“The Women”
What is conceded to be the strangest piece of casting in the history of motion pictures took place when an actor was selected to pose for a shadow in the filmisation of Clare Boothe’s Eroadway hit, “The Women,” with an all-star feminine cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell.
The cast comprises 35 principals and a total of 135 speaking roles in all. Not a single man appears anywhere in the picture, although nine-tenths of the dialogue concerns men. The nearest approach to the masculine touch is the shadow of a man shown on a snapshot used as an insert. A dozen actors were tested for this shadow and the name of the actor cast for the odd role was kept secret. Cne entire wall of a set, depicting the attractive den of Stephen Haines, represented in the story as Norma Shearer’s husband, was literally covered with framed photographs of a hunting trip in Africa. Van Dyke is featured in these photos which are actual prints snapped while the director visited the Dark Continent.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19400427.2.144.6
Bibliographic details
Northern Advocate, 27 April 1940, Page 12
Word Count
179“The Women” Northern Advocate, 27 April 1940, Page 12
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