The Women (1939 film)
Encyclopedia
The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film
directed by George Cukor
. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce
's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos
and Jane Murfin
, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code
in order for it to be released.
The film was a success. It starred Norma Shearer
, Joan Crawford
, Rosalind Russell
, Paulette Goddard
, Joan Fontaine
, Lucile Watson
, Mary Boland
, and Virginia Grey
, as well as Marjorie Main
and Phyllis Povah
, the last two of whom reprised their stage roles from the play. Florence Nash
, Ruth Hussey
, Virginia Weidler
, Butterfly McQueen
, and Hedda Hopper
also appeared in smaller roles. As of August 2011, Fontaine is the only surviving actress with a credited role in the film.
The film continued the play's all-female tradition—the entire cast of more than 130 speaking roles was female. Set in the glamorous Manhattan
apartments of high society evoked by Cedric Gibbons
, and in Reno
where they obtain their divorces, it presents an acidic commentary on the pampered lives and power struggles of various rich, bored wives and other women they come into contact with.
Throughout The Women, not a single male is seen — although the males are much talked about, and the central theme is the women's relationships with them. Lesbianism is intimated in the portrayal of only one character, Nancy Blake. The attention to detail was such that even in props such as portraits only female figures are represented, and several animals which appeared as pets were also female. The only exceptions are a poster-drawing clearly of a bull in the fashion show segment and an ad on the back of the magazine Peggy reads at Mary's house before lunch.
Filmed in black and white, it includes a ten-minute fashion
parade filmed in Technicolor
, featuring Adrian
's most outré designs; often cut in modern screenings, it has been restored by Turner Classic Movies
. On DVD
, the original black and white fashion show, which is a different take, is available for the first time.
), the cheerful, contented wife of Stephen and mother of Little Mary (Virginia Weidler
). After a bit of gossip flies around the salon these wealthy women visit, Mary's cousin Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell
) learns from a manicurist that Mary's husband has been having an affair with a predatory perfume counter girl named Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford
). A notorious gossip, Sylvia delights in sharing the news with Mary's friends; she sets up Mary with an appointment with the same manicurist so that she hears the rumor about Stephen's infidelity.
While Mary's mother (Lucile Watson
) urges her to ignore the gossip, Mary begins to have her own suspicions about her husband's increasingly frequent claims that he needs to work late. She decides to travel to Bermuda with her mother to think about the situation and hope the rumors will fade. Upon her return, Mary heads to a fashion show and learns that Crystal is in attendance, trying on clothes in a dressing room. Mary, at Sylvia's insistence, confronts her about the affair, but Crystal is completely unapologetic and slyly suggests that Mary keep the status quo unless she wants to lose Stephen in a divorce. Heartbroken and humiliated, Mary leaves quickly. The gossip continues, exacerbated by Sylvia and her friend Edith (Phyllis Povah
), who turns the affair into a public scandal by recounting Sylvia's version of the story to a notorious gossip columnist. Mary chooses to divorce her husband despite his efforts to convince her to stay. Mary explains the divorce to Little Mary.
On a train to Reno, where she will get her divorce, Mary meets several women with the same destination and purpose: the dramatic, extravagant Countess de Lave (Mary Boland
); Miriam Aarons (Paulette Goddard
), a tough-cookie chorus girl, and, to her surprise, her friend Peggy Day (Joan Fontaine
), a shy young woman. Mary and her new friends settle in at a Reno ranch, where they get plenty of unsolicited advice from Lucy (Marjorie Main
), the gruffly warm-hearted woman who runs the ranch. The Countess tells tales of her multiple husbands and seems to have found another prospect in Reno, a cowboy named Buck Winston. Miriam reveals she has been having an affair with Sylvia Fowler's husband and plans to marry him. Peggy, who has discovered that she is pregnant, is urged to call her husband, resolve their misunderstanding and end the divorce proceedings, which she successfully does. Sylvia arrives at the ranch, now that her husband has requested a divorce("Well girls: move over."). When she discovers that Miriam is to become the new Mrs. Fowler, a catfight ensues. Mary succeeds in breaking up the fight. Miriam convinces her that she, too, should forget her pride, get her husband on the phone and try to patch things up before their divorce becomes legal in a few hours. Before Mary can decide, it rings — the call is from Stephen, who informs Mary that he and Crystal have just been married.
