I managed to read a draft of The Women, which once again showed me that there are always differences between script and film. Even if they are tiny differences, which in this case they kinda were, but there are things that get changed or cut, and almost always it's for the better. My big disappointment? Crystal's couple of first scenes were completely missing from the copy I had. And I was so looking forward to reading them and when I got to the scene, ten pages were missing. Well, I had to get over it and move on. It was a long read, a lot of dialogue, but for the most part, the film remained loyal to the screenplay except in a few parts.
I knew reading the opening scene, sequence to the film was going to prove to be difficult, and it wasn't that bad, but if you can believe it, the scene was even more talky than what we see on the screen. There's talk from characters that we don't even hear from in the finished product, and some of the characters we do get to hear get extra talk. One thing that I did like about reading the script though was that at times the film seemed to go by too fast for me to process everything being said, so upon reading the script there were some gags that had passed right by me and I found funny this time around. But on top of the dialogue there was plenty of description that thankfully because I have now seen the film various times made it easier to read. But to be honest, it was still wordy. It reminded me of reading action scripts. I wonder if it would've worked on screen to film this as it's written, but I assume not. I think some of the extra things in the script kind of weighed the scene down and cutting this excess characters and dialogue was the right decision. In the film, the scene moves right along at the right pace, you feel like you're kind of in a whirlwind, and at times following that girl who's looking for Grandma. In the script, this girl comes in the scene and then leaves, only to come in a bit later on again as she finds her grandmother who in the script is said to be 27. Yeah, that made me chuckle as well. Would've been funny if they would've cast a 27-year-old as Grandma.
All this commotion leads up to Sylvia's entrance, and in the script, there's just no justice to the character. Rosalind Russell has to get credit for this, because she just took it to another much funnier level. On screen Sylvia is the one demanding that the blow dryer be taken off of her because she can't hear, as opposed to the Sylvia on the page who takes in whatever she can hear and somehow just in time the blow dryer is done as is her manicure and off she goes to the pay phone. I think it's little things like this that can make a difference, especially in a character. While we don't sympathize with Sylvia, it's fun to watch her because she's pretty determined. Funny enough, the scene that follows in the screenplay has her waiting impatiently for a pay phone to free up and then she doesn't find any right coin for the pay phone but somehow manages to find something in her coat that'll trick the pay phone into think it's the right coin. I think this bit is interesting in showing her true character, but I also have to agree in cutting this scene away because it slowed down the film. In fact, much of what was cut away did exactly that. These excess scenes did nothing to advance the plot really.
There's another scene in which Mary's cook Ingrid accuses Mary's maid Jane of trying to steal her husband away. All this after Mary learns Stephen has been cozying up to Crystal. While it does in a way reinforce Mary's true feelings about infidelity, it once again slowed down the story. It turned out the Ingrid really knew that her husband was the one going after Jane and not the other way around and in the end Ingrid and her husband leave together.
Perhaps another extra scene I didn't care for was in Reno, once Mary is divorced and she finds out about Stephen remarrying. Mary goes out to the Bridge of Sighs and throws out her wedding ring. Another woman who is also divorcing approaches her and tells her to spit at the ring because it'll bring luck, but while that woman does spit at her own ring, Mary doesn't. This part coming after her crying over Stephen's phone call just seemed like it was a bit too much and I think the balance between comedy and drama would've been off. This scene is followed by Mary's long trip abroad in Europe. In the script, Mary goes off to forget Stephen and actually starts dating again. She goes off for like six months it seems to London, Paris, Venice, before returning to New York. But of course, once she returns she sees news of Crystal as Mrs Stephen Haines and it hurts her. The nice thing about this scene is that we see that Mary doesn't just mope around; she actually tries to get back into the swing of things even if she doesn't really have the heart for it. She tries to be that modern woman she thinks she is. And I must say, that this is what bothered me the first time I saw the film, that she just waits around two years and we don't know what she does, but she doesn't seem to have a life outside of being a mother. And then she takes Stephen back. I suspect a good screwball comedy could've been made out of those two years, leading up to the grand finale.
Finally in the end, I get to read some Crystal, but can you believe that great "outside of a kennel" line is nowhere to be found? Crystal here is a tough girl, but doesn't seem the tough one that comes across on screen. The great part about Crystal in the end is that she knows fully well that her gig is up and she's gotta go back to the perfume counter, and she's fine with it because she's a survivor. The Crystal on the page turns to Mary to have the last word and tells her to go on and get her second helpings, but it just seems kind of lame to say that, and not as great as the kennel line. I almost expect her to go off and throw a tantrum à la Sylvia-at-Reno. But Joan Crawford really pulls it off here as Crystal, leaving with her head high.
So once again, there are differences between screenplay and film, and I have to say that the differences that ended up on screen were definitely for the better. While it was nice to see a bit of the character development that happened in the script, I think cutting those scenes and extra dialogue was a wise decision. In other cases, changing the dialogue around was even better and hyped up the characters more, made them a lot more fun to watch. And really, at over two hours long, it's a good thing those scenes were cut out of The Women because I can't imagine how much longer it would've been, or worse, if it would've instead just dragged on. The film in the end is a much crisper and sharper version of the script with just the right balance of drama and comedy.
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