7 Women (1966)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Norah Lofts (short story "Chinese Finale")
Janet Green (writer) ...

Release Date:

24 March 1966 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A Story of Flame and Fury, Faith and Fear, Love and Adventure

Plot:

Legendary director John Ford's final film involving seven dedicated missionary women in China circa 1935 trying to protect themselves from the advances of a Mongolian barbaric warlord and his cut-throat gang of warriors.

Plot Keywords:

Mission | Missionary | Warlord | China | Sacrifice

Cast

Anne Bancroft	...	Dr. D.R. Cartwright
Sue Lyon	...	Emma Clark, Mission Staff
Margaret Leighton	...	Agatha Andrews, Head of Mission
Flora Robson	...	Miss Binns, Head of British Mission
Mildred Dunnock	...	Jane Argent, Andrews' Assistant
Betty Field	...	Mrs. Florrie Pether, Charles' pregnant wife
Anna Lee	...	Mrs. Russell, Mission Staff
Eddie Albert	...	Charles Pether, Mission Teacher
Mike Mazurki	...	Tunga Khan, Bandit Leader
Woody Strode	...	Lean Warrior
Jane Chang	...	Miss Ling, Mission Staff
Hans William Lee	...	Kim, Mission Staff
H.W. Gim	...	Coolie
Irene Tsu	...	Chinese Girl

Also Known As:

Chinese Finale (USA) (working title)
Seven Women (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:18 (f) | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Anne Bancroft replaced Patricia Neal when Neal suffered a stroke during filming.

Quotes:

Dr. D.R. Cartwright: [to Tunga Khan, Bandit Leader] So long, ya bastard!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Le fantôme d'Henri Langlois (2004)

Under-rated Swan Song

"Seven Women" is the last feature film of John Ford, arguably the greatest director the United States has yet produced. After a half century of film making, Ford ended his fabled career with a wide screen feature about women in peril at a Chinese mission. Infirm and alcoholic, he filmed it on an MGM sound stage; MGM then cut it and tossed it away on the bottom half of a double bill.

Today, the film is little known and seldom seen. It is far from Ford's best work, yet there is power and believability in many of the lead performances, and power in the arc of the story. Anne Bancroft shines as a feisty New York doctor who ultimately sacrifices herself to save the other missionaries -- many whom she doesn't agree with -- from brutal deaths at the hands of Chinese bandits. Her work here is more forceful and better realized than her role of Mrs. Robinson, done two years later.

The best gift MGM/Sony could give lovers of serious cinema is a clean print of this forgotten film. Its sets are often glaringly artificial, and some of the secondary players are over the top (an old weakness of Ford's) as well as miscast, but "7W" is a far better film than Hollywood legend has told us.