Two years pass. At the Haines apartment, Crystal, the new Mrs. Haines, is taking a bubble bath and talking on the phone to her lover, who turns out to be Buck Winston, now the husband of the Countess de Lave (Mary Boland
) and a successful radio star. Little Mary overhears the conversation before being shooed away by Crystal, who, unsurprisingly, has no time or patience for the child. Sylvia figures out with whom Crystal has been speaking and having an affair. Still an unrelenting gossip, Sylvia tucks this information away for later use. Mary hosts a dinner for her Reno friends to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Countess and Buck, after which the Countess, Miriam, and Peggy go to a party and urge Mary to come along. Mary decides to stay home. She chats with Little Mary, who inadvertently reveals how unhappy Stephen is and mentions Crystal's "lovey dovey" talk with Buck on the telephone. This news changes Mary's mind about the party. She gets dressed up, intent on fighting to get her ex back: "I've had two years to grow claws, Mother -- Jungle Red!"
At the party, Mary manages to worm the details of the affair out of Sylvia, then makes sure that a gossip columnist (played by a real-life one, Hedda Hopper
) is alerted to it. Mary tells the Countess that her husband Buck has been having an affair with Crystal, then informs Crystal that everyone knows what she's been doing. Crystal doesn't care and tells Mary she can have Stephen back, since she'll now have Buck to support her. The Countess reveals that she has been funding Buck's radio career and that with Crystal he will be penniless and out of a job. Crystal resigns herself to the fact that she'll be heading to Reno herself and then back to the perfume counter, adding: "And by the way, there's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society -- outside of a kennel."
Mary, triumphant, heads out the door and up the stairs to win back Stephen, who is waiting for her.
bought the book's copyrights for $125,000 and planned on turning it into a Claudette Colbert
vehicle, with Gregory LaCava as the director. In March 1938, Norma Shearer
and Carole Lombard
were in negotiations to star. In November 1938, it was announced Jane Murfin
was busy writing the film's screenplay at MGM. Virginia Weidler
was cast on April 24, 1939.
nominations, many critics now describe it as one of the major films of what was a stellar year in Hollywood film production. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes
, The Women holds a 90% 'Fresh' rating.
It was remade as a 1956 musical
comedy
, The Opposite Sex
, starring June Allyson
, Joan Collins
, and Ann Miller
.
In 2007, The Women was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 2008, Diane English
wrote and directed a remake of the same title
, her feature film directorial debut. The comedy starred Meg Ryan
, Eva Mendes
, Annette Bening
, Jada Pinkett Smith
, Bette Midler
, and Debra Messing
, and was released in 2008 by Picturehouse Entertainment, a sister company to Warner Bros.
(the current owners of the 1939 version through Turner Entertainment
).
. The Technicolor sequence was a fashion show. TCM host Robert Osborne
was talking to director Cukor about The Women and Cukor said that he didn't like the sequence and that he wanted to remove it from the film.
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
directed by George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce was an American playwright, editor, journalist, ambassador, socialite and U.S. Congresswoman, representing the state of Connecticut.-Early life:...
's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos
Anita Loos
Anita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author.-Early life:Born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California , where her father, R. Beers Loos, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher...
and Jane Murfin
Jane Murfin
Jane Murfin was an American playwright and screenwriter.Born in Quincy, Michigan, Murfin began her career with the play Lilac Time, which she co-wrote with Jane Cowl. The Broadway production opened on February 6, 1917 and ran for 176 performances...
, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
in order for it to be released.
The film was a success. It starred Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
, Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
, Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
, Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
, Lucile Watson
Lucile Watson
-Career:Watson began her career on the stage debuting on Broadway in the play Hearts Aflame in 1902. Her next play was The Girl With Green Eyes, the first of several Clyde Fitch stories. At the end of 1903, Lucile appeared in Fitch's "Glad of It"...
