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The Women (1939 Film)
''The Women'' is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's 1936 play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code for it to be released. The film stars Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Mary Boland, Florence Nash, and Virginia Grey. Marjorie Main and Phyllis Povah also appear, reprising their stage roles from the play. Ruth Hussey, Virginia Weidler, Butterfly McQueen, Theresa Harris, and Hedda Hopper also appear in smaller roles. Fontaine was the last surviving actress with a credited role in the film; she died in 2013. The film continued the play's all-female tradition—the entire cast of more than 130 speaking roles was female. Set in the glamorous Manhattan apartments of high society evoked by Cedric Gibbons, and in Reno, Nevada, where they obtain their divorc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of Production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including ''What Price Hollywood?'' (1932), '' A Bill of Divorcement'' (1932), ''Our Betters'' (1933), and '' Little Women'' (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed '' Dinner at Eight'' (1933) and ''David Copperfield'' (1935) for Selznick, and ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1936) and '' Camille'' (1936) for Irving Thalberg. He was replaced as one of the directors of ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939), but he went on to direct '' The Philadelphia Story'' (1940), ''Gaslight'' (1944), ''Adam's Rib'' (1949), '' Born Yesterday'' (1950), '' A Star Is Born'' (1954), ''Bhowani Junction'' (1956), and won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Under Hays's leadership, the MPPDA, later the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA), adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began rigidly enforcing it in 1934. The Production Code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States. From 1934 to 1954, the code was closely identified with Joseph Breen, the administrator appointed by Hays to enforce the code in Hollywood. The film industry followed the guidelines set by the code well into the late 1950s, but it began to weaken, owing to the combined ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, Hopper named suspected communists and was a major proponent of the Hollywood blacklist. Hopper continued to write gossip until the end of her life, her work appearing in many magazines and later on radio. She had an extended feud with another gossip columnist, arch-rival Louella Parsons. Early life Hopper was born Elda Furry in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Margaret ( née Miller; 1856–1941) and David Furry, a butcher, both members of the German Baptist Brethren. Her family was of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. The family moved to Altoona when Elda was three. Career Acting She eventually ran away to New York City and began her career in the chorus on the Broadway stage. Hopper was not succes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theresa Harris
Theresa Harris (December 31, 1906 – October 8, 1985) was an American television and film actress, singer and dancer. Early life Harris was born on New Year's Eve 1906 (some sources indicate 1909) in Houston, Texas, to Isaiah and Mable Harris, both of whom were former sharecroppers from Louisiana. Harris' family relocated to Southern California when she was 11 years old. After graduating Jefferson High School, she studied at the UCLA Conservatory of Music and Zoellner's Conservatory of Music. She then joined the Lafayette Players, an African American musical comedy theatre troupe. Career She made her film debut in 1929 in ''Thunderbolt'', singing the song "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home". As she entered the 1930s, she played, often without credit, maids to characters acted by Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Sylvia Sidney, Frances Dee, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Thelma Todd, Kay Francis, and Barbara Stanwyck. She also floated around studios doing bit-parts, usually at Warner Br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterfly McQueen
Butterfly McQueen (born Thelma McQueen; January 8, 1911December 22, 1995) was an American actress. Originally a dancer, McQueen first appeared in films as "Prissy" in ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939). She was unable to attend the film's premiere because it was held at a whites-only theater. Often typecast as a maid, she said: "I didn't mind playing a maid the first time, because I thought that was how you got into the business. But after I did the same thing over and over, I resented it. I didn't mind being funny, but I didn't like being stupid." She continued as an actress in film in the 1940s, and then moved to television acting in the 1950s. She won a 1980 Daytime Emmy Award for her performance in the '' ABC Afterschool Special'' episode "Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid". Early life and education Born January 8, 1911 in Tampa, Florida, Thelma McQueen was the daughter of Wallace McQueen, a stevedore/dockworker, and Mary McQueen, who worked as a maid. After her parents separated, Thel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Weidler
Virginia Anna Adeleid Weidler (March 21, 1927 – July 1, 1968) was an American child actress, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s. Early life and career Weidler was born on March 21, 1927, in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles County, California; she was the sixth and final child born to Alfred Weidler, an architect, and Margaret Weidler (born Margarete Therese Louise Radon, 1890–1987), a former opera singer. She was the second Weidler child born in the United States after the family emigrated from Germany in 1923. She made her first film appearance in 1931. Her first credited role was as Europena in '' Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' (1934) a role she won at age seven after having been seen in the play '' Autumn Crocus''. Virginia made a big impression on audiences as the little girl who would "hold my breath 'til I am black in the face" to get her way. For the next several years, she appeared in many memorable films from George Stevens's '' Laddie'' (1935) to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth Hussey
