--- product_id: 122914223 title: "The Women (1939)" price: "€ 40.17" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.be/products/122914223-the-women-1939 store_origin: BE region: Belgium --- # The Women (1939) **Price:** € 40.17 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Women (1939) - **How much does it cost?** € 40.17 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.be](https://www.desertcart.be/products/122914223-the-women-1939) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Be careful what you say in private. It could become a movie. Some gossip overheard by Clare Boothe Luce in a nightclub powder room inspired her Broadway hit that's wittily adapted for the screen in The Women. George Cukor directs an all-female cast in this catty tale of battling and bonding that paints its claws "Jungle Red" and shreds the excesses of pampered Park Avenue princesses. Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland and Paulette Goddard are among the array of husband snatchers, snitches and lovelorn ladies. Norma Shearer is jilted Mary Haines, who ultimately learns to claw without ruining her manicure. All the glamming and slamming comes with a shimmery bauble: a fashion-show sequence in eye-popping Technicolor . Review: One of the greatest films of the 1930s. - “The Women”, as the title suggests is what they called a “woman’s movie” in Hollywood’s classic era, so much so that forty-five minutes in, there is a fashion show and its five minutes are in color, contrasting with the rest of the film’s black and white two hour and eight minute running time (the better to show off the clothes). But it’s so much more than that. This is a great classic film that has always had a big cult following and which can be enjoyed on many levels. Essentially a comedy, it nevertheless exposes deep issues in the lives of women from their absolute dependence on men in that era to internal frictions among themselves. Admittedly these are all wealthy women leading cushioned lives, but even they have their problems, not the least of which is the boredom of their existence unless their marriage is truly good. Even then, watch out - jealous friends and gossips will do what they can to upset your happiness.It’s no accident that a popular nail polish is named “Jungle Red”. A great deal of “The Women” is conversation, sharp, witty, often cutting conversation at that. The film is so rapid fire at times you really have to see it twice to get it all; preferably one time with the closed captioning on. Much time has gone by since the filming of “The Women” and you need to appreciate that these women were really rather liberated for their day. As Norma Shearer’s Mary explains to her mother, played by Lucile Watson, “It’s alright for you to talk of another generation when women were chattels and did what men told them to. But this is today! Stephen and I are equals.” Women still lived in almost entirely female worlds outside the home, but were relatively free to come and go as they pleased, at least if they could afford to. The cast was famously all-female as it was in Clare Boothe Luce’s hit Broadway play (written as Clare Boothe in 1936). An amazing cast of big stars and up and comers was assembled for this film. It opens with clever cameos showing each actress with an animal that represents their inner character. Norma Shearer as central character Mary gives one of the best performances of her career in what would be one of her last films. She is especially good and down to earth in her scenes with her daughter, played by Virginia Weidler. No one could have been better as her nemesis than Joan Crawford’s scheming salesgirl, Crystal Allen, all venom and ice. Crawford got a considerable career boost from this film after a period of declining popularity. She was also known not to particularly care for Shearer at the studio, which added an extra element to it all. Others received enhanced careers as a result of “The Women”. Rosalind Russell had mostly played bland nice girls (as in “China Seas”) or the other woman ( in “West Point of the Air”) but here she got to show a comic persona which became her signature for years to come. Lucille Watson had frequently played maids with little or no dialog but from this time on became a notable character actor in films from “Watch On the Rhine” to “The Thin Man Goes Home”. Marjorie Main plays comic relief as a ranch manager in Reno and would play essentially the same character in many Ma and Pa Kettle films. Joan Fontaine is sweet and innocent (her usual film personna) and Paulette Goddard is stunning as Rosalind Russell’s nemesis. Mary Boland’s over-the-top Countess De Lave is a character you won’t forget, divorcing her fourth husband but always proclaiming, “L’amour, L’amour!” Even small characters like the maids, sales women and an exercise instructor have choice lines, and Hedda Hopper appears as a gossip columnist. This big production filled with so much talent and so many egos could have been a mess but it was all held together by director George Cukor. He was known as a woman’s director and had done great work before with Hepburn, Harlow, Shearer, Garbo, Crawford, Jeanette MacDonald (at Paramount) and others. He resented that epithet and notably did fine jobs with male actors, including Clark Gable (in “Manhattan Melodrama”). He