, Mary Boland
Mary Boland
-Career:Born Marie Anne Boland in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of William Boland, an actor, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara....
, and Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey was an American actress.She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of ten in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin as Little Eva...
, as well as Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.-Early life and career:...
and Phyllis Povah
Phyllis Povah
Phyllis Povah was an American stage and film actress.Povah made her Broadway theatre debut in Mr. Pim Passes By in 1921 and acted in minor roles in several productions over the next two decades. She achieved a notable success in a featured role in the stage production of The Women, and the play...
, the last two of whom reprised their stage roles from the play. Florence Nash
Florence Nash
Florence Nash was an American actress and author. She was sister to theater and movie actor Mary Nash.-Career:...
, Ruth Hussey
Ruth Hussey
Ruth Carol Hussey was an American actress best known for her Academy Award-nominated role as photographer Elizabeth Imbrie in The Philadelphia Story.-Early life:...
, Virginia Weidler
Virginia Weidler
Virginia Weidler was an American child actress, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life and career:...
, Butterfly McQueen
Butterfly McQueen
Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen was an American actress. Originally a dancer, the 28-year-old McQueen first appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, then continued as an actress in film in the 1940s, then moving to television acting in the 1950s .-Early life:Born...
, and Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
also appeared in smaller roles. As of August 2011, Fontaine is the only surviving actress with a credited role in the film.
The film continued the play's all-female tradition—the entire cast of more than 130 speaking roles was female. Set in the glamorous Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
apartments of high society evoked by Cedric Gibbons
Cedric Gibbons
Austin Cedric Gibbons was an Irish American art director who was one of the most important and influential in the field in the history of American film. He also made a great impact on motion picture theater architecture through the 1930s to 1950s, the period considered the golden-era of theater...
, and in Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
where they obtain their divorces, it presents an acidic commentary on the pampered lives and power struggles of various rich, bored wives and other women they come into contact with.
Throughout The Women, not a single male is seen — although the males are much talked about, and the central theme is the women's relationships with them. Lesbianism is intimated in the portrayal of only one character, Nancy Blake. The attention to detail was such that even in props such as portraits only female figures are represented, and several animals which appeared as pets were also female. The only exceptions are a poster-drawing clearly of a bull in the fashion show segment and an ad on the back of the magazine Peggy reads at Mary's house before lunch.
Filmed in black and white, it includes a ten-minute fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
parade filmed in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, featuring Adrian
Adrian (costume designer)
Adrian Adolph Greenberg , most widely known as Adrian, was an American costume designer whose most famous costumes were for The Wizard of Oz and other Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films of the 1930s and 1940s. During his career, he designed costumes for over 250 films and his screen credits usually read as...
's most outré designs; often cut in modern screenings, it has been restored by Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
. On DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, the original black and white fashion show, which is a different take, is available for the first time.
Plot
The Women follows the lives of Manhattan women, focusing in particular on Mary Haines (Norma ShearerNorma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
), the cheerful, contented wife of Stephen and mother of Little Mary (Virginia Weidler
Virginia Weidler
Virginia Weidler was an American child actress, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life and career:...
). After a bit of gossip flies around the salon these wealthy women visit, Mary's cousin Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
) learns from a manicurist that Mary's husband has been having an affair with a predatory perfume counter girl named Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
). A notorious gossip, Sylvia delights in sharing the news with Mary's friends; she sets up Mary with an appointment with the same manicurist so that she hears the rumor about Stephen's infidelity.
While Mary's mother (Lucile Watson
Lucile Watson
-Career:Watson began her career on the stage debuting on Broadway in the play Hearts Aflame in 1902. Her next play was The Girl With Green Eyes, the first of several Clyde Fitch stories. At the end of 1903, Lucile appeared in Fitch's "Glad of It"...
