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Bookmark this pageThe Gentle Sex (1943)
Director: Leslie Howard
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Howard's silly framework for this account of the initiation of seven women into the army is annoying and patronising; but beneath the sugary surface there is a frank acknowledgment of the changes wrought by the war. Under the inspired leadership of a wily, sweet-sucking Glaswegian (John), the group grasp their opportunities to become gunners and lorry-drivers with both hands, and unlike the women in the more widely lauded Millions Like Us, without the approval and support of men. The documentary realism necessary to fulfil the film's propagandist function is extended by Howard into a welcoming, if rather bemused celebration of the new equality between the sexes. A fascinating barometer of the changing moral climate of the '40s.Author: RMy
Cast & crew
Director: Leslie Howard
Producer: Leslie Howard, Derrick de Marney
Cast: Rosamund John, Joan Greenwood, Lilli Palmer, Joan Gates, Jean Gillie, Joyce Howard, Barbara Waring, Leslie Howard full cast
Duration: 93 mins
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