took on “The Women” after Selznick dismissed him from “Gone With the Wind”. The dismissal story is so long and tangled with two competing versions that it would be too much to go into here. It’s enough to know that this is among the best of his many great films. Enjoy! EXTRA NOTE: Clare Boothe Luce was an amazing woman herself. She not only wrote for and edited magazines but wrote stories and plays as well as war journalism. She was a rare woman writing Broadway plays without a male writing partner, and writing one with an all-female cast was truly daring for her time. She went on to be a Republican Representative in Congress from Connecticut for several terms and eventually Ambassador to Italy. Her second marriage was to Henry Luce, Publisher of Time and Life magazines. Her third play, “Margin of Error”, was an attack on the Nazis’ racist ideas. She also co-authored a law allowing Indians and Filipinos to immigrate to the U.S. and called for the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Review: ...and it's all about men... - I remember hearing four or five years back that a remake of the 1939 classic, "The Women," was in the offing. I don't know whatever happened to the plans for that remake, but it's hard to imagine that such a film could be made today. It reinforces just about every negative and politically incorrect stereotype about women imaginable, up to and including Norma Shearer's final line about pride being a luxury that a woman in love can't afford. It also includes other statements that couldn't be made today ("She thinks that because Lulu's dark he won't be able to see her" and "It's not her fault she wasn't born deaf and dumb"). The film, according to its trailer, has a cast of 135 women. I presume that they are talking about the speaking roles because there are certainly more women on screen than that. There is not a single man to be seen anywhere; even the various animals are female. There is one scene near the beginning where a photo of a man graces the back of a magazine cover; this shot stands out like a sore thumb each time I see it, and I wish somebody had caught it and corrected it. Despite its political incorrectness, "The Women" is one of the funniest and most rib-tickling films ever made. I've probably watched it more than any other film in my collection; I've even taped the soundtrack and listened to it, a thoroughly satisfying way to enjoy "The Women" in the car, for example. Of course the raison d'etre of this spectacular film is the bitchiness of almost all the leading characters, set off by Norma Shearer's near-saintly Mary Haines. Such a character would be considered a crashing bore nowadays--her scene with daughter Mary, played by Virginia Weidler, gets this very fast-paced comedy off to an incredibly leaden start--and I have a hard time believing that she ever carried the full sympathy of the audience. Even her wise old mother, delightfully played by Lucile Watson, displays more character; fumigating the room after a party attended by most of the of the other characters, she says "How do you stand those dreadful women?" Rosalind Russell as Sylvia Fowler gets the cattiest lines and somehow manages to be able to talk a mile a minute through the whole film, even while doing strenuous physical exercises. Her two scenes with Joan Crawford are the high points of the film. Joan had to fight for the relatively short but very important role of Crystal Allen, the "terrible man-trap" who steals Stephen Haines, Norma Shearer's husband, but her hunch paid off: despite the brevity of her role, Crystal dominates the film from the time of her first appearance. And even though she gets her comeuppance at the end (an element missing from the original play by the way), she leaves in triumph, looking gorgeous and with one of the best exit lines ever written. The supporting cast doesn't have a weak link. One standout is Paulette Goddard, the most beautiful woman in the cast and certainly one of the most spirited, as Miriam Aarons, a junior-league Crystal Allen. Another is Mary Boland as the ditzy but generous-hearted Comtesse de Lave; even after her fifth husband Buck Winston has left her for Crystal, she still refers to the radio moguls who wouldn't give Buck a job on the radio as "the old meanies." But all the leads are spectacular: Joan Fontaine as the naive Peggy, Marjorie Main as Lucy, the proprietess of the Reno dude ranch, Phyllis Povah as Edith (largely forgotten nowadays, she was brought over from Broadway to recreate her role for the film), Florence Nash as tweed-suited Nancy the author, and the others. One thing I have come to appreciate more with each viewing of this film is how many actresses, many of whose names I don't even know, created truly memorable characters with just a handful of lines or less. My own particular favorite is Virginia Grey, another very beautiful woman, as Crystal's pal/nemesis Pat in the delightful telephone scene (and anybody who thinks Crawford can't act should see this scene). But others such as Olga the manicurist, Butterfly McQueen as Lulu, and the wonderful model whose tag line is "Our new one-piece lace foundation garment; zips up the back and no bones," are just three more standouts in a hugely talented supporting cast. They prove the old adage that "there are no small parts, just small actors." "The Women" is one of those films that makes me feel especially sorry for people who claim they can't watch black-and-white films. I'm not referring to the technicolor fashion show sequence when I say that this is certainly one of the most colorful films ever made. