Thank you to KUOW radio for introducing me to a film from 1939 that starred only women. Predictably titled The Women, it was based on a play by Clare Boothe Luce and adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin. There were 130 speaking roles and, although the women talk a lot about men, there is not a single man shown in the movie. Even the pets and family portraits in the movie are female. Was this a first, at least in the commercial film business?
The list of women in the movie’s cast is breathtaking. Even if you are not a movie buff, you might recognize many of the names:
Norma Shearer
Joan Crawford
Rosalind Russell
Paulette Goddard
Joan Fontaine
Lucile Watson
Mary Boland
Virginia Grey
Marjorie Main
Phyllis Povah
Florence Nash
Ruth Hussey
Virginia Weidler
Butterfly McQueen
Hedda Hopper
The film made over $2 million (a tidy sum in 1939) but its production costs exceeded its gross. Did the content of the film keep it out of the popular annals of film history? That might not be the case. The film was directed by George Cukor, which would get a film historian’s attention. However, in 1939, it competed with a few other good (make that great) films. They included Gone with the Wind (which grossed ten times The Women). Other films grossing more that year were: The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Babes in Arms, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Gunga Din, and Ninotchka.
