When Ladies Meet is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

 feature film

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 starring Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, Robert Taylor

Robert Taylor (actor)

Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...

, Greer Garson

Greer Garson

Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...

, Herbert Marshall

Herbert Marshall

Herbert Marshall , born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall, was an English actor.His parents were Percy F. Marshall and Ethel May Turner. He graduated from St. Mary's College in Old Harlow, Essex and worked for a time as an accounting clerk...

, and Spring Byington

Spring Byington

Spring Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a key MGM contract player appearing in films from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:Byington was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs,...

 in a story about a novelist in love with her publisher. The screenplay by S.K. Lauren and 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...

 was based upon a 1932

1932 in literature

The year 1932 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. V. Knox replaces Sir Owen Seaman as editor of Punch magazine.*Samuel Beckett's first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, is rejected by several publishers....

 play by Rachel Crothers

Rachel Crothers

Rachel Crothers was a prolific and successful American playwright and theater director, known for her well-crafted plays. One of the most famous was Susan and God , which was made into a film by MGM in 1940 starring Joan Crawford and Frederic March.Crothers was born in Bloomington, Illinois, USA...

. The film was directed by Robert Z. Leonard

Robert Z. Leonard

Robert Zigler Leonard was an American film director, actor, producer and screenwriter.He was born in Chicago, Illinois...

, who also co-produced the film (with Orville O. Dull). The film was a remake of the 1933 Pre-Code

Pre-Code

Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...

 film of the same name

When Ladies Meet (1933 film)

When Ladies Meet is a 1933 Pre-Code film starring Ann Harding, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery, and Alice Brady. The film is the first adaptation of the 1932 Rachel Crothers play of the same name...

, which starred Ann Harding

Ann Harding

Ann Harding was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress.-Early years:Born Dorothy Walton Gatley at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to George G. Gatley and Elizabeth "Bessie" Crabb. The daughter of a career army officer, she traveled often during her early life...

, Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...

, Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery (actor)

Robert Montgomery was an American actor and director.- Early life :Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the New...

, and Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

 in the roles played by Garson, Crawford, Taylor and Marshall.

Synopsis

Mary Howard (Crawford) is a novelist with advanced ideas about love and marriage, and is in love with her publisher, Rogers Woodruff (Marshall). She decides the only logical thing to do is to lure him away from his wife and marry him. Mary's friend, Jimmy (Taylor), however, is convinced he's the right man for her and pursues her. He sees through her rationalizations and wrong-thinking and decides to throw Mary and Woodruff's wife Claire (Garson) together at the house of a friend (Byington). The two women do not know each other, but during their chats Mary appreciates and respects Claire's maturity and wisdom. When she learns Woodruff is a philandering womanizer of long standing, she realizes she cannot love him and welcomes Jimmy's attentions.

Reception

Howard Barnes in the New York Herald Tribune

New York Herald Tribune

The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...

wrote, "Even when [Crawford] is wearing spectacles, she is not particularly convincing in the part."

Awards and nominations

The film earned an Academy Award nomination for art directors 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...

, Randall Duell

Randall Duell

Randall Duell was an American architect and art director. Duell attended the University of Southern California School of Architecture and graduated in 1925...

 and Edwin B. Willis.

DVD release

When Ladies Meet was released on Region 1 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....

on March 23, 2009 from the online Warner Bros. Archive Collection.