Rosalind Russell is best remembered for numerous roles in 1930s and 1940s comedies as high-powered career women (executives, judges, psychiatrists) caught between the problems of ambition and independence, and romantic notions of love and domesticity. Russell was allowed to dominate many of her scenes in these films, playing with power, verve, and perfect comic timing as her roles reversed and questioned gender relationships and exemplified the dilemmas facing women in the war period and beyond. But these roles were played out in the relatively safe haven of comedy and with the promise she would, in the last reel, settle down to domestic bliss with the right man.

Further Reading:

Basinger, Jeannine. A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women. New York, Random House, 1993.

Russell, Rosalind, and Chris Chase. Life Is a Banquet. New York, Random House, 1977.