[Quick Summary: After she learns her husband is seeing someone else, Mary Haines grapples with the snubs and opinions of her social group.]
One reason I like to read older scripts (a.k.a. film plays*) is to discover WHY they struck a nerve and WHY they're still relevant.
For example, today's script features the women involved in a love triangle.**
WHY DOES IT STRIKE A NERVE? I think women in love everywhere have the common experience of worrying about competition in their relationships.
WHY IS IT STILL RELEVANT? It never goes away. Women are either in a love triangle, have been affected by one, or are fascinated by the drama.
WHAT SETS THIS SCRIPT APART? It nails an aspect of the love triangle that's not often seen: the community and societal pressures.
HOW? By satirizing how what other women think affects other women. After all, the husband is never seen and this IS the story about The Women.
For example, the scene below is pure screwball comedy:
- The writers used women's love of gossip, i.e., need to talk about another's secret.
- The gossip begins at the beauty salon.
- Mary and her cousin Sylvia (Rosalind Russell) are frienemies.
- The manicurist has just let it slip to Sylvia that Mary's husband is seeing a mistress, Crystal (Joan Crawford). Sylvia is bursting to unload on a friend.
- Notice how the writers thwart this need until she's at pitch desperation. These are slightly exaggerated lengths, but the emotions are very real.
- The purpose of this scene is to focus on the character development. Ignore the studio formatting. It is no longer used as much, as noted in the * below.
At which point, a drying machine next to them is turned on, drowning out Olga's voice. But in Sylvia's face, we see a swiftly growing malicious delight, and finally Sylvia can stand it no longer and jumps up excitedly. She grabs her coat, hat and bag, all the time protecting the nails of the hand Olga has just finished, tips the two girls, and rushes out. And the view wiping off, we see a row of five PAY STATION TELEPHONE BOOTHS in a DRUG STORE with Sylvia striding along. She starts toward the first booth, and sees that it is occupied by a woman as are all five. As she reaches the last booth, she hears the door of the first one open and quickly turns and makes a dash for it. But just as she reaches it a large woman obstructs her way and eases herself inside, barely making it, much to Sylvia's annoyance. The next instant, the woman in the last booth emerges, but again, as Sylvia rushes forward, she arrives too late and a package-laden woman beats her to it, giving her a sweet smile as she closes the door, a smile which Sylvia forces herself to return. Grimly now, she takes her position opposite the middle booth.
The central booth now appears and Sylvia is seen tapping nervously on the glass door as the woman inside talks on, turning to cast an annoyed glance at the tapper. Finally the woman hangs up and Sylvia pushes into the booth while the woman is coming out, getting them both practically stuck for an instant. Inside, Sylvia sniffs distastefully at the smell of the place, waves her handkerchief to clear it out, then opens her bag, takes out a coin purse, looks in it and finds only two fifty cent pieces. Now beings a frantic search through her bag for a nickel. She takes out vanity case, lipstick, cigarette case, address book, gold pencil, small perfume bottle, key-ring, comb, a small bottle of dental floss, stamp book and more paraphernalia. She finally starts out with the though of getting change, but seeing the lineup of women, abandons the idea. She searches through the pockets of her coat and although she finds no money, her eyes light up as she feels the round weights which have been put into the lining. she quickly rips open the lining, takes out the weight and breathlessly fits it into the coin box. It works. It works, and with a snooty grimace of triumph, she dials the number.
SYLVIA (at the telephone): Mrs. Potter please...this is Mrs. Fowler. (She waits eagerly.) Edith? ... Take a group on yourself! You're going to die!...Stephen Haines is stepping out on Mary!
A close-up of Edith shows her in a negligee - at the phone - bristling with delight, with a nasty tempered little Peke lying in her lap.
EDITH: Are you sure it's true?...Tell me about it this instant!...
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Gossiping about Mary's love triangle leads to exaggerated, screwball comedy fun.
But it also points us to the truth about Sylvia's motives, i.e., that she takes pleasure in Mary's misfortune (schadenfreude).
The Women (1939)
by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin
Based on the play by Clare Luce Boothe
*The early films were called "film plays," and the scripts are formatted like plays. They often have paragraphs of narrative and lack distinct slug lines.
Back in the day, I wonder it the name "film play" was also a bit of marketing because it combines a familiar word ("play," as in, theater play), with an unfamiliar new format (film).
**It featured up and coming stars of the day: Norma Shearer (wife
Mary), Rosalind Russell (Mary's cousin Sylvia), and Joan Crawford
(mistress Crystal). It was directed by the George Cukor, who did an exceptional job.
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