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Contributor | Ann Morriss, Cora Witherspoon, Dennie Moore, Florence Nash, George Cukor, Hedda Hopper, Joan Crawford, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Marjorie Main, Mary Beth Hughes, Mary Boland, Mary Cecil, Muriel Hutchison, Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, Phyllis Povah, Rosalind Russell, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Grey, Virginia Weidler Contributor Ann Morriss, Cora Witherspoon, Dennie Moore, Florence Nash, George Cukor, Hedda Hopper, Joan Crawford, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Marjorie Main, Mary Beth Hughes, Mary Boland, Mary Cecil, Muriel Hutchison, Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, Phyllis Povah, Rosalind Russell, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Grey, Virginia Weidler See more | | Customer Reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars 3,626 Reviews | | Format | NTSC | | Language | English | | Runtime | 2 hours and 13 minutes | | Studio | Warner | ## Product Details - **Format:** NTSC - **Genre:** Comedy, Drama - **Language:** English - **Runtime:** 2 hours and 13 minutes ## Images ![The Women (1939) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61B2aGPzWjL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of the greatest films of the 1930s. *by J***F on May 13, 2019* “The Women”, as the title suggests is what they called a “woman’s movie” in Hollywood’s classic era, so much so that forty-five minutes in, there is a fashion show and its five minutes are in color, contrasting with the rest of the film’s black and white two hour and eight minute running time (the better to show off the clothes). But it’s so much more than that. This is a great classic film that has always had a big cult following and which can be enjoyed on many levels. Essentially a comedy, it nevertheless exposes deep issues in the lives of women from their absolute dependence on men in that era to internal frictions among themselves. Admittedly these are all wealthy women leading cushioned lives, but even they have their problems, not the least of which is the boredom of their existence unless their marriage is truly good. Even then, watch out - jealous friends and gossips will do what they can to upset your happiness.It’s no accident that a popular nail polish is named “Jungle Red”. A great deal of “The Women” is conversation, sharp, witty, often cutting conversation at that. The film is so rapid fire at times you really have to see it twice to get it all; preferably one time with the closed captioning on. Much time has gone by since the filming of “The Women” and you need to appreciate that these women were really rather liberated for their day. As Norma Shearer’s Mary explains to her mother, played by Lucile Watson, “It’s alright for you to talk of another generation when women were chattels and did what men told them to. But this is today! Stephen and I are equals.” Women still lived in almost entirely female worlds outside the home, but were relatively free to come and go as they pleased, at least if they could afford to. The cast was famously all-female as it was in Clare Boothe Luce’s hit Broadway play (written as Clare Boothe in 1936). An amazing cast of big stars and up and comers was assembled for this film. It opens with clever cameos showing each actress with an animal that represents their inner character. Norma Shearer as central character Mary gives one of the best performances of her career in what would be one of her last films. She is especially good and down to earth in her scenes with her daughter, played by Virginia Weidler. No one could have been better as her nemesis than Joan Crawford’s scheming salesgirl, Crystal Allen, all venom and ice. Crawford got a considerable career boost from this film after a period of declining popularity. She was also known not to particularly care for Shearer at the studio, which added an extra element to it all. Others received enhanced careers as a result of “The Women”. Rosalind Russell had mostly played bland nice girls (as in “China Seas”) or the other woman ( in “West Point of the Air”) but here she got to show a comic persona which became her signature for years to come. Lucille Watson had frequently played maids with little or no dialog but from this time on became a notable character actor in films from “Watch On the Rhine” to “The Thin Man Goes Home”. Marjorie Main plays comic relief as a ranch manager in Reno and would play essentially the same character in many Ma and Pa Kettle films. Joan Fontaine is sweet and innocent (her usual film personna) and Paulette Goddard is stunning as Rosalind Russell’s nemesis. Mary Boland’s over-the-top Countess De Lave is a character you won’t forget, divorcing her fourth husband but always proclaiming, “L’amour, L’amour!” Even small characters like the maids, sales women and an exercise instructor have choice lines, and Hedda Hopper appears as a gossip columnist. This big production filled with so much talent and so many egos could