JUNGLE RED!

A behind-the-scenes look at a unique film from Hollywood’s golden age.

Discussions about the cinema year of 1939 usually touch on such classic films as Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. Less frequently cited is The Women, possibly because of the unique casting for its day: All 135 speaking roles belong to women. The actress Douglas—granddaughter of actor Melvyn Douglas, who co-starred with Greta Garbo in 1939’s Ninotchka—shines a welcome light on The Women with this engaging work. The film is based on the 1936 Clare Boothe Luce play about upper-class Manhattan women and their coddled lives, “the first Broadway play written by a woman, told from a woman’s point of view, and with an all-female cast.” The play was a hit, so MGM made it into a film, with George Cukor directing. Douglas’ book charts the project’s history. F. Scott Fitzgerald, David Ogden Stewart, Jane Murfin, and Anita Loos took turns at the screenplay. Cukor gained his reputation as a women’s director with the film. As for the stars, Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford were MGM rivals who hated each other; Rosalind Russell “was not considered beautiful enough to be a leading lady, nor unattractive enough to be a character actress”; Paulette Goddard was a “dedicated party girl”; and 21-year-old Joan Fontaine was determined to prove “that she was more than just the younger, less talented, less beautiful sister of Olivia de Havilland.” This is a book for cinema completists who like a deep dive into one film, with details about everyone from the art director to the hair stylist. And it contains juicy stories of petty behavior, as when Shearer saw that Crawford’s trailer stood out a foot farther than hers and “demanded Crawford’s trailer be moved back one foot in accordance with the others. Round one to Shearer.”

A fun biography of an underappreciated cinema landmark.