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5.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Woman in Command remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for 1930s British stage-style comedy that refuses to sit still. You'll probably love this if you enjoy watching a lead actress act like a human tornado. If you need a movie that makes any kind of sense, or if you get annoyed by people shouting at each other for ninety minutes, you will absolutely hate it.
Cicely Courtneidge is doing some heavy lifting here. She’s essentially playing three different characters at once, or at least that’s what it feels like when she gets going. There’s a scene where she’s trying to assert authority that feels like watching someone try to conduct an orchestra with a wet noodle. It’s glorious.
Edward Everett Horton shows up, and you just know he’s going to play the confused, slightly nervous guy. He does it well enough, I guess. He’s the perfect foil to her steamroller energy. It reminded me a bit of the frantic pacing in When the Cat's Away, where the plot is just an excuse to see how many props can be broken in a single room.
It’s not trying to be All Is Lost, thank god. It’s just a romp. The whole film feels like it was put together with scotch tape and pure adrenaline. Sometimes the camera just lingers on a reaction shot a second too long, making the whole thing feel like a silent film that forgot it was allowed to talk.
I wouldn't call this a masterpiece. I wouldn't even call it a *good* movie by modern standards. But there’s something about the way Courtneidge just refuses to let the movie fail. She grabs it by the scruff of the neck and forces it to be funny. You don't see that kind of stubbornness much these days. It’s messy, it’s loud, and the audio quality sounds like it was recorded inside a tin can. Still better than most things on streaming right now. 🍿
IMDb 6.4
1915
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