Okay I'll probably get booed for this, but I love the movie, despite Norma Shearer's overacting. I've noticed this when I see her in a movie. I don't think she's at all as attractive as she thinks she is, and I believe she, as an actress, has been highly over-rated. Sorry, just my honest opinion. :)
shareActally, I thought I didn't much like Norma Shearer before watching this movie, but I loved her in it.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
I agree with Cello1949. Norma had a pretty thankless role in "The Women" and is sadly mostly remembered for this. Do yourselves a favor and watch Norma's pre-code movies, especially "The Divorcee", "Strangers May Kiss" and "A free Soul". You'll be surprised. A completely different woman.
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."
Shearer seems to have been one of a number of women who, prodded by the newly enforced Production Code basically banning a lot of their previous (more sexually aware and active) roles, decided in the mid-1930s to shift their screen persona much more toward what some might describe as "goodie-2-shoes".
For real revelation along these lines, check out Jeannette MacDonald's Pre-Code code work (especially for Lubitsch and in Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight). We're now so used to thinking of MacDonald in terms of her later persona from the Nelson Eddie movies as the basis for the Polly Purebred cartoon character, that it can be a bit jaw-dropping to see her being so sexually agressive in the early 1930s.
I don't think I've seen her in anything else, but Rosalind and Joan outshined her in this one.
shareI'm not a particular fan of Norma Shearer myself. Many of the roles she did she got because she was Thalberg's wife and she was often in over her head; she was a competent actress rather than a brilliant one, and could have found her own niche had she not wanted stardom so badly.
That being said, she is surprisingly good in THE WOMEN. George Cukor, known for his ability to direct actresses, had his hands full with an all-star cast of actresses some of whom were not speaking to each other from one day to the next. Under Cukor's guidance I think Shearer gives what may be the performance of her career despite the occasional notes of melodrama. I particularly like her in the Reno sequence; she comes across as totally natural and never reaches for dramatic (or comedic) effect which was her worst habit as an actress. Her crying jag upon receiving the news that her ex husband has married the shop girl Crystal Allen (Crawford) is one of the best scenes of its kind in film; even technically better actresses like Davis, Hepburn, and Stanwyck did not always pull tears off this well.
To my mind this film was the peak of Shearer's career; she was never this good before and never this good again.
Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
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I'm not a big Norma Shearer fan either but I must agree with you on her reaction to Stephen's remarriage : I'm usually very turned off by manufactured tears but Mary Haines's crying actually touched me.
shareI don't know why, but I adore Norma Shearer. I know she can be legitimately accused of overacting (in this movie, at the end when she holds her arms out to 'Steven,' whom we never see.)
But she can be amazingly good. When she tells little Mary about the divorce, I thought she was perfect. And if you haven't seen her in Marie Antoinette, you're missing a real treat.
I think she's great. :)
shareI thought I was the only one who thought this as well. I loved the movie, but in my opinion, I think Myrna Loy or even newcomer (at the time) Greer Garson would have been great as Mary. However, I do think that Norma gave a good performance, but Myrna Loy would have been sheer perfection or even Irene Dunne, who excelled at playing these type of roles.
shareI haven't read enough to know if the facts support what I suspect: she was married to Thalberg and that explains her thin talent getting such prominent roles.
She never works for me either, except maybe in Idiot's Delight. A pretty nuts movie.
LL
I know Norma Shearer's general story but acknowledge not being all that familiar with her work. I am intrigued to see her pre-Code films, which for all the catty remarks here about her marriage to Thalberg ignore that she was a big success in Hollywood before her marriage.
But... focusing on this work there is more than enough to say Norma was quite impressive. Yes, someone like Myrna Loy could have played this part, perhaps as well. And as for the Greer Garson suggestion, I don't think she was yet enough of a Hollywood presence to have been cast in such a role. She might have had trouble with the accent as well, and ftr Greer Garson is one of my top ten all time favorite actresses. But Norma Shearer takes a very difficult and probably the most complex role in this film and gives an emotionally nuanced and convincing performance.
Let's say I can see why she was cast in the part, and it was because she fit it well and gave a great performance, not because of her marriage to Thalberg.
I remember many years ago, after my fourth or fifth screening of the film, I remarked how pretty I thought Norma Shearer was to a friend of mine who is a hardcore MGM buff...
And he said
"CROSS EYED NORMA SHEARER, are you kidding!?!? Thanks to her husband, she was the Queen of Hollywood, and she'd be the first to remind you that she was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. They had a very high opinion of how the world should adore her."
Personally, I still think she's rather beautiful in an offbeat way; I also love that she chews every bit of scenery she comes near. She didn't just play scenes so that the people in the balcony catch every expression, she played so people outside, at the far end of the block would get it too.
But, then, the entire cast does that, which is one of the things that makes the film such a treasure.
The comedy in this is played in a very stylized way, but if it didn't have innate truth, it wouldn't be funny.
I don't like the word "overacting," because it's diminishing and not even true.
If REAL people filmed in REAL life (like on the news), were held to the standards people think are REAL today in movies, not only would they all be bland but they would be untruthful.
The fact is, audiences are so prissy and afraid of emotion today, their sense of theatre is outraged by any strong emotion.
But when you start a take like Shearer has on the phone and you watch the tears come into her eyes in the same take, you've got an effective actress who risks. And that's more interesting than all the numb-faced, whispering, self-conscious "actors" playing the current style to keep their audiences comfortable.
Norma's best work was in the late 20s and early 30s. By the time this script was complete she knew she was wanting out of the business and move on with her life. It's rumored she never got over Irving's death completely. As for over acting the rumor on that was Joan Crawford created a competitive environment on the set (her trademark) and kept everyone tense and it spilled out on to the screen in many of the scenes she did. I had heard from a good source her role was written specifically for her because she didn't have to act to do it.