ALL FEMALES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1939, Page 3

ALL FEMALES

IN "THE WOMEN." n 1 An outstanding Broadway i.iage nil 1 will make its motion picture debut 1 when “The Women." flaunting such s stars as Norma Shearer. Joan Crawford s and Rosalind Russell, is released, wri--1 tes an American reviewer. Six hundred and sixty-six Broadway 4 performances, wore run oil iiy Clan ■ Booth'.-' play in its 193 G-38 slago incarnation. while only "Victoria Regina" has rivalled it as a road attraction during the last three years. 5 Spirited bidding for the film rights 1 resulted in a sale to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Thereafter, for a time, there > was debate as to the wisdom of throwing one or two male names into ilic ! cast of 135 women, but it was decided ' to keep the comedy strictly on the distaff side. So the film becomes Hollywood’s first all-female acting effort." Considerable speculation was indulged in as to how the picture-makers would get about, some of the acidly frank dialogue which, was part of the play’s popular appeal. Hunt Stromberg, producer of the film, and George Cukor, director, replied by saying that jverything could be made just as tunny, and fully as pointed, without any risk of the censor's shears. Just] tow successfully the trick was accomplished will be for audiences to decide. Every animal in "The Women" is female. These include three monkeys. Stupid, Dizzy and Featherbrain, which appear in the fashion show dressed in costumes duplicating those of the stars. Books used in the library scenes are all by women writers, and none has a title which refers to a man. The picture is a pleasurable romp for the fashion-conscious. More than a hundred coiffures were created for 'The Women,’ no two being duplications. There were 237 gowns used ’by the players; Miss Shearer alone had twenty-four. In. one scene, 50,990 dollars worth of real jewels, rented lor .he picture, were worn by the three stars. The most expensive set of jewels was a bracelet-and-necklace set valued at 25,000 dollars, worn by Miss Crawford'in one scene. The most valuable single item of jewellery was a 20,000dollar ring, worn by Miss Shearer. Miss Crawford had to put in eleven hours in a foam bath in a glass tub for one sequence of the picture; she lost eleven pounds in the process. A "bathbubbler” was employed to keep the foam covering her during the two days of work. Even under hot lights the special suds remained for fifteen minutes. Once, the water began to leak out; the crew tossed towels for the star' to clothe hej’self in until the suds were restored. , The most unusual scene in the pic-' ture is the fight between Rosalind Russell and Paulette Goddard on a Hollywood dude ranch set. It required three' days to film, and each contestant had to have five complete changes of cloth-' ing. The largest set was the beauty salon, covering 1300 square feet. It contained twenty-seven separate beauty departments, and studio press agents estimated it would have cost a woman 500 dollars to take every treatment shown. Fourteen professional models were used in the fashion-show sequence, said to be the most elaborate ever incorporated in a Hollywood non-musical. Models were chosen for beautiful legs, the standard being those of Cynthia. New York's "perfect legs" clothes dummy. The models displayed four costumes each, with seaside, garden party, afternoon frocks and evening dresses against appropriate back-

grounds. The location department sought long for a Bermuda locale of seashore and swimming pool. It eventually decided that the ideal spot was Miss Shearer's own home. Scenes were made there for a week.