This movie is a Place in the Sun turned around with a female instead of a male hoping for happiness by means of marrying up. It has always been nicer to be rich than poor, but even more so 90 years ago when being poor meant leading a life of unrelenting drudgery. Young women of today may criticize Alice since they do not understand the context of the time she lived in. Poor people did not have washing machines or vacuum cleaners and could not afford maids; birth control was largely ineffective and often legally and morally condemned; divorce was frowned upon; and employment opportunities for the average woman were limited to dull, low paying jobs. A married woman did not work. That would really have marked the family as low class. Most women would have accepted marrying a $30 a week clerk, living in a shabby rented apartment and cooking and cleaning and raising five children and living hand to mouth. If your husband got drunk and slapped you around, that was just too bad. If you wanted to escape your small town and make it big in the city, you'd more likely have to settle for being a waitress or seamstress, unless you had looks good enough to sell as a taxi dancer or night club chorus girl. However, if you were a respectable poor girl of spirit but unremarkable talents, your best hope was to mingle with the rich folk and be accepted by them. Enter Alice Adams. The rich folk were snobbish about people of Alice's class; so Alice was snobbish to her own family. The rich did not associate with servants and sneered at those who did. Ditto Alice. Alice's mother wanted to spare her daughter the squalid life she had had to endure. Alice had to be pretentious. Unfortunately, pretentious people are not attractive to those in the class they are trying to rise above, or to those in the class they are trying to reach. The window of opportunity is very short. A woman not married by age 26 was an old maid who had to settle for less than she could have gotten six years earlier. The somewhat frantic tone of Alice reflects her awareness that if she's to succeed, it had better be soon. Before judging her character, imagine yourself in her position.
Review of Alice Adams
