The Women (1939)

For all the talk of the men in their lives, the gimmick here is that no male player is ever shown on screen. (The photo shown here is a promotional still.)

As such, it’s a woman’s world and we focus on how women of all social strata deal with it (from a lowly perfume counter girl to one who has married into nobility) though the basic emphasis is on high society; the main subject being spousal infidelity (one person’s trip to Reno soon becomes a group road trip,) and all that that implies: the heartbreak; the secrets; the gossip; the betrayal among close relatives, friends, and (coincidentally) even recent acquaintances.

It’s curious that for all that some of the characters in these movies from a few decades ago feel that they are modern women they still feel so old fashioned today.

There were undoubtedly modern women then, (compare Norma Shearer’s reaction to her mother’s advice; but then observe how her situation is ultimately resolved,) but the reliance on men, (not all, one characters seems to be supporting a deadbeat husband even when she still emotionally clings to him,) to the point where our main character puts her life on hold for two years for the sake of a faithless, worthless husband and father to the point where the film deems it unnecessary to even present him.

For all the talk about how these women need their men, the film itself is a feminist statement.

A bit of a soap opera with a wide spectrum of characters and a helpful index where each is characterized as a specific animal ("…and by the way, there's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society—outside of a kennel.")

Though there are a couple of serious moments this is more a Comedy than anything else.

These women talk a mile-a-minute: Dialogue and wisecracks are worthy of inclusion and rapid fire enough for any Screwball Comedy you’d care to mention.

The film even includes a Technicolor fashion show halfway thru in case one could not figure out from the title this was strictly a female-oriented film, but also adds sequences of exercising eye-candy (and an actual catfight) so that their male movie watching companions won't claim they got bored.

As the gold-digging hussy, Joan Crawford is too much a one-dimensional villain; and considering that other characters are allowed some depth, it’s a shame her character doesn’t get the same treatment (would it not be a better, more rounded film if she did?)

With Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Mary Boland, Florence Nash, Virginia Grey, Marjorie Main, Phyllis Povah, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Weidler, Butterfly McQueen, and Hedda Hopper