Main Cast: Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, Herbert Marshall, Spring Byington
Release Year: 1941
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
Strange Skirts is the TV title of the 1941 MGM film When Ladies Meet. The film was a remake of a 1933 production of the same name, which starred Ann Harding, Myrna Loy and Spring Byington; their roles were taken over in the remake by Greer Garson, Joan Crawford and Spring Byington. Both films are based on a Rachel Crothers play about a lady novelist who falls in love with a married publisher. The novelist (Crawford) meets the publisher's wife (Garson) at the home of a chatterbox society matron (Byington). The fact that the 1941 version was forced to undergo the censor's scissors to a greater extent than the 1933 film was compensated by the later version's lusher production values, which earned an Academy Award nomination for MGM art director Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell. Under both its original title When Ladies Meet and its TV-dictated cognomen Strange Skirts, this dated but enjoyable film has become a "standard" on the various cable TV services of Ted Turner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
When Ladies Meet is an entertaining yet somewhat disappointing "women's picture" from MGM during its peak period. A remake of a 1933 film based on a popular play, this version of Ladies is perhaps dampened a bit by the demands of the Production Code (although it does manage to sidestep the Code in a few areas). The screenplay, which wrestles with some potentially interesting ideas, seems to shy away from following those ideas all the way through. Perhaps a bigger problem, however, is the casting of that fine actor Herbert Marshall in a role that requires more sexual charisma than he is able to provide. This has nothing to do with his looks, but with his persona; it's simply hard to buy that both Joan Crawford and Greer Garson would be willing to wrap their lives so entirely around this particular man. Still, Ladies does give these two star ladies a chance to strut their stuff, and they don't disappoint. Garson's part is the more sympathetic and she pulls it off with her usual grace and skill. Crawford's performance, however, may be the more surprising; it's typical Crawford, yet she finds moments that allow her to bring more nuance and subtlety to the part in ways that are unexpected. Robert Taylor also turns in a solid light comic role, but the film is stolen from all of them by Spring Byington's delightfully ditzy turn. Throw in some snappy bits of dialogue, adept direction and luscious art direction, and the end result is an engaging way to pass the time. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Rafael Storm - Walter Del Canto; Mona Barrie - Mabel Guiness; Barbara Bedford - Anna the Maid; Mary Forbes - Mother at Party; Leslie Francis - Homer Hopper; Olaf Hytten - Mathews the Butler; John Marlowe - Violinist; Harold Minjir - Clerk; Florence Shirley - Janet Hopper; Max Willenz - Pierre
Mary Howard (Crawford) is a novelist with advanced ideas about love and marriage, and is in love with her publisher, Rogers Woodruff (Marshall). She decides the only logical thing to do is to lure him away from his wife and marry him. Mary's fun-loving, patient friend, Jimmy Lee (Taylor) is convinced he's the right man for her and pursues her. He sees through her rationalizations and wrong-thinking and decides to throw Mary and Woodruff's wife Claire (Garson) together at the house of a friend (Byington). The two women do not know each other but in their chats Mary appreciates and respects Claire's maturity and wisdom. When she learns Woodruff is a philandering womanizer of long standing, she realizes she cannot love him and welcomes the attentions of Jimmy.
Reception
Howard Barnes in the New York Herald Tribune wrote, "Even when [Crawford] is wearing spectacles, she is not particularly convincing in the part."[1]
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