) urges her to ignore the gossip, Mary begins to have her own suspicions about her husband's increasingly frequent claims that he needs to work late. She decides to travel to Bermuda with her mother to think about the situation and hope the rumors will fade. Upon her return, Mary heads to a fashion show and learns that Crystal is in attendance, trying on clothes in a dressing room. Mary, at Sylvia's insistence, confronts her about the affair, but Crystal is completely unapologetic and slyly suggests that Mary keep the status quo unless she wants to lose Stephen in a divorce. Heartbroken and humiliated, Mary leaves quickly. The gossip continues, exacerbated by Sylvia and her friend Edith (Phyllis Povah
Phyllis Povah
Phyllis Povah was an American stage and film actress.Povah made her Broadway theatre debut in Mr. Pim Passes By in 1921 and acted in minor roles in several productions over the next two decades. She achieved a notable success in a featured role in the stage production of The Women, and the play...
), who turns the affair into a public scandal by recounting Sylvia's version of the story to a notorious gossip columnist. Mary chooses to divorce her husband despite his efforts to convince her to stay. Mary explains the divorce to Little Mary.
On a train to Reno, where she will get her divorce, Mary meets several women with the same destination and purpose: the dramatic, extravagant Countess de Lave (Mary Boland
Mary Boland
-Career:Born Marie Anne Boland in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of William Boland, an actor, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara....
); Miriam Aarons (Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
), a tough-cookie chorus girl, and, to her surprise, her friend Peggy Day (Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
), a shy young woman. Mary and her new friends settle in at a Reno ranch, where they get plenty of unsolicited advice from Lucy (Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.-Early life and career:...
), the gruffly warm-hearted woman who runs the ranch. The Countess tells tales of her multiple husbands and seems to have found another prospect in Reno, a cowboy named Buck Winston. Miriam reveals she has been having an affair with Sylvia Fowler's husband and plans to marry him. Peggy, who has discovered that she is pregnant, is urged to call her husband, resolve their misunderstanding and end the divorce proceedings, which she successfully does. Sylvia arrives at the ranch, now that her husband has requested a divorce("Well girls: move over."). When she discovers that Miriam is to become the new Mrs. Fowler, a catfight ensues. Mary succeeds in breaking up the fight. Miriam convinces her that she, too, should forget her pride, get her husband on the phone and try to patch things up before their divorce becomes legal in a few hours. Before Mary can decide, it rings — the call is from Stephen, who informs Mary that he and Crystal have just been married.
Two years pass. At the Haines apartment, Crystal, the new Mrs. Haines, is taking a bubble bath and talking on the phone to her lover, who turns out to be Buck Winston, now the husband of the Countess de Lave (Mary Boland
Mary Boland
-Career:Born Marie Anne Boland in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of William Boland, an actor, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara....
) and a successful radio star. Little Mary overhears the conversation before being shooed away by Crystal, who, unsurprisingly, has no time or patience for the child. Sylvia figures out with whom Crystal has been speaking and having an affair. Still an unrelenting gossip, Sylvia tucks this information away for later use. Mary hosts a dinner for her Reno friends to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Countess and Buck, after which the Countess, Miriam, and Peggy go to a party and urge Mary to come along. Mary decides to stay home. She chats with Little Mary, who inadvertently reveals how unhappy Stephen is and mentions Crystal's "lovey dovey" talk with Buck on the telephone. This news changes Mary's mind about the party. She gets dressed up, intent on fighting to get her ex back: "I've had two years to grow claws, Mother -- Jungle Red!"
At the party, Mary manages to worm the details of the affair out of Sylvia, then makes sure that a gossip columnist (played by a real-life one, Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
) is alerted to it. Mary tells the Countess that her husband Buck has been having an affair with Crystal, then informs Crystal that everyone knows what she's been doing. Crystal doesn't care and tells Mary she can have Stephen back, since she'll now have Buck to support her. The Countess reveals that she has been funding Buck's radio career and that with Crystal he will be penniless and out of a job. Crystal resigns herself to the fact that she'll be heading to Reno herself and then back to the perfume counter, adding: "And by the way, there's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society -- outside of a kennel."
