) arrives to help with a cholera epidemic, her brusque ways immediately aggravating the uptight missionaries. Things grow worse when a band of Mongol thugs led by Tunga Khan (Mike Mazurski) show up and take the women hostage. In an attempt to save her colleagues, Cartwright agrees to survive as Tunga Khan's concubine, plotting an ingenious revenge.

Ford's oeuvre has its share of strong female characters: Edna May Oliver in Drums Along the Mohawk, Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath. But 7 Women is still an unexpected film. It has the structure and feel of a Western, save the setting, with seven very different female protagonists. The only major male character, the teacher Mr. Pether (Eddie Albert), is ineffectual, cast in a "feminine" occupation and dies in a futile gesture at reclaiming manhood (or something); his wife (Betty Palmer) survives, giving birth to a baby under siege, in an echo of Stagecoach. The movie is definitely a celebration of feminine strength, and this is its primary virtue.

One could perhaps quibble with Ford's portrayal of said women: he invites us to see at least the leads as transgendered men, with Cartwright's masculine dress and vulgar demeanor, and Andrews's implied lesbianism. Personally, however, I have little use for feminist twaddle, with its close-minded dogmas. I find Ford admirably employing an interesting cross-section of strong women. Anyone expecting a Zulu-in-drag style siege will be let down, as the women react in different ways to their predicament, forcing Cartwright to take command. The movie scores points for its brilliant ending, and perhaps the best closing line outside of The Professionals.

This feminist reading makes the movie sound a lot more interesting than it actually is. 7 Women is dull and slow for most of its length, as if Ford and writers Janet Green and John McCormack thought the premise alone would carry the film. A half-baked rivalry between Cartwright and Andrews goes nowhere, and lots of talky scenes drag down the story. The actual arrival of the Mongols is anti-climactic, and the story drifts afterwards: an off-screen rape and Cartwright's noble sacrifice provide the only real drama. The Cartwright-Andrews clash defuses as Andrews goes bananas, and the Mongols seem too dumb to be a real threat. Ford's claustrophobic, set-bound direction doesn't help either, though Elmer Bernstein's rousing score is excellent.

The movie's positive female characters are off-set by its racist supporting cast. The Chinese are mostly complacent nobodies, gratefully accepting help or fleeing Tunga Khan's thugs. The Mongol villains are monosyllabic, lusty cavemen who make Ford's portrayal of Indians look progressive; having obviously non-Asian actors - Ford regulars Mike Mazurki and Woody Strode - play them doesn't help. Ford seemed to have difficulty juggling his portrayal of minorities: he similarly ennobled African-American soldiers in Sergeant Rutledge only to demonize Native Americans.

The cast is the primary reason to watch. Anne Bancroft gives a fabulous performance: she's convincingly tough and self-reliant, and her sacrifice towards the end seems wholly germane to her character. Margaret Leighton (Under Capricorn) is excellent in the first half, only to descend into boring hysteria later on. Sue Lyon (Lolita) is under-used. Flora Robson (55 Days at Peking) and Anna Lee (Hangmen Also Die!) also stand out.

7 Women seems like it ought to be something special, as both John Ford's final film, and a movie decidedly unlike most of his work. Sadly, it ends up more a bizarre curio than anything else.