The year 1939 produced such outstanding film classics as Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights. No less critically acclaimed that year was The Women. A largely forgotten masterpiece , The Women is a glamorous but stinging satire about women forced by society to be defined by men. Jungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women restores this classic to its rightful place in Hollywood history, and its lasting legacy as a template for later female-driven projects like Sex and The City, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Four MGM screenwriters, including a failing F. Scott Fitzgerald and an on-the-rise Donald Ogden Stewart, fought over their vision of The Women. Jane Murfin was completing her script when Anita Loos was brought in to work with her on a new draft for George Cukor, then recently fired from Gone with the Wind and determined to use The Women to get his career back on track. He became, as one newspaper called him, the lion tamer to the ladies. With sophisticated direction by Cukor, lavish fashions by Adrian, and gorgeous sets by Cedric Gibbons, its all-star cast was led by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Fontaine. Not a single male actor appeared, proving that women didn’t need men to rule the box office. Gossip columns were filled with stories about fierce on-set rivalries, which proved fairly combustible, leading one columnist to refer to the set as “a female kennel,” with behind the scenes antics as fierce and flamboyant as the film itself. The Los Angeles Times wrote, ” The Women is a vitriolic masterpiece!” Now, it’s time to fall in love with The Women all over again! In Jungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women, and using never-before-seen photographs, memos, and script notes, Douglas writes not only how the film came together, but captures how the lives of the people who made it intersected before, during and after, and how the conflicts on-set and off resulted in the greatest film ever made about women . . . by a man!
Illeana Douglas has starred in films like Cape Fear, To Die For, Grace of My Heart, and Ghost World, as well as TV shows Goliath, Entourage, and Six Feet Under. She’s done memorable interviews and introductions for Turner Classic Movies, Criterion, Kino Lorber, and Trailers From Hell. She’s the author of I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies, and Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia.
About Book Soup
Located on the infamous Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California, Book Soup has been serving the Los Angeles community - and beyond - since 1975!As one of the last surviving and leading independent bookstores, Book Soup packs over 60,000 titles in-stock, specializing in art, film, photography, music, controversial non-fiction, and literary fiction. With a deep commitment to university, International, and small presses, customers will continue to be surprised by the rare gems found on our shelves.Known for our floor to ceiling bookshelves, high profile events, signed titles, and celebrity clientele, Book Soup is a “must see” on any tour of L.A. and if you happen to live in our neighborhood, we are here to stimulate and engage you in conversation.On your virtual tour, be sure to visit Employee Picks, to see what our extraordinary (and very opinionated) booksellers are reading these days, and please be sure to check out our upcoming Author Events- sure to excite book collectors and book lovers with tastes of all kinds.
