The Battle of the Sexes

Summary

Beneath the chromium shimmer of Jazz-Age Manhattan, Frank Andrews—retail magnate, paterfamilias, and self-anointed monarch of his mahogany-lined penthouse—succumbs to the vertiginous allure of Vida, the panther-like vamp whose every eyelash flickers like a metronome of doom. Their clandestine pas de deux, scored by nightclub saxophones and the hiss of bootleg gin, detonates the domestic diorama he once prized: wife Margaret’s lace collar wilts, son Billy’s model-airplane glue dries unopened, daughter Jane’s ivory shoulders quake under the revelation that her idolized sire is mortal clay. Cinematographer Alvin K. Bressler turns brownstone corridors into Piranesian labyrinths where shadows devour moral certainties; the city itself becomes a phosphorescent serpent coiling around Frank’s conscience. When Jane, mascara streaked like war paint, barges into Vida’s boudoir with a pearl-gripped revolver, the scene combusts into a chiaroscuro standoff: predator and prey swap roles in a heartbeat, innocence weaponized against experience. The true detonation, though, is rhetorical—Frank’s tremulous “What are you doing here?” met by Jane’s whispered ricochet, “What are you doing here?”—a filial coup de grâce that cleaves patriarchal delusion at the root. In the aftermath, dawn spangles the East River like shattered absinthe glass; father and daughter limp home toward an uncertain redemption, leaving Vida’s laughter echoing like chromium shrapnel down the corridor.

Synopsis

Frank Andrews is a successful businessman. He has always found pride and joy in the company of his wife, son and daughter. He suddenly finds himself enthralled by the advances of a gay young woman siren, who lives in the same apartment house as he does. So marked an influence does she have over him as time progresses that at last he quite forgets his home ties, neglects his family, and goes the way of many other men who have forgotten the meaning of paternity and blood ties. The story is advanced through many scenes enacted with the accompanying notes of New York's night life, and the denouement comes when the faithful wife discovers her husband's infidelity. At this time the mother's mind nearly loses balance, while Jane, the beautiful daughter, crazed by the grief of her mother, determines to take part in the tragedy. With revolver in hand she steals up to the apartment of the woman, but her frail nature is overcome by the temperamental anger of the woman and her mission fails. However, the errand is not fraught with failure for the father, coming in at this moment, finds his daughter being made love to by the sweetheart of the young woman, and realizes the road upon which he has traveled. When he confronts his daughter and says, "You, my daughter, what are you doing here?" The daughter answers, "My father, what are you doing here?" The realization is brought home to the father's mind that the law of moral ethics that governs a woman's life necessarily governs that of wan as well. Reformation comes in his character. He takes his daughter away with him and together they go back to their home of happiness and content.