The Women

The Women
September 1, 1939
MGM
Drama, Comedy
DVD
C+

This movie has an all-female cast, many of them stars, so it's worth watching for that, but I can't say I actually like the movie.  Even the "sympathetic" characters aren't ones I care about.  The tag-line for this movie was "It's all about men."  More specifically, it's about how women deal with the "fact" that "all" husbands commit adultery.  The message, as expressed by the heroine's "wise" mother and the street-wise but classy Paulette Goddard, is that pride is "a luxury a woman in love can't afford."  Better to either say nothing, or fight for your husband.  Not only is this dubious, but because we don't see the husbands (or any men), it's difficult to say whether any of the men are worth it.  I think even more than the main story of the Haineses, I was bothered by the arc for the young newlywed Peggy Day, who gets upset with her husband for "things he said," but reconciles with him when she finds out she's pregnant.  It's impossible to tell whether she overreacted in the first place, or if she was right to seek a divorce, but I definitely don't like that she decides she'll do whatever he says from now on.  And wonderful as it is to see Marjorie Main, the future Ma Kettle, I was bothered by her saying of her husband beating her that there are women there (at her Reno ranch) who deserve beating more.  Also, there's that weird fashion show in color in the middle of the movie, which Cukor reportedly didn't like.  Still, the movie is worth seeing at least once, if only to watch all the different personalities interact.

Main would shortly be in Turnabout.  Rosalind Russell, who transitioned to comedy with her scene-stealing role as gossipy Sylvia, would go on to much better things, including the next year's His Girl Friday.  Cora Witherspoon would be in The Bank Dick, Joan Blair in Citizen Kane, Mary Dees in A Night in Casablanca.  Mabel Colcord was Hannah in Cukor's Little Women.  Josephine Whittell was in It's a Gift, while Beryl Wallace was in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.  And, yes, that's none other than "Toto,"AKA Terry, early on in the movie.  Amusingly, Margaret Dumont was in deleted scenes, playing a character named Mrs. Wagstaff!  (The last name of Groucho's professor character in the Dumont-less Horse Feathers.)