The Women (1939) is one of the funniest and cattiest motion pictures ever made. Based upon a Broadway play, it told the story of how women in high society deal with their lives and relationships. The main character, Mary Haines, finds out that her husband has been cheating on her with a perfume counter girl, Crystal Allen. How she loses her husband to Allen and eventually wins him back using the tactics first used against her forms the story. The irony is that for a movie which talked about relationships between men and women, the cast consisted of only women. The director, George Cukor, was male but he was one of the only few. As you can see from this trailer, there is a reason why The Women is a favorite with my generation of gay men and the generations of gay men before me. We know the words to several scenes by heart:
And then there is the behind-the-scenes story, which just about every gay fan of the movie knows; a story which could be a movie in itself.
The leading stars, Norma Shearer (who played goody goody Mary Haines) and Joan Crawford (who portrayed man-stealing Crystal Allen) HATED each other. It wasn't personal, just professional jealousy. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in the country and the top actress at the studio where she and Crawford worked. Also she was married to one of the top producers at the studio. That meant she always got her pick of the roles she wanted to play. Crawford was the second top actress and she always had a snide comment for Shearer.
At the particular time, Crawford was going to be fired because her movies weren't hits. She was labeled "box office" poison. So she lobbied to star at the villain in this movie. Needless to say that she and Shearer caused pandemonium behind the scenes with the way they sniped at each other.
On screen though, their chemistry was fire. You can see that in this scene where Shearer's meets Crawford's character for the first time and confronts her for stepping out with her husband. Crawford's last words are simply EVIL. You can easily see how Shearer's character lost round one:
So who eventually won between Shearer and Crawford? They both won. Crawford got the movie hit she needed and Shearer came out of the feud in one piece and she soon after retired. There was also a third winner.
Before this movie, actress Rosalind Russell didn't have the reputation of being a comedic actress. Her character, Sylvia Fowler, was the one who went about stirring trouble with her rumor mongering. At first, Russell played Fowler seriously until Cukor told her that she would be too hated. Russell changed her characterization into comically boorish and it went over so well that she was able to get top billing in the cast and thereafter had a long career of playing smart women always ready with wisecracks.
In this scene, watch how much shade she and Crawford throw at each other when Russell and actress Phyllis Povah go to see what Crawford's character looks like:
In this scene, she is getting a divorce from her husband and meets the woman she was dumped for, played by Paulette Goddard. Let's just say that Goddard and Russell suffered actual injuries from what you will see:
Folks really should check this out. It is hilarious and yes, it has a happy ending. But avoid the 2008 remake like the plague. It was TOO sentimental with none of the bite of the original. And I still say that a rewrite is in order. WITH gay men. We already have the cattiness down pat.
There was also the equally dreadful but VERY campy fun of the musical remake "The Opposite Sex" (1956).
ReplyDeleteFormer radio singer Kay (June Allyson) learns from her gossipy friends that her husband, Steve (Leslie Nielsen), has had an affair with chorus girl Crystal (Joan Collins). Devastated, Kay tries to ignore the information, but when Crystal performs one of her musical numbers at a charity benefit, she breaks down and goes to Reno to file for divorce. However, when she hears that gold-digging Crystal is making Steve unhappy, Kay resolves to get her husband back.