THE WOMEN (1939)

Posted by Daniel Metz

Meow! This Norma Shearer/Joan Crawford/Rosalind Russell drama is a cat fight in celluloid.  What a film, too!  The fairly extensive cast is full of women from the MGM lot, including Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland, and little Virginia Weidler, who charmed us all by singing “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” in the Filadelfia Story.  In fact, there is not a single man in this film; they only exist off screen, whispered about and condemned.

The story is a complicated one.  Shearer, real-life widow of whiz-kid Irving Thalberg, discovers that her husband is cheating on her with thin-eyebrowed Joan Crawford.  This is made all the more stinging by Rosalind Russell, who steals every scene she is in by out-bitching every femme in her sights.  Russell prods Shearer into confronting Crawford, and this sets up an argument that leads to divorce.  In those days, women in New York had to travel to Reno (and prove residency by living there for six weeks) to get a proper divorce.  So, Shearer goes to the biggest little city in the world to have herself a divorce.  There, she meets some new friends as well as old ones; on Shearer’s last day in town, old friend (backstabbing cunt) Rosalind Russell shows up to get herself “Reno-vated” as well.  Unfortunately for Paulette Goddard’s leg, Russell discovers that her husband’s new lover is in Reno too, and is played by Paulette Goddard.  They have a cat fight (the only substantial physical one in the film), and it ends with Russell taking a non-sophisticated bite out of the back of her calf.  With husbands discarded and swapped, everyone ultimately returns to New York.  But, Shearer realizes, she wants her poor husband back!  Her husband, however, has been diamondedly snarred by bubble-bathed Joan Crawford, who is now having an affair with the husband of Mary Boland.  When Shearer gets wind of this fishy stench, she jumps out of bed and out into the night, saying, “I’ve had two years to grow claws, mother. Jungle Red!”  This is a reference to something earlier, but no need to explain; it is a enthralling moment that makes you want to stretch out your arms and cheer for that little bitch.  She goes and messes everything up by using a Hedda-Hopper type tabloidist (played by Hedda Hopper) to expose the secret affairs of her nemesis Crawford.  She also locks Russell in a closet.  Her husband now free, she goes to remarry him, her arms stretched out like Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd., only this time it isn’t ironic.

The story’s got real drama, yes, but it becomes a great film because of the fast dialogue.  Women are presented as fast-talking gossips, a variety of human being I admire greatly.  Their clever insults are fabulous and draw big laughs every few minutes.  For instance, Crawford’s final line in the film is, “There is a name for you, ladies, but it isn’t used in high society…outside of a kennel.”  The innuendo, too, is rapid fire and devastating.  In their big confrontation, Shearer says to Russell that the outfit she is trying on will not please the man they are sharing because he doesn’t go for such “obvious” things.  Russell snaps back with her best line of the film, “Thanks for the tip.  But when anything I wear doesn’t please Stephen, I take it off.”  Whammo!  Honestly, I cannot believe this is not a pre-code film.  it is filthy and has horrible moral lessons, and the last-act remarriage doesn’t make up for an ensemble full of gold-digging, wisecracking hellcats.

Unfortunately, the film runs a bit long at 133 minutes.  Part of the problem is it’s distraction with spectacle.  In the middle of the film, the ladies go to a fashion show.  Suddenly, the black and white film becomes color, and we are treated to a reel of models in haute couture.  This is all spectacle, and is probably something that hasn’t aged as well as the campy dialogue.  There are also a few other moments like this, such as an extended exercising sequence with Joan Crawford.  Furthermore, there are a few scenes related to home movies.  This reminds me of Rebecca, a film one-year younger, and perhaps is part of the same trend in home-movie making.

The film was based on a play by Clare Boothe Luce, the celebrated playwright, wit, and U.S. Congresswoman, and adapted for the screen by none other than Anita Loos.  Are there names homophones?  I think so!  Anita Loos, of course, is the author of many a screenplay and novel, most notably Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, another great story of women having a difficult time with each other on account of men.  IMDB credits Jane Murfin (who?) as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Donald Ogden Steward with the writing credit as well, but for my money the play is Luce’s/Loos’s to lose.  Yes, I did that.

One final word on Reno, Nevada.  I love the term “Reno-vated” (hyphen mine) as a term for going down there for a divorce.  I also am interested in the concept.  Whenever I think of the Reno divorce, I think of the fabulous John Huston film The Misfits.  A young divorcée is in Reno for the same purpose, this time played very much by the nearly-dead Marilyn Monroe.  That is a great film, but maybe not as good as this one.