HMWYBS: Wonder Woman: The Feminine Mystique (1976)
Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 1:09AM For this week's edition of Hit Me With Your Best Shot with Warner Bros Wonder Woman (2017) finally hitting movie theaters, we're taking a trip back to the mid 70s when the world's most famous superheroine made her most famous trek into live-action. Lynda Carter first came to fame by winning a national beauty contest in 1972 (the awkwardly titled "Miss World America") and Wonder Woman was her big break after a few low profile gigs. She starred as the Amazon princess for three seasons stretching from the pilot's airing in November 1975 through the finale in September 1979.
We're looking at a two part episode "The Feminine Mystique" for this week's 'choose your favorite image' exercize because they're well remembered episodes and because they co-star 80s movie star Debra Winger who is currently back onscreen in The Lovers. Ready? Board your invisible jet and meet me after the jump...
The Feminine Mystique (S1:E5-6)
Captain America isn't the only hero whose origin story has stayed firmly planted in World War II. Like Steve Rogers, she first came to global fame fighting Nazis and like the good Captain became a contemporary heroine too (through Amazon rarely-aging genetics or something?). The first season of Wonder Woman takes place during WW II and in this episode the Nazis inadvertently learn the location of Paradise Island (Thanks for nothing, Wonder Girl!) and plan to attack and get all the "feminum" super metal for themselves to deflect Allied bullets. They'll be unstoppable in war.
What is it with super hero and genre narratives and magic metals? Adamantium, Vibranium, Unobtainum, Feminum. Never mind. There's probably a thesis paper somewhere about that. If not there should be!
Bronze Medal Best Shot
Bronze Medal: the Amazonian secret of sudden glamour. It's all in how you spin!In one scene Wonder Girl, attempting a rescue herself, tries to change into her own super costume and fails. She has to think back (Flashback alert!) to the spinning lesson on Paradise Island. Here we see future Oscar darling Debra Winger as Drusilla watching her mother Queen Hippolyta (Oscar nominee Carolyn Jones who is surely best remembered for playing Morticia Addams in The Addams Family series) train her older sister Diana (Lynda Carter) in the art of spinning so that your can change clothes.
That's silly and campy, sure, but if you stop to think about it an incredibly useful superpower. I love this image because it gets the camp and color of the TV series but also its 70s era version of girlpower which is steeped in the male gaze (the amazons all wear micro skirts that are often sheer covering what amounts to bathing suits) but also unapologetically feminine.
Silver Medal Best Shot
When the Nazi's capture Paradise Island they force the Amazons to strip the feminum mine and we learn that the Nazi powers that be want all the Amazons kept alive. Over a beautiful image of Diana and sisters panning for feminum in the water, this disturbing line.
We're to send them to Berlin for study and possible breeding.
Whaaa. I don't remember this ickiness from childhood. Will Yeoman Diana Prince suddenly be renamed "Ofsteve"?
One of the strangest things about the Seventies series is its mixture of romantic devotion and asexuality. If you stripped any of the character's dolls of their costume, none would have genitals. But Diana is obviously totally in love with Steve Trevor throughout the series. Steve seems unaware of his feelings for her, and totally non-threatened by Wonder Woman always coming to his rescue. There's a weird moment in this episode where Diana tells her mother that Steve "doesn't have a devious bone in his body" and Wonder Girl, sassily responds back "you would know" which sounds like a joke about Steve's boner... but it couldn't be.
In a climactic moment late in the two-parter, Wonder Woman who has defeated the Nazis, races back to the United States to save Steve Trevor. He doesn't know about the Nazi agent in his midst whose going to fly away with the new hightech military plane (long story) and Diana is off to stop the plane on foot.
Even now as an adult that knows these old shows were underbudgeted, haphazardly filmed, and kinda bad (we're decades away from "peak tv" still) there's a thrill when she springs into action. Is it leftover nostalgia from childhood or is this just how it always feels when classic heroic characters get their world-saving on?
Gold Medal - Best Shot
Wonder Woman stopping the plane. There's so much power in it. And the nondescript nature of her visual environment -- in this case an air field but in many 70s tv shows its like set decorating hadn't yet been discovered -- really makes her pop like she's coming out of a comic book panel. She is grimacing, really putting her back into it, and her muscles are flexing. (I didn't remember this level of commitment from Lynda Carter because the running and spinning so often looked non-rushed and dainty rather than athletic.)
It's clearly shot in one take -- they were on a budget here! -- and that no-time for perfection somehow makes it even more perfect; Wonder Woman awkwardly fixes her hair while stopping the plane with her bare hands.
Wonder Woman saves the day and gets back in her Diana Prince drag. Dim but gorgeous Steve Trevor jokes about replacing Diana back at their desks.
The truth is you're irreplaceable. And I don't mean just as a secretary."
Wonder Woman may have doubled down with two Amazonian princesses in this early episode but Wonder Woman herself remains a singular icon. She deserves our love and despite all hokey 70s era low budget flaws, she can still set hearts racing. Let's hope the new movie is worthy of her.
Last Week: Moonlight (2016)
Next Tuesday, June 6th: The Parent Trap (1961) - join in!
Reader Comments (8)
Great article! L O V E the fixing the hair moment!
The episode title is actually "The Feminum Mystique."
Nice post!
And, in today's state-the-obvious: damn, Lynda Carter was gorgeous.
That hair-arranging moment is everything
When I was 7, this two-part story was a television EVENT. Great job finding some stand-out shots in a production not known for its artful direction.
Debra Winger may be considered a better actress, but Lynda Carter was perfectly cast and embodied the character of Wonder Woman, in much the same way Christopher Reeve was the perfect Superman. I hope Gal Gadot can also pull it off.
The queen mother was played by a series of Oscar-nominated/winning actresses: Cloris Leachman in the pilot, then Carolyn Jones, followed by Beatrice Straight in the 2nd season.
Did you post our answers?
Rachel -- you were the only one *cries* but I will link you up separately upon my return.. I am on vacation at moment though
Oh bummer. I really enjoyed watching it. I guess I like cheesy vintage TV like that