WHEN LADIES MEET (MGM, 1941) Warner Archive

Grandly amusing tale of 'the other woman' and the 'wife' told from both sides of the equation - what really happens when ladies meet! Expecting sparks? This unusual she said/she said is instead a sustaining character study, full of dramatic surprises, and exquisitely tricked out in MGM glamour to boot.  Costars, Greer Garson and Joan Crawford are at the very top of their game. Odd, Crawford's star did not retain its luster at Metro after this movie. This picture, unlike her previous 4, actually turned a tidy profit for the studio, in no small part to Garson’s casting. How the once mighty had fallen – Crawford, once, an indispensable asset to the studio, now considered a liability, and Garson, only two years earlier, the ingenue in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), now considered well on her way to becoming a great star. The performances of both ladies in When Ladies Meet (1941) are solid and director, Clarence Brown gives this ancient chestnut everything a blue-chip dramedy ought to have, with Cedric Gibbons’ art direction to create a veritable fairy-land of fashionable New York penthouse apartments, and, even more indelibly, a cozy little cottage, nestled on the MGM backlot, and, complete with its own swimming pool and water wheel. Lots to admire here, and, really good show besides. But for decades, rumors circulated Crawford amicably bowed out of MGM because of being cast in this elegant warhorse, first trundled out in 1933. Based on Rachel Crother's evergreen, the screenplay by S.K. Lauren and Anita Loos here is only slightly hampered by the more stringent production code not around when the earlier film was made. In place of the original play's more sordid details, MGM gives us what MGM gave best - surface sheen and immaculate production values to sustain with one of the most eye-popping gorgeous spectacles of the early forties.

The all-but-forgotten 1933 movie co-starred Robert Montgomery, Ann Harding and Myrna Loy. Herein, the male lead is provided by dashing Robert Taylor – numero uno ‘hot stuff’ at Metro then, and a genuine asset to the picture. Taylor’s ‘pretty boy’ good looks often discounted his acting abilities in the eyes of critics. But he was positively riveting as Garbo’s spurned lover, Armand Duvall in 1936’s Camille, proved he could man-handle the rom/com and his luscious co-star, Jean Harlow in 1937’s Personal Property, and would later illustrate a certain dramatic sense for the devious and alarming in Johnny Eager (also made and released in 1941). Adding a pencil-thin moustache to his porcelain-esque handsomeness perhaps only served to draw an unfair comparison between Taylor and MGM’s greatest living ‘he-man’ at that time – Clark Gable – to whom no man, not even Taylor, could compare. But Taylor’s sex appeal remained unquestionable, and very palpable abroad. Maureen O’Sullivan, his co-star in A Yank at Oxford (1938) once recalled how, while shooting on location in England, the London lasses would ride their bicycles beneath the window of Taylor’s suite, playfully calling out his name, just to catch a glimpse of the matinee idol.

This version of When Ladies Meet also has the inimitable Spring Byington as Bridget Drake, a role she originated on Broadway. As her status in the movies had yet to be secured, she was passed over for the 1933 movie, but, as a beloved MGM stock company player by 1941 (nominated as Best Supporting Actress while on loan out to Columbia for Frank Capra’s 1938’s Oscar-winning hit, You Can’t Take It With You, no less), Byington was perfectly marketable for inclusion in the remake this time around. Despite the institution of the code in 1934, by 1941, much of When Ladies Meet’s original stagecraft’s edginess inculcated by Rachel Crothers, later, only slightly tidied up by screenwriters, Leon Gordon and John Meehan for the 1933 movie, remains remarkably intact in screenwriters, S.K. Lauren and Anita Loos’ ever-so-slight revisions to accommodate the censors. The casting of Greer Garson to play the noble Claire Woodruff proved inspirational. On the stage, and in the first movie, the dutiful wife had always been downplayed as ‘dowdy’. In Garson, however, immaculately tricked out in gowns by Adrian, the competition between Clare and Crawford’s usurping vixen, Mary seemed more on par, adding to the competitive nature of their adult – and oddly mature – vying for the leading man’s affections.

