The Women

A study of the lives and romantic entanglements of various interconnected women.

The Women



Wealthy Mary Haines is unaware her husband is having an affair with shopgirl Crystal Allen. Sylvia Fowler and Edith Potter discover this from a manicurist and arrange for Mary to hear the gossip. On the train taking her to a Reno divorce Mary meets the Countess and Miriam (in an affair with Fowler's husband). While they are at Lucy's dude ranch, Fowler arrives for her own divorce and the Countess meets fifth husband-to-be Buck. Back in New York, Mary's ex is now unhappily married to Crystal who is already in an affair with Buck. When Sylvia lets this story slip at a country club dinner, Crystal brags of her plans for a still w! ealthier marriage, only to find the Countess is the source of all Buck's money. Crystal must return to the perfume counter and Mary runs back to her husband. Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>





Within New York City's Park Avenue society matrons, the current gossip, fueled primarily by catty Sylvia Fowler and Edith Potter, is that Stephen Haines is cheating on his faithful and loving wife, Mary Haines, with a perfume counter shop girl. The gossip is indeed true, the shop girl being the young and gold-digging Crystal Allen, and the gossip and its contents which Mary is initially unaware. But Sylvia does whatever she can to spread the gossip, especially having it get back indirectly to Mary. As Mary's mother and Mary's friends give her advice on what to do, as Mary meets Crystal herself, and as the gossip hits more public conduits, Mary has to decide what to do, which takes into account the fact that she and Stephen have an adoles! cent daughter also named Mary. Mary's perspective on her life ! changes after she meets a group of women in a similar situation as her. That perspective includes how to deal with her so-called friends and how she really feels about being married to Stephen. But she finally makes her decision when she comes across what she believes to be the truth. Written by Huggo





If Mary Haines can pretend ignorance of her husband's affair with Crystal Allen, who sells perfume at a department store, she has a good chance of saving her marriage. But has she no pride? The women in her circle of friends soon have her packing for Reno. On the train, Mary meets the Countess DeLave, trading in her fourth husband and exclaiming "l'amour, l'amour." Everyone is staying at the same dude ranch outside Reno that is run by a no-nonsense woman. The woman who is about to marry the husband of Mary's cousin Sylvia, who first spread the gossip about Mary's husband's affair, tells Mary to forget her pride and the divorce. Written by Dale O'Co! nnor <daleoc@interaccess.com>

Genres: Comedy Drama

Release year: 1939