Women at Sydney's, at home, gathering for tea

It's clear to me that The Women is quite different from the other films I've seen so far, not just because it's not a true screwball comedy, but due to its large cast. So, as I sat and watched the opening of this film, I realized that there were several scenes to consider, mostly because of the ensemble cast. Regardless of this fact, the great thing about the opening is that you know right from the beginning what kind of film you're watching, the tone is set across the different characters, and it's for sure to be a funny film.

The credits are rather long, but they make it fun at the same time by introducing each actor not by her face but by the animal equivalent of her character before dissolving into her true face. And I like this because a lot of times when you have a large cast, it might take you a while to figure out who is who and what their business is. With this lovely set-up, George Cukor is telling you who's who plus what kind of character they play. Norma Shearer? A deer. So naturally Virginia Weidler who plays her daughter is a fawn, yet Lucile Watson as the grandmother? An owl. Joan Crawford? A lioness. So it's a different and fun way to see the credits. But once the credits are all done, the real fun begins.

The squabbling begins right from the start as the dogs of two different women start to fight right in front of Sydney's. And then their owners start barking at each other as well to mind after the other's dog. So the cattiness of women is set from the get-go and off the scene goes. Inside Sydney's we follow all the different activities women go through to be beautiful! admired! desired! appealing! And it's not just young women, it's women of all ages. When an older lady sits to get a facial, her friend pushes the beautician to the side--literally bumps her off with her hip--and looks into magnifying glass to see wrinkly eyes and exclaims, "Good grief! I hate to tell you, dear, but your skin makes the Rocky Mountains look like chiffon velvet!" It's this kind of blunt and brutal honesty that makes you realize this film is gonna be like no other. But from that room you go to other rooms, women taking mud baths and exclaiming there are worms in it, a girl going from room to room looking for her grandmother just as if she was in a girls' locker room. There are all the sunbathers getting their tans and the massages too. Then there's the exercise rooms, and in one of them the girl finally finds her grandmother, all the while you hear crack after crack from the women. This is a great tracking shot that takes you through the world of women, and in this specific place it gives you a behind-the-scenes look, if you will, establishing the content and the tone of the film.

Finally, though, you get to Rosalind Russell's Sylvia getting her manicure from Olga. Russell looks positively bored listening to the gossipy Olga, until she hears Stephen Haines. Russell does such a great job here of showing not just interest but that of a beast ready to devour and die right there. She's so desperate to hear that she takes out her cotton swabs, raises her voice that she can't hear, and then finally screams for someone to get the hair dryer off of her. She exaggerates everything to the right level and pulls it off beautifully. You're dying as you watch her, because secretly you've probably felt the same way too, just never showed it off like she did. Of course, Sylvia does what every good girlfriend does, she starts making phone calls and spreading the juicy news to none other than Phyllis Povah's Edith, who seems to have a more children than fingers to count them with. And if you weren't sure about the tone, at this point it's unmistakeable. Edith not only says all the right things, but with such irony. While Russell has sarcasm in her tone, Edith has a smile from ear to ear upon learning the news, and while she says it's awful, her facial expressions truly betray her.

Then there's the Haines household, where the opening sequence truly wraps up. While the tone in the earlier scenes is much quicker and filled with bite, Shearer is by far presented more serious, as her storyline follows throughout the film. We see happy Mary Haines and her daughter, little Mary, enjoying a horse ride. This little bit is clearly shown to show the idyllic lifestyle in the Haines home, a sharp contrast to the news we've just found out about Mr Haines. After showering, Mary sits with her daughter and reminisces through old photographs about her honeymoon. Shearer is so lovely here. She has a way of striking the right poses, and even though you might want this to be a full-on comedy, you can forgive the film because Shearer is great to watch, you can tell she is completely in love and remembers vividly her honeymoon. All this makes it sad to realize that Stephen's got a wandering eye.

Meanwhile, the guests arrive for Mary's tea gathering, and the funny is brought back in. This is good because we don't dwell too much on the dramatic side of things. Sylvia is constantly dropping hints about Stephen's infidelity, and dying to tell Edith the details without dishing it all out to Joan Fontaine's Peggy and Florence Nash's Nancy. Even here, Nancy can see right through Sylvia, calling her the "spider in the parlor." Peggy is the quiet one, still in love and too much of a romantic for this group of women. When Mary finally joins them, Sylvia is quick to drop not-so-subtle hints about the state of affairs in Mary's marriage. And while Peggy cannot catch on, Nancy does and tries to mollify the situation while Edith looks on horrified when Sylvia suggests to Mary that she go see Olga at Sydney's to get a jungle red shade of a manicure. The right hook to leave you hanging and eager to continue watching.

This opening sequence runs for about twenty minutes and it is quite long, but I think it establishes everything important due to the large cast. Perhaps the whole tracking shot at Sydney's could've been taken out, but then you would miss out on so much fun with the women inside, plus the fact that I think Cukor was trying to establish in that this is a unique look at the lives of women behind closed doors. It's also great at gradually introducing you to all types of women and their lives, and doing so in a funny way. But perhaps the most important thing here is that it goes by smoothly and fairly quickly. It's easy and fun to watch these women, with the performances they give. What's also good here is that from the beginning we find out the main point of the film, Mary Haine's marriage, and the right tone is set. There should be no confusion that as we follow Mary at home things will be on the dramatic side, while with the other women things are going to be downright hilarious due to both performances and great dialogue. The Women is a bit more complex in that it mixes genre, plus has a large ensemble cast, but Cukor manages to define clearly the type of film he's showing in those first twenty minutes. And from the look of things, it's gonna give you a bit of everything.