Ruth Carol Hussey (October 30, 1911 – April 19, 2005) was an American actress best known for her Academy Award-nominated role as photographer Elizabeth Imbrie in '' The Philadelphia Story''. Early life Hussey was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 30, 1911. She was later known as Ruth Carol O'Rourke, her stepfather's surname.Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. , p. 591. Her father, George R. Hussey, died of the Spanish flu in 1918 when she was seven years old. Ten years later, her mother, Julia Corbett Hussey, married a family friend, William O'Rourke, who had worked at the family's mail-order silver enterprise. She grew up at 179 Ontario Street.Rhode Island, State Census, 1925. She had an older brother, Robert, and a younger sister, Betty. After obtaining her early education in Providence's public schools, Hussey studied art at Pembroke College and graduated from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllis Povah
Phyllis Povah (July 21, 1893 – August 7, 1975) was an American stage and film actress. Career Povah made her Broadway theatre debut in ''Mr. Pim Passes By'' in 1921 and acted in minor roles in several productions over the next two decades as well as one of the leads in the 1923 play Icebound. She achieved a notable success in a featured role in the stage production of '' The Women'', and the play ran for 18 months, from 1936 until 1938. When a film version was planned, Povah and Marjorie Main were the only members of the cast who were chosen to reprise their roles in the film which was released in 1939. (The film was directed by George Cukor). The film was a success, but Povah continued to work steadily in theatre, and appeared in the film ''Let's Face It'' (1943) with Bob Hope and Betty Hutton. ''Dear Ruth'', in which Povah starred with John Dall and Virginia Gilmore played on Broadway from 1944 until 1946, and provided her with a substantial role and her biggest success d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marjorie Main
Mary Tomlinson (February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975), professionally known as Marjorie Main, was an American character actress and singer of the Classical Hollywood period, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the 1940s and 1950s, and for her role as Ma Kettle in 10 Ma and Pa Kettle movies. Main started her career in vaudeville and theatre, and appeared in film classics, such as ''Dead End'' (1937), '' The Women'' (1939), ''Dark Command'' (1940), '' The Shepherd of the Hills'' (1941), ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' (1944), and '' Friendly Persuasion'' (1956). Early life Mary Tomlinson was born on February 24, 1890, near Acton, in rural Marion County, Indiana. She was the second daughter of Reverend Samuel J. Tomlinson, a Disciples of Christ minister, and Jennie L. (McGaughey) Tomlinson. Mary's maternal grandfather, Doctor Samuel McGaughey, was the Acton physician who delivered her. At the age of three, Tomlinson moved with her family to Indianapolis, Indiana, wher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey (March 22, 1917 – July 31, 2004) was an American actress who appeared in over 100 films and a number of radio and television shows from the 1930s to the early 1980s. Biography Grey was born on March 22, 1917, in Edendale, California, the youngest of three daughters of Florence Anna Grey (née Pauly; 1890—1930) and director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of 10 in the silent film ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1927) as Little Eva. She continued acting for a few more years, but then left movies for three years to finish her education. Grey gave up on training to be a nurse and returned to films in the 1930s with bit parts and work as an extra. She eventually signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and appeared in several films, including ''The Hardys Ride High'' (1939) with Mickey Rooney, '' Another Thin Man'' (1939) with William Powell, ''Hullabaloo'' (1940), and '' The Big Store'' (1941) with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence Nash
Florence Nash (née Ryan) (October 2, 1888 — April 2, 1950) was an American actress and author. She was sister to theater and movie actor Mary Nash. Early life Florence was born to James H. and Ellen Frances (née McNamara) Ryan. She and her sister adopted the surname of their stepfather, Philip F. Nash, a vaudeville booking executive, who married their mother after the death of their father, a lawyer. Nash was Catholic and a lifelong Democrat. Career She began her acting career in 1907 and had her first hit in 1912 as Aggie Lynch in ''Within the Law''. She was a noted theater actor and comedian in vaudeville until the 1930s (appearing in sketches including '' In 1999''), when she moved to Hollywood to try her luck with films. Her most notable role was as "Nancy Blake" in the 1939 MGM blockbuster '' The Women''.Florence Nash profile a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Boland
Mary Boland (born Marie Anne Boland; January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boland was the daughter of repertory actor William Augustus Boland, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara. The family later moved to Detroit. Boland went to school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Detroit. By age fifteen she had left school and was performing on stage. In 1901, she began acting on stage with a local stock theater company. Career She debuted on Broadway in 1907 in the play ''The Ranger'' with Dustin Farnum and had appeared in eleven Broadway productions, notably with John Drew, becoming his "leading lady in New York and on the road." She made her silent film debut for Triangle Studios in 1915. She entertained soldiers in France during World War I and then returned to America. After appearing in nine movies, she left filmmaking in 1920, returning to the stage and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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