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The Stepford Wives
Series: BFI Film Classics
Brief Description
On arrival in Stepford, Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross) starts to notice something strange about the town’s women. They all seem perfectly poised, flawlessly beautiful and obsessed with housework—a parody of femininity. As Joanna attempts to settle in, she befriends the only other person in town who...
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The Stepford Wives
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A study of the 1975 dystopian horror movie The Stepford Wives in the BFI Film Classics series
A study of the 1975 dystopian horror movie The Stepford Wives in the BFI Film Classics series
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Description
On arrival in Stepford, Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross) starts to notice something strange about the town’s women. They all seem perfectly poised, flawlessly beautiful and obsessed with housework—a parody of femininity. As Joanna attempts to settle in, she befriends the only other person in town who seems to be like her, Bobby Markowe (Paula Prentiss), and together they start to explore what is happening to the women of Stepford.
The Stepford Wives (1975) is a horror film about replacing women, responding to the concerns of second-wave feminism epitomised by Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963), the inspiration for Ira Levin’s 1972 source novel. Fifty years after its release, its themes of control over women’s bodies remain pertinent in a world of online performative portrayals of the #tradwife and the partial reversal of the provisions established by Roe v. Wade (1973).
Drawing on new archival research, Paul Moody explores the tensions that played out during the film’s production, including the firing of lead actors and clashes between the director, Bryan Forbes, and the screenwriter, the Academy Award-winning William Goldman. He argues that the real story of Stepford is the role played by the various women involved in the film’s production, many of whom have been omitted from the narratives told about the movie and the indelible legacy it has left on popular culture.
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781805750543
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 03 September 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: BFI Publishing
Illustration: 60 colour illus
Audience: Tertiary education
DIMENSIONS
Width: 135.0mm
Height: 190.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 96
About the Author
Paul Moody is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at Brunel University of London. He is the author of EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema (2018) and the forthcoming Hollywood’s Ambassadors: The State Department and the Battle for the Global Film Industry (2027).
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