Mary, triumphant, heads out the door and up the stairs to win back Stephen, who is waiting for her.
Cast
- Norma ShearerNorma ShearerEdith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
as Mary Haines - Joan CrawfordJoan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
as Crystal Allen - Rosalind RussellRosalind RussellRosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
as Sylvia Fowler - Mary BolandMary Boland-Career:Born Marie Anne Boland in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of William Boland, an actor, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara....
as The Countess De Lave - Paulette GoddardPaulette GoddardPaulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
as Miriam Aarons - Phyllis PovahPhyllis PovahPhyllis Povah was an American stage and film actress.Povah made her Broadway theatre debut in Mr. Pim Passes By in 1921 and acted in minor roles in several productions over the next two decades. She achieved a notable success in a featured role in the stage production of The Women, and the play...
as Edith Potter - Joan FontaineJoan FontaineJoan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
as Peggy Day - Virginia WeidlerVirginia WeidlerVirginia Weidler was an American child actress, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life and career:...
as Little Mary - Lucile WatsonLucile Watson-Career:Watson began her career on the stage debuting on Broadway in the play Hearts Aflame in 1902. Her next play was The Girl With Green Eyes, the first of several Clyde Fitch stories. At the end of 1903, Lucile appeared in Fitch's "Glad of It"...
as Mrs. Morehead - Marjorie MainMarjorie MainMarjorie Main was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.-Early life and career:...
as Lucy - Virginia GreyVirginia GreyVirginia Grey was an American actress.She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of ten in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin as Little Eva...
as Pat, perfume counter clerk - Ruth HusseyRuth HusseyRuth Carol Hussey was an American actress best known for her Academy Award-nominated role as photographer Elizabeth Imbrie in The Philadelphia Story.-Early life:...
as Miss Watson - Hedda HopperHedda HopperHedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
as Dolly Dupuyster - Florence NashFlorence NashFlorence Nash was an American actress and author. She was sister to theater and movie actor Mary Nash.-Career:...
as Nancy Blake - Cora WitherspoonCora WitherspoonCora Witherspoon was an American actress who played supporting roles in films from the 1930s until the 1950s....
as Mrs. Van Adams - Mary Beth HughesMary Beth HughesMary Beth Hughes was an American film, television, and stage actress best known for her roles in B movies.-Early life and career:...
as Miss Trimmerback - Dennie MooreDennie MooreDennie Moore was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:Deena Rivka Moore was born in New York City on New Year's Eve 1902 to Jewish parents Oren Moore , a cantor at one of the local synagogues, and Gabriella Gefen...
as Olga, the manicurist - Jane IsbellJane IsbellJane Isbell was a minor actress, a bit player and extra who appeared in some major films produced during Hollywood's Golden Era in the 1930s-40s....
(uncredited) as Edith's daughter - Margaret DumontMargaret DumontMargaret Dumont was an American comedic actress. She is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films...
(uncredited; scenes cutDeleted sceneIn Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
) as Mrs. Wagstaff - Butterfly McQueenButterfly McQueenThelma "Butterfly" McQueen was an American actress. Originally a dancer, the 28-year-old McQueen first appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, then continued as an actress in film in the 1940s, then moving to television acting in the 1950s .-Early life:Born...
(uncredited) as Lulu, Perfume counter maid - Barbara Jo AllenBarbara Jo AllenBarbara Jo Allen was an actress also known as Vera Vague, the spinster character she created and portrayed on radio and in films during the 1940s and 1950s. She based the character on a woman she had seen delivering a PTA literature lecture in a confused manner...
(uncredited) as Receptionist - Gertrude AstorGertrude AstorGertrude Astor was an American motion picture character actress, who began her career playing trombone on a riverboat.-Career:...
(uncredited) as Mud bath attendant - Marie BlakeBlossom RockEdith Marie Blossom MacDonald , also known or credited as Blossom Rock, Blossom MacDonald or Marie Blake, was an American actress of stage and television...
