THE WOMEN (1939) ** It's a pretty cool idea-a movie with just chicks in it. Joan Crawford is the full on queen bitch in a couple scenes, I wanted to just strangle her myself and obviously none of it had anything to do with me. Paulette Goddard is a little pistol and kicks Rosalind Russell's ass. Joan Fontaine is a bit dim. Early on the clever dialogue, rewritten from the Clare Boothe Luce comedy, carries things but its magic wears thin just about the time we go into a lengthy in-color fashion show. The fashion sequence is a little bit funny and cute (tennis styles!) in its own right, but eats up what was left of the momentum. To make matters worse the film carries on interminably, including a lengthy series of scenes on a divorcee dude ranch in Reno that eventually leads to a highly improbable conclusion in New York where I guess the major issues are dealt with peripherally or something. Chock full o' bad advice from bitchy New York socialites whose own love lives are the stuff of barnyard legend.
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