The Women (1939 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Women


image_size =
caption =
director = George Cukor
producer = Hunt Stromberg
writer = Clare Boothe Luce (play)
Anita Loos
Jane Murfin
narrator =
starring = Norma Shearer
Joan Crawford
Rosalind Russell
music = David Snell
cinematography = Joseph Ruttenberg
editing =
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (original release)
Warner Bros. (current owners)
released = September 1, 1939
runtime = 133 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:55106
imdb_id = 0032143

"The Women" is a 1939 comedy film directed by George Cukor. The film was based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who toned down the innuendo for a movie audience. One of the great successes of its day, the film starred Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Mary Boland, Marjorie Main, Virginia Grey, Phyllis Povah, Florence Nash, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Weidler, Butterfly McQueen, and Hedda Hopper. 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 the other women that they come into contact with. Throughout the film, not a single male is seen — although the males are much talked about, and the central theme is the women's relationships with them. 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 exception is a poster-drawing clearly of a bull in the fashion show segment.

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 film proved to be a great success,Fact|date=May 2008 both commercially and critically, and although it received no Academy Award nominations, many critics now describe it as one of the major films of what was a stellar year in Hollywood film production.

It was remade as a 1956 musical comedy, "The Opposite Sex", starring June Allyson, Joan Collins, and Ann Miller; and, in 2008, as a drama directed by Diane English, starring Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Debra Messing.

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".

Cast

*Norma Shearer as Mary Haines
*Joan Crawford as Crystal Allen
*Rosalind Russell as Sylvia Fowler
*Mary Boland as The Countess De Lave
*Paulette Goddard as Miriam Aarons
*Phyllis Povah as Edith Potter
*Joan Fontaine as Peggy Day
*Virginia Weidler as Little Mary
*Lucile Watson as Mrs. Morehead
*Marjorie Main as Lucy
*Virginia Grey as Pat, Perfume Counter Clerk
*Ruth Hussey as Miss Watson
*Hedda Hopper as Dolly Dupuyster
*Florence Nash as Nancy Blake
*Cora Witherspoon as Mrs. Van Adams
*Mary Beth Hughes as Miss Trimmerback
*Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Wagstaff (uncredited)
*Butterfly McQueen as Lulu, Perfume Counter Maid (uncredited)
*Barbara Jo Allen as Receptionist (uncredited)
*Gertrude Astor as Mud Bath Attendant (uncredited)
*Marie Blake as Stockroom Girl (uncredited)
*Barbara Pepper as Tough Woman (uncredited)

External links

*imdb title|id=0032143|title=The Women
*amg title|id=1:55106|title=The Women
* [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/title.jsp?stid=509 Turner Classic Movies:] "The Women"
* [http://lafemmereel.com/blog/a-whos-who-in-the-women-past-present/"The Women" Past and Present] at LaFemmeReel.com

References

*Gutner, Howard. "Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years 1928-1941"