Cinema Sunday: 9 To 5

 

A couple of weeks ago for a movie night here at the Fortress of Ineptitude, it was Andrea's choice which is the topic of today's Cinema Sunday.  It's the 1980 comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton called....

Well, there's some confusion as to what it's called.

Almost every resource I can find calls the movie "9 To 5".

The opening titles calls it "Nine To Five".

Go figure. 

The movie poster is no help. The logo says "9 To 5" but right below that is "Nine To Five".

It's about three working women who dream of getting revenge on their "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss and then stuff 'n' junk happen that leads this women to implement a plan to depose their boss once and for all.  

How do we know their boss is a ""sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot"? Well, other than simply acting exactly like a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot", he's also played by Dabney Coleman.  Coleman spent the 1980's playing some form of the "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" in various movies and TV shows.  

A lot of what Dabney Coleman's Frank Hart does to the women in his office borders on an evil caricature but in 1980, it was sadly business as usual. 

Jane Fonda who portrayed former housewife and office newcomer Judy Bernly originally intended to make a film that was more of a serious treatise on the plight of the American working woman.  Instead, a course of using humor as a means to expose the shit women have to put up with in an American office seemed a better way to go. 

Lily Tomlin as Violet Newstead, the long serving and long suffering office professional, is perfectly acerbic and just a bit unhinged as the one that Frank Hart most frequently screws over by denying her promotions and stealing her ideas for his own advancement. 

It is a pleasure watching Dolly Parton as Doralee Rhodes, a sweet natured Southern gal with a stern and steely edge. Frank keeps trying to cajole or coerce Doralee into an affair but she ain't having any of that shit.  Not that it matters to the rest of the office who thinks Doralee is sleeping with the boss and Frank's perfectly willing to let them think that. 

Eventually Judy, Violet and Doralee bond over their mutual loathing of Frank Hart and the sharing of a joint that Violet got from her son. While very high and very hungry, the three women share fantasy sequences of how to put their "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss in his place including a Disney-esque scene where a Snow White like Violet poisons Frank coffee.

Well, it's all in good fun.

Until Violet accidentally poisons Frank's coffee. 

A comedy of errors leads Violet, Judy and Doralee to think Frank is dead which leads Violet to the perfectly reasonable plan to steal Frank's body. Except Frank isn't dead and that body Violet stuffs in her trunk ain't him so....

Frank finds out about the whole "poison" thing forcing Violet, Judy and Doralee to take the initiative to kidnap Frank and hold him captive, all trussed up, in his own home while the women assemble evidence that Frank has been stealing from the company.

And also run the company in Frank's absence while making changes that improve morale, productivity and profits. 

It all almost works.

Until it doesn't.  

But then it does but not in the way the ladies expected. 

9 To 5 is a basic underdog comes out on top story a lot of laughs and a bit of an edge given that women did (and sadly still do) have to put up with the kind of shit that guys like Frank Hart are more than willing to dish out. 

It is a bit convenient how our women stumble on the fact that Frank in addition to him being a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" is also a crook. I think I would've preferred it if Violet's years of experience had allowed them to crack what illegal shenanigans Frank was up to instead of stumbling across  evidence in a drawer in his home. 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Dept

I thought Judy's smarmy ex-husband looked familiar. Seeing as he was played by Lawrence Pressman who was in episodes of M*A*S*H and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Gilmore Girls and Law & Order, so yeah, we've met.  

Sterling Hayden is the company's Chairman of the Board whose most famous prior role was  the deranged General Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubrick's  Dr. Strangelove which I need to write about in this space one day.    

9 To 5 is a snap shot of office life in the 1980s. I recall being at the mercy of electric typewriters and massive Xerox machines in my early office work post college. 

And women then having to put up with having all the responsibilities but none of the privileges of the office while still being expected to look good doing everything with print dresses, polyester blouses, sun tan hose and high heels.  

9 To 5 is a sympathetic and insightful look at the shit women have to put up with while bringing this life to light with a sense of humor and avoiding any didactic preachiness. 

And I can't say enough about Dolly Parton's film debut and her natural ease and charm in front of the camera.  

Let's wrap up today's post with Dolly's theme for the movie which she wrote and performed, winning her some Grammy awards along the way. 

Next week, Cinema Sunday  takes a look another movie that was conceived as one kind of movie and became something else.