7 Women

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French movie poster for 7 Women, (Frontière Chinoise)

7 Women, also known as Seven Women, is a 1966 film drama made by MGM. It was directed by John Ford, produced by Bernard Smith and John Ford, from a screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick, based on the story Chinese Finale by Norah Lofts. The music score was by Elmer Bernstein and the cinematography by Joseph LaShelle. This was the last feature film directed by Ford.

The film starred Anne Bancroft, Sue Lyon, Margaret Leighton, Flora Robson, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Anna Lee, with Eddie Albert, Mike Mazurki and Woody Strode.

[edit] Plot

The story takes place in China in 1935 on a remote missionary post.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The mission, made up predominantly of women, is threatened from within as well as from outside. Everything is calm on the surface as the head of the mission, Miss Agatha Andrews (Margaret Leighton) runs things fairly rigidly, self-righteously believing her idea of Christian piety is the only correct way to live. The other women at the mission are Miss Argent (Mildred Dunnock), her loyal assistant; Miss Binns (Flora Robson) and Mrs. Russell (Anna Lee) from the nearby British mission, who are seeking safety from the war atrocities; Mrs. Florrie Pether (Betty Field), whose husband, Charles Pether (Eddie Albert) is a mission teacher and the only male there; Miss Ling (Jane Chang), the demure Chinese mission teacher and translator and Emma Clark (Sue Lyon), a member of the staff and the youngest girl at the mission.

Neurotic tension is brewing and Miss Andrews soon turns out to be a repressed lesbian, the object of whose affection is Emma. The arrival of an elegant, humanistic, cynical, atheist doctor, Dr. Cartwright (Anne Bancroft), soon disrupts the fragile peace, especially when Emma becomes the doctor's admirer. Cartwright stands apart from the group of women and she and Andrews clash over Cartwright's attitude, her profane speech, her smoking, and her total lack of interest in participating in the daily prayers. Florrie is pregnant but fears she is too old to give birth without problems. Cartwright has to deal with the pregnant woman giving birth in very primitive conditions, then a cholera outbreak, and finally an attack by Mongol marauders who commit atrocities, gross indignities, and acts of barbarism. She inspires the women to great bravery and they manage to cope with extremely dangerous situations, but in the end Cartwright is forced to offer herself up to the the Mongol leader, Tunga Khan (Mike Mazurki), as a concubine to save the group. This sets a rift among the missionaries with Agatha appalled by Cartwright's decision, while Miss Binns applauds her courage and spirit. Each member of the group offers a different response to the danger, which gives the film a certain depth and diversity. At the film's conclusion, Cartwright toasts her captor Tunga Khan with a poisoned cup of tea which he drinks and immediately keels over as she coldly utters: "So long ya bastard!"