The Women (film)
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| The Women | |
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| 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 |
| Cinematography | Joseph Ruttenberg |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | September 1, 1939 |
| Running time | 133 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| 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, 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 originally included a ten-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,[citation needed] 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.
According to the June 15, 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly, a contemporary remake by Diane English, in development for thirteen years, will start filming in August 2007 with Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, and Annette Bening. Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Candice Bergen, Bette Midler and Carrie Fisher play in other roles in the movie.
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".
[edit] Trivia
On the DVD, the original black and white fashion show, which is a different take, is shown for the first time.
[edit] External links
- The Women at the Internet Movie Database
- The Women at Allmovie
- Turner Classic Movies: The Women
[edit] References
- Gutner, Howard. Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years 1928-1941
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