The Women (film)

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The Women
Original poster
Directed by	George Cukor
Produced by	Hunt Stromberg
Written by	Clare Boothe Luce (play) Anita Loos Jane Murfin
Starring	Norma Shearer Joan Crawford Rosalind Russell
Music by	David Snell
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	September 1, 1939 (USA)
Running time	133 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

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, 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 originally included a 10 minute fashion parade filmed in Technicolor, which featured Adrian's most outré designs; often cut in modern screenings, it has been restored by Turner Classic Movies.

The film proved to be a great success, 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.