THE OPPOSITE SEX (1956)

Clare Booth Luce’s famous play (THE WOMEN) with the famous gimmick (no men), as loathsomely snobbish, misogynist & male-fixated as its author, is also surprisingly laugh-free in all iterations. A pair of starry B’way revivals (1973; 2001) quickly petered out while a much revised, misconceived film update in 2008 earns THE WOMEN Booby Prize. But this remake, an almost musical from frothy producer Joe Pasternak and vet helmer David Miller, has the worst idea of all . . . put the men back in! The play’s main claim to fame, as Booth’s middle-aged society types trade insults & husbands, tossed aside. (Don't worry, the one schmoe who has to work for a living is still the heavy, a grasping, nouveau riche villainess.) Oddly, all the changes make little difference. And thanks to broad playing & the cartoony look of sets & costumes in Cinemascope & MetroColor, it actually plays out in slightly less objectionable manner. June Allyson gets the worst of it (as did Norma Shearer in the original), all wounded pride and noble bearing as she heads off to Reno for a divorce from the unfaithful man she still loves. A very noticeable decade older than hubby Leslie Nielsen, she looks like she’s going to her own funeral. But then, everyone seems to be working off an expiring M-G-M contract. At least homewrecker Joan Collins and butchy gal-pal Ann Sheridan look pretty swell. Sheridan’s part, taken by Paulette Goddard in the original film, plays out with a new sexual slant now that men are back in the picture for everyone but her. Intentional?

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Check out the camera setup as Allyson, Ann Miller & Agnes Moorehead sit on stools in the Club Car bar on a train to Reno. An obvious visual song cue, but no ‘Trio for Divorcées!’ One of many missed musical opportunities in here.

DOUBLE-BILL: George Cukor’s original THE WOMEN/’39 has its partisans, and is very strongly cast.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Personal life parallel with actor/director Dick Powell leaving wife Joan Blondell to marry decade younger June Allyson back in 1945. Now the wife & ‘ex’ are in a film with Allyson acting out Blondell’s real-life part.