Crawford is authoress, Mary Howard. She generally writes those drippy novels - women's stories of self-sacrifice and romantic longing fulfilled in a flourish of hearts and flowers. Her potboilers are adored by both her publisher and the public with equal aplomb. Yet, despite her successes, Mary has decided to ditch her current publisher for Rogers Woodruff (Herbert Marshall), a man of seemingly impeccable taste, wit and culture. More to the point, he seems to love the authoress as much as her books. But is Rogers really good for Mary's career? Old flame Jimmy Lee (Robert Taylor) doesn't think so. In fact, having read the galleys of Mary's latest book, he's found her new story of a woman contemplating grand amour with a married man fairly dull and uninspired. However, as Jimmy begins to assess the words on the page as more fact than fiction, he decides to make the attempt to thwart Mary's burgeoning love affair with Rogers. To this end, Jimmy employs Mary's scatterbrain friend, Bridget Drake (Spring Byington) to keep her preoccupied while he can figure out an angle to expose Rogers as the cad, he suspects him to be. Bridget invites Mary to her idyllic country cottage (more like an estate) for the weekend to work on her book. Mary agrees to this retreat but also encourages Bridget to invite Rogers. So far, things are looking up. But Jimmy, sensing Mary might be on the verge of destroying another woman's happiness for her own, decides instead to bring Rogers’ wife Claire (Greer Garson) to the cottage uninvited.

Jimmy uses the pretext of a stalled car to get Claire to Bridget's place then introduces Claire to Mary on a first name basis only. He further stirs the tempest by sending Rogers on a wild goose chase after another author he knows Rogers has been trying to woo to his agency for some time. In the meantime, a terrible thunderstorm strands Jimmy, Claire, Bridget and Mary at the cottage. They will all have to spend the night there. In the next twenty-four hours, Mary and Claire become great friends. Mary tells Claire the plot of her latest book and Claire, upon hearing the details, explains to Mary why she believes her 'fictional' scenario is flawed. In Claire's opinion Mary has only thought of her protagonist's happiness. She has not fully explored the character of the man's wife who may not be either as evil or as shrewd, or even aware of the protagonist's affair with her husband. As their late-night girl talk progresses, Mary begins to see Claire's point of view and also reconsiders her own affair with Rogers. Thus, when Rogers arrives at the cottage, he is confronted by both his wife and his mistress in one of the most poignant and understated scenes of such confrontation ever filmed. Claire lets Mary down gently. Her heart is broken but she resolves to move on without her husband. At the same time, Mary has had a change of heart. Realizing Jimmy was right all along, Mary thanks Claire for her sincerity and insights. The women part company, perhaps not as friends, but with a mutual bond and understanding between them that can never be broken. Rogers goes after his wife to beg her forgiveness (we can only imagine how successful or not he will be) and Jimmy and Mary renew their one-time romantic promises to each other.

When Ladies Meet is a remarkable melodrama, elevated by solid performances given all around. We have yet to mention the impeccable, Herbert Marshall who, on the surface, at least, seemed to possess none of the essential qualities of a great actor, but who – time and again – would make his presence known in some of the most beloved movies of his generation. The genial and soft-spoken Marshall, nicknamed ‘Bertie’ by his mother, and, born into an acting family with a mellifluous voice, possessed a family lineage linked to Frankenstein authoress, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Born with unprepossessing looks, Marshall’s handicap for movie stardom was seemingly compounded – literally – when he lost his left leg from the knee down in battle during WWI – a condition kept secret from the public for a good many years as Marshall’s star rose to prominence on the screen. Observing Marshall in the movies, one would never guess that any loss had occurred, a testament to his fortitude to return to his first love – the stage. Indeed, Marshall was to reflect upon this amputation much later, with an introspective dignity, comparing it favorably to his Uncle Leopold – nicknamed, ‘Bogey’ – having lost his first-born son in the war. “He proved to me that a man may face utter desolation without whimpering,” Marshall later wrote, “By his fine courage and by his gorgeous humor, which not even grief could crucify, he showed me how a man may know irreparable loss and still inherit the earth. When I learned to walk again, I returned to London, healed in spirit if not in body, and all because of Uncle Bogey".

Interesting to consider Herbert Marshall in When Ladies Meet as the randy pursuer of women, as superficially, the part seems better suited for a Robert Taylor – herein, cast as the nobler man. And yet, Marshall, through sheer acting ability, singularly makes us believe he is every bit the desirable and dashing figure of the literary world, capable of wooing two exquisite examples of the female flesh divine into pining for his romantic company. By the mid-forties, Marshall’s movie career would inevitably segue into playing the suave supporting player – even, the villain – as in Hitchcock’s sublime thriller, Foreign Correspondent (1940), or merely to serve as the deus ex Machina for young lovers in need of his guidance in movies like The Enchanted Cottage (1945) and The Razor’s Edge (1946), in which he played the ‘then’ living author of the original story, W. Somerset Maugham. We have yet to mention Marshall’s devotion to working with amputees, a charitable commitment, legendary in its own time, and, that really deserves more than honorable ‘passing’ mention in a DVD review. Consequently Marshall, who wed five times, and was thrice divorced, giving his last screen performance in 1965, the year of his death after a lengthy bout of depression, culminating in heart failure, age 75, was a man of many parts; his career, only to touch upon the depth of his immeasurable gifts, both as an actor and humanitarian.  