have been a mess but it was all held together by director George Cukor. He was known as a woman’s director and had done great work before with Hepburn, Harlow, Shearer, Garbo, Crawford, Jeanette MacDonald (at Paramount) and others. He resented that epithet and notably did fine jobs with male actors, including Clark Gable (in “Manhattan Melodrama”). He took on “The Women” after Selznick dismissed him from “Gone With the Wind”. The dismissal story is so long and tangled with two competing versions that it would be too much to go into here. It’s enough to know that this is among the best of his many great films. Enjoy! EXTRA NOTE: Clare Boothe Luce was an amazing woman herself. She not only wrote for and edited magazines but wrote stories and plays as well as war journalism. She was a rare woman writing Broadway plays without a male writing partner, and writing one with an all-female cast was truly daring for her time. She went on to be a Republican Representative in Congress from Connecticut for several terms and eventually Ambassador to Italy. Her second marriage was to Henry Luce, Publisher of Time and Life magazines. Her third play, “Margin of Error”, was an attack on the Nazis’ racist ideas. She also co-authored a law allowing Indians and Filipinos to immigrate to the U.S. and called for the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ...and it's all about men... *by M***E on December 19, 2000* I remember hearing four or five years back that a remake of the 1939 classic, "The Women," was in the offing. I don't know whatever happened to the plans for that remake, but it's hard to imagine that such a film could be made today. It reinforces just about every negative and politically incorrect stereotype about women imaginable, up to and including Norma Shearer's final line about pride being a luxury that a woman in love can't afford. It also includes other statements that couldn't be made today ("She thinks that because Lulu's dark he won't be able to see her" and "It's not her fault she wasn't born deaf and dumb"). The film, according to its trailer, has a cast of 135 women. I presume that they are talking about the speaking roles because there are certainly more women on screen than that. There is not a single man to be seen anywhere; even the various animals are female. There is one scene near the beginning where a photo of a man graces the back of a magazine cover; this shot stands out like a sore thumb each time I see it, and I wish somebody had caught it and corrected it. Despite its political incorrectness, "The Women" is one of the funniest and most rib-tickling films ever made. I've probably watched it more than any other film in my collection; I've even taped the soundtrack and listened to it, a thoroughly satisfying way to enjoy "The Women" in the car, for example. Of course the raison d'etre of this spectacular film is the bitchiness of almost all the leading characters, set off by Norma Shearer's near-saintly Mary Haines. Such a character would be considered a crashing bore nowadays--her scene with daughter Mary, played by Virginia Weidler, gets this very fast-paced comedy off to an incredibly leaden start--and I have a hard time believing that she ever carried the full sympathy of the audience. Even her wise old mother, delightfully played by Lucile Watson, displays more character; fumigating the room after a party attended by most of the of the other characters, she says "How do you stand those dreadful women?" Rosalind Russell as Sylvia Fowler gets the cattiest lines and somehow manages to be able to talk a mile a minute through the whole film, even while doing strenuous physical exercises. Her two scenes with Joan Crawford are the high points of the film. Joan had to fight for the relatively short but very important role of Crystal Allen, the "terrible man-trap" who steals Stephen Haines, Norma Shearer's husband, but her hunch paid off: despite the brevity of her role, Crystal dominates the film from the time of her first appearance. And even though she gets her comeuppance at the end (an element missing from the original play by the way), she leaves in triumph, looking gorgeous and with one of the best exit lines ever written. The supporting cast doesn't have a weak link. One standout is Paulette Goddard, the most beautiful woman in the cast and certainly one of the most spirited, as Miriam Aarons, a junior-league Crystal Allen. Another is Mary Boland as the ditzy but generous-hearted Comtesse de Lave; even after her fifth husband Buck Winston has left her for Crystal, she still refers to the radio moguls who wouldn't give Buck a job on the radio as "the old meanies." But all the leads are spectacular: Joan Fontaine as the naive Peggy, Marjorie Main as Lucy, the proprietess of the Reno dude ranch, Phyllis Povah as Edith (largely forgotten nowadays, she was brought over from Broadway to recreate her role for the film), Florence Nash as tweed-suited Nancy the author, and the others. One thing I have come to appreciate more with each viewing of this film is how many actresses, many of whose names I don't even know, created truly memorable characters with just a handful of lines or less. My own particular favorite is Virginia Grey, another very beautiful woman, as Crystal's pal/nemesis Pat in the delightful telephone scene (and anybody who thinks Crawford can't act should see this scene). But others such as Olga the manicurist, Butterfly McQueen as Lulu, and the wonderful model whose tag line is "Our new one-piece lace foundation garment; zips up the back and no bones," are just three more standouts in a hugely talented supporting cast. They prove the old adage that "there are no small parts, just small actors." "The Women" is one of those films that makes me feel especially sorry for people who claim they can't watch black-and-white films. I'm not referring to the technicolor fashion show sequence when I say that this is certainly one of the most colorful films ever made. