The Women (1939)

3/1/06

Paramount Pictures decided to make a screen adaptation of the Clare Boothe Luce play The Women, it was only appropriate that they taped George Cukor to direct. Cukor was well known around Hollywood as a 'womens director' sometimes lavishing so much attention on the female players in his films that the men in the casts felt neglected. This was not to be a problem during production of The Women as the movie was to have an entirely female cast. It was the conceit of Ms. Luces play that the male characters (of which there are several) never be shown but only referred to, with all scenes featuring just the female characters alone.

The Women is a late entry in the 'white telephone' sub-genre of film, and unfortunately it does nothing that hadn't been done better in earlier examples of that cinematic type. The principle story has to do with a type of 'tug-of-war' over a Mr. Stephen Haines between his wife Mary (Norma Shearer) and mistress Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford), with Rosalind Russell thrown in as the gossipy Sylvia Fowlers to perpetuates the crises. There are many other talented women in the cast including future academy award winner Joan Fontaine, the then Mrs. Charlie Chaplin Paulette Goddard, and Hedda Hopper playing a gossip columnist much like she was in real life. Despite a somewhat funny exercise scene I found this movie mostly ponderous. The lady's are representative of the women of a particular class of a particular time and while it seems they are often ment to be progressive their logic and way of thinking would now be considered decidely retro-grade and unfemanist. The Women is an interesting experiment of a movie that probably worked better in 1939 then it does now.