When Ladies Meet is often referred to as the movie that ousted Joan Crawford from MGM. In point of fact, it marks Crawford’s last great performance at the studio. Besides, circumstances on the set were unhappy for Crawford at best. Only a year before, branded ‘box office poison’ in 1938, Crawford had pleaded with MGM’s head, L.B. Mayer to remain ensconced as a working actress on the backlot, taking a salary cut to prove she was still a viable asset to the company. Mayer agreed to Crawford’s terms, even affording her a few high-profile projects thereafter, among them, the part of the vicious mantrap, Crystal Allen in Cukor’s scathingly bitchy comedy, The Women (1939) opposite her rival, Norma Shearer, and, as the disfigured gargoyle in A Woman’s Face (1941). Mayer had actually encouraged Crawford not to accept the role of Crystal Allen, at first. “Why would you want to play such an awful bitch?” Mayer insisted, to which Crawford swat back, “I’d play Wally Beery’s mother if the part were right!” Alas, by 1941, the writing was on the wall for Crawford’s sort of Teflon-coated glamour gal. Mayer was in search of more homespun talent, younger and more manageable. Crawford was neither. And so, Crawford departed the studio for whom her tallied earnings alone had seemingly built the writer’s building – at least, according to Mayer. How quickly the mighty had fallen.

Nevertheless, in When Ladies Meet, director, Clarence Brown is working with superior material and a stellar cast that is more than able to pull off the melodrama without any of it becoming maudlin or dull. Crawford's personal unhappiness at the studio bodes well for her character’s awakening – nee, reckoning on the screen, torn between finding what she fathoms as true happiness in the arms of a married man or returning to an old love who really has her best interests at heart. The cordial sparing between Crawford and Garson is engaging and palpable. These are two of the very best 'ladies' from the MGM back lot and they sell their burgeoning friendship as few actresses of any vintage could. Comparatively speaking, the men here are window-dressing. But that's okay because the plot really doesn't require them to be anything more. Robert Taylor's support is well-grounded in a sort of youthful nobility. Herbert Marshall is his usual urbane and sophisticated self. Cedric Gibbons’ art direction and Edwin Willis' production design is sublime. Bridget's cottage, complete with a full-size water wheel that feeds an ornate swimming pool, is an opulent, if pastoral paradise, the perfect visual counterpoint to Mary's apartment, gargantuan and filled with eclectic bric-a-brac borrowed from just about every MGM film made to date. All this eye candy is deceptively in sync with the simple story being told. An interesting aside: after the picture’s theatrical debut, MGM was inundated with hundreds of requests for the architectural plans to the cottage. The studio dutifully complied, sending blueprints to prospective contractors. But like all Gibbons’ stunning work at the studio, the blueprints for the interiors were irreconcilable with practical applications in the real world, leaving most architects with real construction knowledge scratching their heads to come to terms with recreating this bit of movie-land magic for their prospective clients.

When Ladies Meet is a Warner Archive release, but not a very competent one at that. There is no chroma bleeding on this B&W transfer, a deplorable occurrence held over from VHS mastering days that continues to plague some other of the archive’s earliest efforts on MOD-DVD like Honky Tonk and Idiot's Delight; two stellar Clark Gable movies yet to receive their due on home video. But I digress. Nevertheless, the B&W elements used in this mastering effort are quite weak. The gray scale registers somewhere in mid-tones with no truly crisp whites or dark and brooding blacks. Fine detail is often lost in this softly focused image. Age-related artifacts really aren't the issue although they do exist. During the credits there is even a 'tracking problem (another holdover from VHS mastering days) that has been...uh...lovingly preserved, for posterity?  The audio on this exhibits a slightly muffled characteristic. Aside from a trailer there are NO other extra features. Bottom line: When Ladies Meet is a movie deserving of a far better treatment on home video than this. We would champion WAC to reconsider this one for a remastered Blu-ray release.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

2.5

EXTRAS

0