Everything went downhill when that obnoxiously loud servant girl join in.
My queer self was expecting some gay sub-narrative but everything turned out to be perfectly cliche (and freaking damn heterosexual). However, I don’t think me being queer really was the problem, because the punchlines are as glib and shallow as an expired cream cake. This movie showed perfectly how structurally oppressed females were during that time - they are expected to fit into certain dress and behavioural codes, and only for male’s pleasure; their lives are terribly limited. And the filmmaker never thought of challenging it even a tiny bit in the film. He certainly had NO feminist thinking at all when he established so many binary gender dynamics. The female characters were coy and shallow, while the male characters were vulgar, impolite and greasy.
In a word - the concept of all the “disguised as male” idea is indeed fascinating and, with certain mindset, it could have turned out to be deep and meaningful. But the filmmaker ruined the beautiful potential of exploring/revealing gender norms, let alone surpass it.
The plot was rubbish too. Don’t even make me start. Skip this film and you won’t miss a thing - I recommend Notorious, even The Philadelphia Story if you’re into comedies.
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