Evening star., 1939-09-22

demonstrated that the stage has no
monopoly on the skill required by
such dynamic material. Its 1885,
woman cast, headed by Norma
Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind
Russell, etc., under the facile direc-
ton of George Cukor does a mas
terly job of translating the justly
successful play.
Yet for its many eXcellences of
production and performance, pair
Of shortcomings make their pres
ence felt in the picture version of
1.-The Women" One is a fragrant
interruption of the story for one of
those style shows which the cinema
finds irresistible and which the Gus
toners, male at least, find such a
bore. The other is over-length
which might be remedied with a
sharp pair of scissors on the fashion
show sequence.
Even with these defects, however,
1.-THE Women" is highly meritori-
Gus piece of screencraft. 1t at
tempts to pull none of those sharp,
deadly punches which the author
of the original let fly at the pretty
faces and shriveled souls of the sex
heretofore regarded as fair. Like
the stage play, the movie version
tracks down the women to their
every lair, the stately mansion, the
office, the beauty parlor, the de-
partment store, Reno. the servants
quarters, and even to the bath tub,
the latter with due observance OF
the proprieties. In every place, 1t
finds them-with one exception
on destruction bent; idle, vain, full
of malice, viciously disposed toward
gossip, predatory, lying and other
wise unprepossessing.
Miss Boothe, however, was no one
to brood upon this sad estimate OF
her sex. On the contrary, she
stated it in terms forthrightly hilari-
Gus, and the picture retains her
mood so completely as to make it
one of the brightly comic offerings
of the season. The women will like
1t even more if they do make the
qualification that Miss Boothe eX-
aggerated her types for the sake Of
emphasis, the men probably with
no qualification at all
Mr.. Cukor's adaptation of 1.-The
Women" presents it with very i'm
pressive glitter both as to setting
and performance. With reference
to the former the standard of visual
excellence and scope is set in the
opening scene, svelte beauty par
lor about the size of the Ford fac
tory but snug enough to permit the
ladies to scratch and snarl to their
feline hearts content The bigness
and beauty of the production never
lag, from the opening sequence to
the fadeout.
While not a man appears in the
whole enormous distance which the
picture travels, man entirely domi-
mates the action by dominating the
thoughts of each of the l35 fe-
males engaged in performing the
madly darting charade.
For those unfamiliar with it, the
basic story is that of Mrs. Stephen
Haynes, the one traditionally ideal"
woman of the whole lot involved.
Mrs. Haynes played by Norma
Shearer, is engaged in trying to
hold her middle-aged, successful
husband against the Establishments
Of Siren Crystal Allen Joan Craw-
fordD and the venomous. lying gos-
sip Of her supposed friends. She
eventually succeeds, but not until
after score of sad mishaps, the
sadness of which is modified by the
acid wit with which the whole sub
ject is treated by Miss Boothe.
In her first modern ladylike role
In several years Miss Shearer ac-
quits herself with credit, but the
performer most likely to be remem-