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "THE WOMEN" HAS NEVER LOOKED BETTER ON WARNER'S NEW BLU-RAY PRESENTATION *by M***L on May 13, 2014* Warner's Home Video continues it's excellent track record of restoring some of the classic films from Hollywood's Golden Age with an excellent video and audio Blu-ray of the 1939 classic "The Women" for it's 75th Anniversary. As they've proven with their recent Blu-ray upgrades of such B&W classics as "Mrs. Miniver"(1942) or Technicolor gems like "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind"(both from 1939), they offer both fans and collectors the very best video presentations when it comes to their vast film library which includes all the MGM films. With the release last week of "The Women" on Blu-ray, Warner's has outdone itself with this fast paced and still funny film comedy that's even more enjoyable now on Blu-ray. It's a vast improvement over the 2002 standard DVD right from the opening credits(Bitrate: 22.95). Gone are the scratches, dirt, vertical lines, and fuzzy scenes that plagued previous versions and what we get instead is a nearly flawless video that really brings out things that went missing in the standard DVD(costumes, props & set designs, etc.) There are still some problems with certain scenes that appear softer than others but this may be due with the film elements used more than anything else. For the most part, the print used for this Blu-ray is in exceptional condition and may even have been restored. So has the audio(no more hiss or other noise artifacts). This is very apparent about halfway through the film when the picture suddenly changes to a ten minute Technicolor fashion show whose only purpose I can fathom was to show off the costumes of designer Adrian but the inclusion of which slows down the picture(George Cukor, the director wanted it removed to no avail). Of course, it could have been added to give audiences watching the film time to catch their breath that's how good the screenplay is(by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin). The story, based on the popular play by Clare Booth Luce, is about the pampered, rich, gossipy(and ultimately bored) lives of some of Manhattan's high society women who will stop at nothing to get what they want(usually for themselves) even if they have to destroy one another in the process. It may have been hard for Depression Era audiences to identify with such women but under George Cukor's expert direction the whole story holds your interest due in no small part to the outstanding cast(no men, only women). Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard and Mary Boland are all superb in their respective roles. The supporting cast is excellent too, with Lucille Watson, Marjorie Main, and little Virginia Weidler stealing all the scenes they appear in. But it's Norma Shearer who holds the film together with her outstanding and heartfelt performance as Mary Haines whose "perfect" life is torn apart by gossip and betrayal. An underrated actress, Shearer is a revelation and her performance should have been nominated for an Oscar that year, but was inexplicitly ignored(so was the film) in a tough year. Thanks to Warner's, a lot of her films have been released recently on DVD and viewers finally have the chance to see what an exceptional actress she was. "The Women" is 133 minutes with the Color Sequence(Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1) and contains the following subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish. Audio includes: English DTS-HD Master Audio and Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0. Special features include two documentaries and the alternate B&W fashion show sequence with different footage (involving the actresses) that Cukor filmed in addition to the Technicolor sequence. Also included are the original Theatrical trailers for "The Women" and the color musical re-make "The Opposite Sex"(1956). (Please note: This Blu-ray disc is housed in an eco-cutout case so you may want to change to a more solid HD case for added protection). "The Women" may have been overshadowed by other MGM blockbusters in 1939 such as "Gone with the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz", but it still packs a punch after 75 years with this new Blu-ray presentation from Warner Home Video. It comes highly recommended. ## Frequently Bought Together - The Women (1939) - Mildred Pierce - All About Eve --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.be/products/122914223-the-women-1939](https://www.desertcart.be/products/122914223-the-women-1939) --- *Product available on Desertcart Belgium* *Store origin: BE* *Last updated: 2026-08-03*