(uncredited) as Stockroom girl - Theresa HarrisTheresa HarrisTheresa Harris was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Harris was born on New Year's Eve, 1906 in Houston, Texas to Isaiah and Mable Harris, both of whom were former sharecroppers from Louisiana.In 1929, she came out to Hollywood and lent her singing voice to the...
(uncredited) as Olive - Barbara Pepper (uncredited) as Tough woman
- TerryTerry (dog)Terry was a Cairn Terrier whose most famous role was Toto in the movie The Wizard of Oz . She appeared in 15 different movies but was only credited in that one, though not as Terry but as Toto....
(uncredited) as Dog in Salon
Production
In January 1937, producers Harry M. Goetz and Max GordonMax Gordon (producer)
Max Gordon was an American theatre and film producer. His credits included My Sister Eileen, which he produced both on stage and on film.-Biography:...
bought the book's copyrights for $125,000 and planned on turning it into a Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
vehicle, with Gregory LaCava as the director. In March 1938, Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
and Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...
were in negotiations to star. In November 1938, it was announced Jane Murfin
Jane Murfin
Jane Murfin was an American playwright and screenwriter.Born in Quincy, Michigan, Murfin began her career with the play Lilac Time, which she co-wrote with Jane Cowl. The Broadway production opened on February 6, 1917 and ran for 176 performances...
was busy writing the film's screenplay at MGM. Virginia Weidler
Virginia Weidler
Virginia Weidler was an American child actress, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life and career:...
was cast on April 24, 1939.
Legacy
The film proved to be a great success, both commercially and critically, and although it received no Academy AwardAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nominations, many critics now describe it as one of the major films of what was a stellar year in Hollywood film production. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, The Women holds a 90% 'Fresh' rating.
It was remade as a 1956 musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
, The Opposite Sex
The Opposite Sex
The Opposite Sex is a 1956 musical film.It is a remake of the 1939 classic comedy The Women. Both films are based on Claire Boothe Luce's original play...
, starring June Allyson
June Allyson
June Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss . From 1959–1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology...
, Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
, and Ann Miller
Ann Miller
Johnnie Lucille Collier, better known as Ann Miller was an American singer, dancer and actress.-Early life:...
.
In 2007, The Women was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 2008, Diane English
Diane English
Diane English is an American film director, screenwriter and producer, known for creating the sitcom Murphy Brown. She also served as writer and executive producer of the sitcom My Sister Sam.-Life and career:...
wrote and directed a remake of the same title
The Women (2008 film)
The Women is a 2008 American comedy film written, produced and directed by Diane English. The screenplay is an updated version of the George Cukor-directed 1939 film of the same name based on a 1936 play by Clare Boothe Luce....
, her feature film directorial debut. The comedy starred Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
, Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes is an American actress.She began acting in the late 1990s, and after a series of minor roles and performances in several smaller films such as Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror and Urban Legends: Final Cut , she broke into the mainstream, appearing in leading roles in Hollywood...
, Annette Bening
Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...
, Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith is an American actress, producer, director, author, singer-songwriter, and businesswoman. She began her career in 1990, when she made a guest appearance in the short-lived sitcom True Colors. She starred in A Different World, produced by Bill Cosby, and she featured...
, Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
, and Debra Messing
Debra Messing
Debra Lynn Messing is an American actress, voice artist, and comedienne. She is perhaps best known for her role as Grace Adler in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace and as Molly Kagan in the mini-series The Starter Wife....
, and was released in 2008 by Picturehouse Entertainment, a sister company to Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
(the current owners of the 1939 version through Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...
).
Technicolor sequence
The Women has one color sequence by TechnicolorTechnicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
. The Technicolor sequence was a fashion show. TCM host Robert Osborne
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne is an American actor and film historian best known as the primary host for Turner Classic Movies, and previously a host of The Movie Channel.-Life and career:...
was talking to director Cukor about The Women and Cukor said that he didn't like the sequence and that he wanted to remove it from the film.
External links
- The Women at the Joan Crawford Encyclopedia
- The Women - Past and Present at LaFemmeReel.com