Ladies, please...! - publicity portraits for "The Women" by László Willinger, 1939

 

There were relatively few problems during the making of this now iconic film. Perhaps surprising, considering the long-term tensions between two of the three "above the title" stars. In their glory days at MGM - from which both were now rapidly receding - Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford had competed for who would be acknowledged the studio's greatest female star. (Besides Garbo; Garbo's lofty position was ever untouchable. But, then, only a handful of years later, between 1941 and 1943, all three would leave MGM.) Shearer was "married to the boss," Irving Thalberg, which Crawford had always thought made for an unfair fight. But Thalberg had died three years before, leveling the playing field. This was their first - and only - time as co-stars. (Though, ironically, in Crawford's very first appearance on film, 1925's "Lady of the Night," she was used as a double for the film's star, Shearer.) 

Rosalind Russell had fought hard to get her name above the title. (The studio's concession to Shearer and Crawford was that Russell's name was in a slightly smaller font.) After having languished for five years in usually rather dreary supporting or second-lead roles, her performance as Sylvia Fowler made Russell a full-fledged star and, also thanks to the success of her very next film, "His Girl Friday," her career was reinvented, establishing her as a brilliant comedienne.

Director George Cukor and all involved in the production took great pains to avoid any appearance of favoritism concerning any one the three leads. For example, when any combination of the trio was needed on-set, they were always called precisely at the same time. But filming didn't proceed entirely without incident. And there is one frequently repeated story about the day when the two actresses were filming their big dressing room confrontation scene. As Gavin Lambert writes in his 1990 biography of the actress, "Norma Shearer", "[Cukor] filmed the master shot, then lined up a close-up of Norma. While he rehearsed her, Joan, who still brought her knitting to the set, clacked away at an afghan with her large, heavy needles. Then Cukor asked her to stand behind the camera during the take and speak her lines off-screen to Norma. She did so, trailing her afghan, and as Cukor held the shot for Norma's silent reaction, the needles clacked away again. Norma lost her concentration, looked up sharply, and asked Joan to stop needling during the retake. Joan pretended not to hear, repeated the treatment, and this time Norma broke off in mid-reaction. Her voice as steely as the needles, she asked Cukor to send Miss Crawford home and read the lines himself." Cukor asked Crawford to apologize but she refused, walking off the set. Apparently, though, she did later send Shearer an apologetic telegram.

The other frequently recounted incident relates to these images. The story goes that Shearer, Crawford, and Russell were scheduled to arrive for their appointment with photographer Willinger in order to shoot publicity portraits for the film. But when the time of the appointment came - and passed - both Shearer and Crawford could clearly be seen in their cars, as their drivers took long circles around the lot, waiting for the other to arrive first; in this little game of top-dog diva, the last one to arrive would be the winner. It was said that, finally, director Cukor, annoyed at their ridiculous behavior, had to go out and wave them both in so that the portrait session could proceed.