Last July I TiVo’d a TCM airing of the 1939 classic The Women with Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and a host of others, with not a Y chromosome in the bunch. I had seen it on the late show many years ago, and I was so charmed I had to see it agein. Well, I finally got around to watching it today, and I was struck by one of the scenes.
Shortly before Norma Shearer’s character has her hand forced, vis-a-vis the shopgirl and her husband, the ladies are all at a fashion show. As I watched this afternoon, I noticed that the action at the fashion show was in color. Was this scene shot that way in 1939, or is this an example of Ted Turner not “keeping his crayons away” from someone’s work (to paraphrase Mr Welles)?
No, the fashion show segment was originally shot in color. IIRC there’s a version of it in b/w as well, I want to say that it’s included on the DVD but it’s been a while since I reviewed it.
Huh. I’ve seen that movie maybe three times on TCM in recent years, and it’s always been in BW. Wonder what the deal is with the TCM library. They’re still showing the censored version of Babyface, too.
Well, *FGT *is the suck, and Auntie Mame succeeds largely on camp value. But The Women is actually a pretty dang good movie, if not entirely without camp. Not my favorite Shearer–The Divorcee probably holds that title–but one of the greatest ensemble films of all time.
Agreed. I recently watched it on TCM, probably the same July showing as in the OP, and the fashion show - the most boring part of the movie, BTW - was in color.
More proof that lissener sees the world differently from the rest of us.
Valium! You missed one of the best women fights ever filmed. Rosalind Russell and Paulette Goddard have a great knock-down drag-out battle.
My favorite actress in this ensemble of greats is Rosalind Russell. The first time I saw the movie, I saw that Lucille Ball’s television character borrowed heavily from the great RR. In my opinion, Lucy couldn’t hold a candle to her.
Well, I definitely believe youse guys. The more I think of it the more I have a memory of that scene. I think I’m just way off on remembering how recently, and how frequently, I’ve seen the movie. I watched over a dozen Shearer movies not too long ago, and I feel like that was one of them, but the more I think of it the more I’m thinking I dumped it from TiVo to make room for movies I hadn’t seen before.
