Review: The Women

So we're gonna talk about Joan Crawford abit this week as I wanna talk more about Bette Davis, and Bette and Joan had quite a history so why not. Plus this film is very interesting and totally unlike any film that I ideally like to see, basically I didn't think it'd would be my cup of tea as it just sounded like a Bridget Jones Chick Flick from the plot summery that is. 

What this film is about is a group of friends who all live in fairly middle class standards, one of them called Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) who's husband called Stephen may or may not be having an affair with this beautiful, flirtatious woman called Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford). When Mary finds out about this and confronts Crystal about it and tells her to stop, Crystal just refuses and Mary and Stephen get a divorce. 2 years later Crystal and Stephen are married and Crystal has been having this affair with this new man who is married to one of the friends who's a countess and it just blows up. 

The plot of the film annoys me somewhat as the friends are good and so is Mary's mother as they're both very supportive of Mary because she's the innocent one and going through quite a bad time with everything. Also none of Mary's friends who are played by Rosalind Russel, Paulette Goddard and Joan Fonatine and a plethora of other brilliant actresses, none of the friends seem to like Crystal which is justified I guess as its the thing where its 'you've hurt my friend so automatically I don't like you' but it just seems like they all just gang up on her, which is horrible.

Crystal's character is someone I actually like, because she is a woman who knows who she is and is fine with it. She is very much of this bacheloresque woman in a way, because she is so strong and doesn't care what people think of her or her relationships, which I think is great as you shouldn't care what people think, but at the same time you should take people's feelings in to account if you're doing something like what Crystal did and she was very selfish and hurt other people. I mean she's a bitch but she admits it and is fine with it and not shady or denying that she is. 

Mary the main character is something I can't relate to or understand as she in the end and this frustrates me. In the end she goes back to Stephen the man who cheated on her in the first place! It annoyed me that Mary confronted Crystal and not Stephen who did the dirty and its more of a marriage and couple thing rather than it being another issue, but that's just me. They really tried to make Crystal a real bitch, from her costumes she wore to her attitude towards people, particularly towards her Step-Daughter little Mary. I like little Mary she is very passive aggressive towards her and it just makes me love her so much, because she does it in such a polite way you can't be annoyed at her. 

 Overall this film is good, but some of the characters are abit crap I should say, like Mary she just annoyed me at the end where she went back to Stephen who broke her trust but she loves him anyway. I feel like there should have been more of Stephen in the film, because that way he's more 3D you didn't even see his face throughout it. Love Joan Crawford in this obviously, and Paulette Goddard was brilliant aswell, because both are so mesmerising you can't stop watching them. 

Peppermint Friday Film Review #8: His Girl Friday

Now I thought it would be quite funny and entertaining for me to do a Friday review on 'His Girl Friday' as its 'Friday, Friday' you know. 

Anyway this film is about a man and woman called Walter and Hildy played by Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. They work together on this Newspaper, they were also previously married. As Hildy wants to settle down and start a family with a new husband Bruce who is totally opposite to Walter, Walter doesn't want this to happen so he gets Hildy to do a report on a murder case. 

The film is based of the 1920s play 'The Front Page'. The plot sounds very serious and quite dramatic, but this film is far from it. 

It's described as a 'Screwball Comedy' which was very popular in the 1930s and 40s. A screwball comedy is a comedy that mainly shows the relationship between a man and a woman, that the woman is just a strongwilled as the man, along with quick talking dialogue. Screwball Comedy was completely new for its time, as you had a comedy with the main characters male and female, but the female is just as strongwilled and determined to fight back and give abit of lip. Obviously now we take it for granted that we have strong female characters, but back then before these films females had a very limited role to play, but Screwball Comedy changed it.  

I love the quick, witty back and forth script of this film it turned a very serious situation into something incredibly witty and entertaining. I've said before how much I love comedy that takes things that are traditionally very serious and unfunny scenarios into something thats entertaining wonderfully witty. This film is amazing what I've noticed with this film is that it goes by really fast if that makes sense. It doesn't go on and on and on, while watching this film I notice that time just goes by. 

Cary Grant is amazing, his voice is just perfect for the part I heard every word he said, as it can be quite hard to do quick talking scenes, as the film is pretty much 99.9% quick talking with Cary Grant. All the characters are brilliant, one of my favorite scenes is where Walter is talking and pelting questions to who he thinks is Hildy's new husband, and theres a man who's tapping him on the shoulder like 'Excuse me, I'm..' and Walter's just brushing him off, then the man who Walter keeps brushing off just goes, 'I'm Hildy's husband, Bruce' then Walter just says 'oh Hildy I thought you'd marry someone older' 

I love the bickering the couple do throughout the film, even when lots of dramatic things happen, its just so much fun to watch and if I'm in a 'I don't know what to watch mood' I just stick this on, because it always brings a smile to my face. Before you ask yes, I will do a blog post completely dedicated to Cary Grant.