Stage on Screen: The Women

I thought it would be good to actually see the play from which the 1939 movie was made and it was a good exercise in better understanding adaptations. Other than that it was a big disappointment! I understand the mediums of stage and TV and movies are profoundly different, but, in the end, they all need to entertain us and this version was about as entertaining as watching an embroidered tea towel dry-- you can admire the stitching, but it's still only a tea towel, and a wet one at that.

I found myself longing for the movie version which had better acting and, surprisingly, better lines. The play was overly long and poorly constructed and, with few exceptions, the acting was either one-note-- and a shrill, breathy note at that from our lead, Mary Haines-- or one-gag (Edith might have been tired of being pregnant all the time, but not as tired as we were!) Even the minor characters with one moment to shine were dull and, again, with a few exceptions, forgettable.

The one bright light in this time-waster was seeing how handily Jay Sandrich directed the TV filming of a stage play-- just the right combination of group scenes to closeups. And the stagecraft, too, was topnotch! But neither of these could raise this version beyond "adequate."