Three female employees Judy Bernly, Violet Newstead and Doralee Rhodes have become truly sick of working for Franklin Hart Jr who is sexist, egotistical, liar and hypocritical bigot that they manage to turn the tables on him, even if it begins as an accident!
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Judy had recently started to working in the office and did not have a lot of experience. She is introduced around by Violet Newstead who such be in a much higher position due to her knowledge, experience and work ethic but with being female she is massively discriminated against. Doralee Rhodes is the secretary/assistant to Franklin Hart and must put up with his inappropriate sexual comments and advances constantly. The thing is though most of the office actually think she is having an affair with him, which could not be further from the truth.
When Violet was asked to make coffee one day for Hart she was so annoyed and not thinking straight that she believed she put poison in the cup, although little did she know that he didn't drink it and just happened to fall and bump his head. Being taken to hospital in an ambulance got everyone talking and Doralee went with him due to his wife being away on a cruise. Judy attempts to help Violet and they both go to the hospital to meet Doralee. Wires are quickly cost and they think he has died, this is when the film totally goes crazy in the best possible way!
Violet even steals the body to try and hide the crime she thought she committed with the help of the other two women. When they eventually look at the body they see it isn't actually him, then when arriving at work the next day there Hart is absolutely fine. Roz the busybody of the office listens to conversations in the bathroom and reports back to Hart, this is when the fact they thought they killed him is revealed. He attempts to have some fun with it but fully backfires on him.
That is something that is so pleasing to witness as he is a total horrible creep! That made me think that this film from 1980, yes really was so ahead of its time in terms of highlighting the sexual abuse women had to put up with in the workplace. The worst thing about it was that people probably just accepted it and now in 2021 its still something that has been highlighted in recent years and is an issue.
Anyway our three heroines end up keeping Hart as a hostage within his own home and covering for his absence at work, which means they all manage to put there own stamp on the office and make it a much nicer and better place to work. The full workforce are a lot happier and I think that was certainly the big point the film was making, that women have some great ideas and should be in positions to make them happen. With all that the craziness going on it also manages to have some truly funny and amusing moments as well as a girl power friendship message that is something else we often forget about today.
I seriously have no idea how I had never actually watched this film up until now, I mean the song 9 to 5 (which was written for this film) was always one of my favourites when out drinking/clubbing all of those years ago, it was certainly the song I requested the most as it was just the best to dance to!
Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton are all just amazing in the film and could not pick out of the three who gave the best performance as I felt they were all on par with the very different characters they portrayed on screen, but managing to show just how well three very different women can come together for the greater good. I guess fair play to Dabney Coleman for taking on the role of Hart full well knowing everyone would really hate that character!
A true joy of a film.
