John Ford’s last directorial feature 7 Women, an adaptation of the short story Chinese Finale by Norah Lofts, addresses the timeless values of courage and selflessness against the measurers of sin and morals. And all of this in China!
Of the titular seven women, all part of an American Christian mission in a small Chinese town in the mid-1930s, the dramatic tension unfolds between two: the mission’s head Miss Agatha Andrews (Margaret Leighton) and Dr. D. R. Cartwright (Anne Bancroft) who has just arrived from Chicago to offer medical care to the mission and its local followers. The two women, polar opposites in personality and morals, confront each other while the mission is just moments away from being attacked by a barbaric Mongolian gang.
7 Women is historical drama in the background and a 20th-Century morality play on the cinematic stage. Ford pits judgmental morals of authority, aka Miss Andrews, against the courage to act that really saves the day, in other words Dr. Cartwright. At the same time, the story highlights the liberating side of the feminist movement pushing against the traditional Christian woman’s worldview in the west. Notably, the events unfold in China and the savage Mongolian is made the immediate threat, equivalent figuratively to a demonic attack on the virtuous.
For all viewing and critique, 7 Women is predominantly a character-driven story. While the supporting characters are all made dependent on the two lead females, authority flips out of Miss Andrews’s role and right into Dr. Cartwright’s character with the mission’s captivity by the gang of Tunga Khan (Mike Mazurki). Only toward the end, though, does the movie’s crux come out in its relation to faith. Ford leaves the question and the right to answer it with the audience.
The case for 7 Women as a faith film could be argued. The question of faith remains perceptible throughout the story but not as prominently as in traditional faith films. It sits more comfortably in the drama seat while Ford takes his credit as a legendary director and leaves the audience.
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060050/
