# The Women (1939 film)
**The Women** is a 1939 American comedy-drama directed by George Cukor for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, adapted from [Clare Boothe Luce](https://www.edgepedia.org/clare-boothe-luce)'s 1936 Broadway play, in which every speaking role, more than 130 of them, is played by a woman and no man appears on screen[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN). The story follows Mary Haines ([Norma Shearer](https://www.edgepedia.org/norma-shearer)), a wealthy Manhattan wife who learns through gossip that her husband is having an affair with Crystal Allen ([Joan Crawford](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-crawford)), a perfume-counter salesgirl, and who is talked into a Reno divorce by her catty friends before plotting to win him back[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1023906-women). The film opened on September 1, 1939, ran 132 minutes, and was produced by Hunt Stromberg from a screenplay by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | September 1, 1939; 132 minutes; comedy-drama; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Loew's, Inc.)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN) |
| Cast | 135 women with speaking roles and no men; even the animals on screen were female, per studio publicity[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN) |
| Source | Clare Boothe Luce's 1936 Broadway play, advertised on the title card as presented for 666 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theater[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN) |
| Lead cast | Norma Shearer (Mary Haines), Joan Crawford (Crystal Allen), Rosalind Russell (Sylvia Fowler), with Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland, and Lucile Watson[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615723/the-essentials-the-women) |
| Screenwriters | Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, called in to clean up dialogue the Hays Code censors found too salacious[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women) |
| Costumes | Adrian designed 237 gowns for the cast; the fashion-show sequence was shot in Technicolor against an otherwise black-and-white film[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women) • [5](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/the-women-2022-04-01/) |
| Later versions | Remade by MGM as the musical *The Opposite Sex* (1956) and again in 2008, written and directed by Diane English with Meg Ryan as Mary[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN) • [6](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-women-then-and-now-remaking-a-film-and-recasting-roles-march-2009/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and characters
Mary Haines is happily married to Stephen until gossip circulates at a Manhattan beauty salon that Crystal Allen, a shopgirl, has taken up with him[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615723/the-essentials-the-women). Her friends Sylvia Fowler ([Rosalind Russell](https://www.edgepedia.org/rosalind-russell)) and Edith (Phyllis Povah) deliver the news firsthand, and Mary travels to Reno for a divorce[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1023906-women). On the way and at the dude ranch she meets the Countess de Lave (Mary Boland) and Miriam Aarons ([Paulette Goddard](https://www.edgepedia.org/paulette-goddard)), who is involved with Sylvia's own husband[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1023906-women). After Stephen marries Crystal, Mary learns how unhappy he is and decides to fight to win him back[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615723/the-essentials-the-women).
The men exist only off-screen. The gossip, complaints, and jokes all center on husbands and lovers who are never seen, so much so that MGM's own publicity tagline was "'The Women' is all about men!"[7](https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/the-women-is-about-far-more-than-femininity/). The Stanford Daily's retrospective notes that despite the all-female cast, the film does not pass the [Bechdel test](https://www.edgepedia.org/bechdel-test), since its women talk almost exclusively about men[7](https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/the-women-is-about-far-more-than-femininity/).
## Production
MGM bought the play in 1938 as a vehicle for Norma Shearer, and the screenplay credit went to two of Hollywood's women screenwriting pioneers, Jane Murfin and Anita Loos[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women). Murfin produced a faithful adaptation of Luce's play, perhaps too faithful: shortly before production began, censors objected to the racy dialogue, and Loos claimed in her memoir *Kiss Hollywood Good-by* (1974) that she sat beside Cukor on the set supplying instant, cleaned-up variations of the innuendo-laden lines[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women) • [5](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/the-women-2022-04-01/).
**Casting rivalries.** Cukor, known as Hollywood's leading "women's director," managed a set full of competing stars[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women). Shearer's contract stipulated star billing; Crawford fought for and won equal billing; then Russell, giving what TCM calls a movie-stealing performance, called in sick until she also received co-star billing[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women). Crawford, recently labeled "box office poison," pursued the meatier role of Crystal, and her resentment of Shearer surfaced on set, including knitting noisily off-camera while feeding Shearer lines during close-ups[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women). The film also drew on Hollywood's silent era, casting veterans such as Flora Finch, and Phyllis Povah reprised her Broadway role as Edith[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN) • [5](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/the-women-2022-04-01/).
**The Technicolor fashion show.** Most of the film's 132 minutes were shot in black and white, but a roughly six-minute fashion-show sequence was shot in [Technicolor](https://www.edgepedia.org/technicolor), a combination the trade press reported as a technical innovation[5](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/the-women-2022-04-01/) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN). Costume designer Adrian designed 237 gowns for the cast, and five complete identical changes of wardrobe were needed for the Reno divorce-ranch fight scene because of the multiple takes each setup required[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women). Fashion historians at the [Fashion Institute of Technology](https://www.edgepedia.org/fashion-institute-of-technology) note that the film's sets and costumes now serve as a record of the exclusive retail world of 1939, from the fashion show to the beauty salon[8](https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1939-women-1956-opposite-sex/).
## Reception and legacy
The film's stature has grown since release. In 1939 it was overshadowed by a lineup that included *The Wizard of Oz*, *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington*, *Wuthering Heights*, and *Gone with the Wind*, and it received not a single Academy Award nomination[6](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-women-then-and-now-remaking-a-film-and-recasting-roles-march-2009/). The New York Times reviewer Frank Nugent nevertheless included it in his list of the ten best films of 1939, and much of the contemporary buzz came from gossip-column coverage of alleged feuds among Shearer, Crawford, and Russell[6](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-women-then-and-now-remaking-a-film-and-recasting-roles-march-2009/). On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 94% Tomatometer from 64 critics, with a critics consensus praising its "feast of sharp dialogue delivered by an expertly assembled cast"[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1023906-women).
Ellen Carol DuBois, professor of history at the [University of California, Los Angeles](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-california-los-angeles), contrasts the 1939 film with its 2008 remake: the original presents Mary's restraint toward her husband's affair as the mark of a modern woman and views female friendship with a withering eye, while the remake recasts sisterhood as the saving romance and has Mary build a career before reconciling[6](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-women-then-and-now-remaking-a-film-and-recasting-roles-march-2009/). In her judgment the 1939 version's acid portrayal of women's relationships is the one that has kept its hold on audiences, while the 2008 version passed quickly into obscurity[6](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-women-then-and-now-remaking-a-film-and-recasting-roles-march-2009/). TCM's summary of the 1956 musical remake is blunter: neither the addition of music nor the addition of men improved on the original[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women).
## References
1. [The Women (1939), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5135-THE-WOMEN)
2. [The Women, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1023906-women)
3. [The Essentials – The Women, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615723/the-essentials-the-women)
4. [The Women, Turner Classic Movies article by Margarita Landazuri](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17973/the-women)
5. [The Women, UCLA Film & Television Archive](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/the-women-2022-04-01/)
6. [The Women, Then and Now, Perspectives on History, American Historical Association (Ellen Carol DuBois, March 2009)](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-women-then-and-now-remaking-a-film-and-recasting-roles-march-2009/)
7. ["'The Women' is about far more than femininity," The Stanford Daily, May 13, 2019](https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/the-women-is-about-far-more-than-femininity/)
8. [1939 – Cukor, The Women / 1956 – Miller, The Opposite Sex, Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of Technology](https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1939-women-1956-opposite-sex/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works)*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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