March 23 movie: The Women. I love this movie! Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford star in an all-female film about gossiping society women who get a lot of divorces. So much fun and such great clothes! I heard Isaac Mizrahi did the costumes when they revived it on Broadway recently. The ensemble also includes Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Paulette Goddard, and Mary Boland. The "all female cast" thing is handled pretty well; the first time I saw the movie I didn't even notice the absence of Y chromosomes until halfway through. There are only a couple of scenes where the lack of male cast is a little awkward. Mostly they handle it by having the scenes in places that only women would go to, like a beauty parlor or a fashion show.
The only disappointment of the movie is Virginia Weidler as Shearer's daughter. She was terrific as the little sister in The Philadelphia Story ("it was pret-ty roo-ty too-ty!") but cloying and whiny here. I wonder what happened to her? I looked her up in imdb.com and her last movie was in 1943. I guess she never made the transition from child actor to grownup roles.
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