Back to Golden Days

In honour of Norma Shearer's 114th birthday, which was on Wednesday, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you what is arguably one of her most iconic pictures. Directed by George Cukor, The Women (1939) begins when Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell) learns from her manicurist, Olga (Dennie Moore), that Stephen Haines, the husband of her cousin Mary (Norma Shearer), is having an affair with a predatory perfume clerk named Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford). A notorious gossip, Sylvia shares the news with her Park Avenue friends and then sends Mary for a manicure with Olga so that she hears the rumour herself. Mary's mother, Mrs. Morehead (Lucile Watson) urges her to ignore the gossip, but she cannot control herself when she encounters Crystal at a fashion show. To Sylvia's delight, the meeting between the two rivals makes the front page of the society columns, which leads Mary to ask for a divorce.   Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Norma Shearer, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland and Pau...

In this first ever «Film Friday» I thought I would tell you about the film that introduced me to the wonders of both black and white cinema and James Stewart. Directed by George Cukor, The Philadelphia Story (1940) revolves around the high-society wedding of snobbish socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) and pompous self-made man George Kittredge (John Howard). In return for suppressing a scandalous article about Tracy's estranged father, Seth (John Halliday), her ex-husband, C. K. Dexter Haven (Gary Grant), makes a deal with magazine editor Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell) to introduce a reporter, Macaulay «Mike» Connor (James Stewart), and a photographer, Liz Embrie (Ruth Hussey), into the Lord household for an exclusive story on the wedding. To protect the reputation of her family — which includes her oblivious mother Margaret (Mary Nash) and her precocious sister Dinah (Virginia Weidler) — Tracy reluctantly agrees to let them stay and cover the event. John Howard, Cary Grant, Ka...