Just like the criticism from feminists that Laurel & Hardy rarely paint a realistic picture of a wife, girlfriend, or woman in their films (Mae Busch is certainly one tough customer against them), the writer - cartoonist James Thurber was also accused of misogyny. His female characters are eccentric, blasé about the worst tragedies that befall male characters (a woman confronts a hippopotamus in the jungle, and we see the remains of a man's clothing and property on the ground - "Just what did you do with Dr. Millmoss?" she asks waving her finger in the hippo's face, like she is a kindergarten teacher), and frequently fully ready to do battle to the death for domination of their male counterparts. So women do have a point, but Thurber is equally critical about the men who inhabit his planet too. All too frequently they are cowardly - witness his greatest fictional character, "Walter Mitty", who retreats into fantasy to survive a dreadful life.
Thurber did a series of cartoons entitled "The War Between Men and Women" that traces a genuine war between the sexes. It does end with a male victory (femenists please note). But he also wrote this short story, "THE CAT BIRD'S SEAT" which is like an expanded version of an earlier tale called "THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN". In both, a Walter Mitty type man is confronted by a dominating wife or woman, and manages to turn the table on her by "proving" to the people who matter that the woman is crazy.
"THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN" was actually a Thurber fable, and it has been made into several films or television episodes (one was on MY WORLD AND WELCOME TO IT). THE CAT BIRD'S SEAT is a little different. It turned out to be made into a film only once - in 1959, and in Great Britain - not the United States. It's stars are Peter Sellers, as a meek Scotsman working in a century old textile firm in Edinburgh. It's current owner is Robert Morley, who has more money than sense. Morley has spent most of his time in London, so he has forgotten that the great capital of the North is a slower, more traditional place than the hated southern capital. Morley has met Constance Cummings, an energetic American businesswoman, who has depressed the morale of the American firm she has been working for. In fact, when the film begins, Cummings is told (rather cruelly by a drunken Donald Pleasance) that he was told to accompany her to London not for business conferences, but to unceremoniously dump her as she was boarding a train. Her male counterparts (including Pleasance) are entirely upset at her showing them up by her superior abilities and energy. Hence the way they drop her.
Morley is too fatuous to understand what a danger this woman will be to his staff. He is just impressed at her stroking his ego, and her big ideas about expanding business by modernizing equipment and processes that have stood the test of time. Sellers, the business manager when Morley is usually away, watches with horror as a complicated inter office intercom system is put in for the staff to use to contact each other (rather than just walking over to each other's desk). The wisdom of this development is shown to Morley when one of his employees (while trying to get a cup of tea) pushes the wrong button and says something insulting about Morley in his hearing.
Other innovations are coming, and Morley is certainly under Cummings' thumb. Sellers comes up with the idea of killing the American, and goes to her apartment. But at the last moment he just can't bring himself to do it. Instead, Cummings unwittingly gives him a better idea. Who'd believe he would ever visit her at night at her apartment? Taking advantage of this, he starts telling her his wild "plan" to get rid of Morley and take over the firm with Cummings as his partner lover. He convinces her that he means business, and she tries to warn Morley, who has shown up for dinner. But Sellers, Morley, and Cummings (in a well choreographed sequence) keep missing each other in the apartment, so that the next day Sellers can deny he ever was there. Which may lead to Cummings leaving the firm. Or will it?
As a follow - up to THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY and THE MALE ANIMAL, THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES is worthy to be watched with them. Despite the expansion of the story to give it the Scottish atmosphere, and Morley's fatuous boss, everything works. And as with WALTER MITTY, after you've seen this read THE CAT BIRD'S SEAT to see what was the original tale like.
Thurber did a series of cartoons entitled "The War Between Men and Women" that traces a genuine war between the sexes. It does end with a male victory (femenists please note). But he also wrote this short story, "THE CAT BIRD'S SEAT" which is like an expanded version of an earlier tale called "THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN". In both, a Walter Mitty type man is confronted by a dominating wife or woman, and manages to turn the table on her by "proving" to the people who matter that the woman is crazy.
"THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN" was actually a Thurber fable, and it has been made into several films or television episodes (one was on MY WORLD AND WELCOME TO IT). THE CAT BIRD'S SEAT is a little different. It turned out to be made into a film only once - in 1959, and in Great Britain - not the United States. It's stars are Peter Sellers, as a meek Scotsman working in a century old textile firm in Edinburgh. It's current owner is Robert Morley, who has more money than sense. Morley has spent most of his time in London, so he has forgotten that the great capital of the North is a slower, more traditional place than the hated southern capital. Morley has met Constance Cummings, an energetic American businesswoman, who has depressed the morale of the American firm she has been working for. In fact, when the film begins, Cummings is told (rather cruelly by a drunken Donald Pleasance) that he was told to accompany her to London not for business conferences, but to unceremoniously dump her as she was boarding a train. Her male counterparts (including Pleasance) are entirely upset at her showing them up by her superior abilities and energy. Hence the way they drop her.
Morley is too fatuous to understand what a danger this woman will be to his staff. He is just impressed at her stroking his ego, and her big ideas about expanding business by modernizing equipment and processes that have stood the test of time. Sellers, the business manager when Morley is usually away, watches with horror as a complicated inter office intercom system is put in for the staff to use to contact each other (rather than just walking over to each other's desk). The wisdom of this development is shown to Morley when one of his employees (while trying to get a cup of tea) pushes the wrong button and says something insulting about Morley in his hearing.
Other innovations are coming, and Morley is certainly under Cummings' thumb. Sellers comes up with the idea of killing the American, and goes to her apartment. But at the last moment he just can't bring himself to do it. Instead, Cummings unwittingly gives him a better idea. Who'd believe he would ever visit her at night at her apartment? Taking advantage of this, he starts telling her his wild "plan" to get rid of Morley and take over the firm with Cummings as his partner lover. He convinces her that he means business, and she tries to warn Morley, who has shown up for dinner. But Sellers, Morley, and Cummings (in a well choreographed sequence) keep missing each other in the apartment, so that the next day Sellers can deny he ever was there. Which may lead to Cummings leaving the firm. Or will it?
As a follow - up to THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY and THE MALE ANIMAL, THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES is worthy to be watched with them. Despite the expansion of the story to give it the Scottish atmosphere, and Morley's fatuous boss, everything works. And as with WALTER MITTY, after you've seen this read THE CAT BIRD'S SEAT to see what was the original tale like.