10 Least Romantic Movies Ever Released On Valentine's Day

3. The Stepford Wives (1975)

Silence Of The Lambs Anthony Hopkins
Paramount Pictures

Warren Beatty’s Shampoo was the big studio movie released in time for Valentine’s Day 1975, but also in theaters was an adaptation of an Ira Levin novel about perfect housewives who turn out to be robots.

In suburban Connecticut, the well-to-do husbands belong to a secretive society whose aim is to replace their ambitious, free-thinking wives with automatons. “She cooks as good as she looks,” one member tells a recent initiate, who’s been won over with surprising ease. The wives in Stepford don’t complain or argue or fall ill, they exist to bake cookies, do the housework and please hubby in the bedroom.

Imagine Rosemary’s Baby with the Satanists replaced by slobbish businessmen and you’ve got an idea what’s in store for recent arrivals in the town. The movie did no great business at the American box office, so the Valentine’s Day crowd clearly didn’t warm to its theme.

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'