The Women

Having been fired by producer David O Selznick from the set of Gone With The Wind after just three weeks, George Cukor was handed the opportunity to direct MGM's The Women. Adapted by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin from Claire Boothe's hit Broadway play, the story required an all-female cast of 135, giving Cukor a great excuse to exploit the professional rivalries between the studio's stable of stars. The result is a gloriously camp and memorably bitchy work.

Mary Haines (Shearer) is a member of New York's high society who discovers that her husband is having an affair with gold-digger Crystal (Crawford). Mary's mother advises her to say nothing and wait for Stephen to get bored of his new catch, but so-called 'friends', including the vindictive (Russell), relish gossiping about Mary's humiliating predicament. After a confrontation with her rival-in-love at a fashion show, she heads off to Reno to get a quickie divorce. The news that Stephen has married Crystal confirms her worst fears, yet in time, Mary develops the ruthless instincts necessary to try and win back her spouse.

The Women is a mass of contradictions, in the way it both endorses and critiques patriarchal values. In the bizarre opening credits each actress is represented by a different animal that conveys their character's essential nature (Shearer is a fawn, Crawford a leopard, Russell a panther), and throughout much stress is laid upon the notion that women are inevitable rivals in their competition to win, and maintain their hold on, men. "Don't confide in your girlfriends," admonishes Mary's mother. "If you let them advise you, they'll see to it in the name of the friendship that you lose your husband and your home."

Despite the conservative ending, the film still has a subversive potency in the way it undermines traditional notions of romantic love and the 'naturalness' of marriage. Fittingly, given its concern with questions of performance, artifice and deception, The Women is notable for some terrific performances - look out for Russell's inspired comic timing and for a wonderful turn from Mary Boland as a much married Countess. The acid-tongued one-liners, delivered by Crawford et al are also very funny.