Jungle Red!
The Making of MGM's The Women
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Description de l'ouvrage:
The year 1939 produced such outstanding film classics as Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights. No less critically acclaimed that year was The Women. A largely forgotten masterpiece, The Women is a glamorous but stinging satire about women forced by society to be defined by men. Jungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women restores this classic to its rightful place in Hollywood history, and its lasting legacy as a template for later female-driven projects like Sex and The City, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Four MGM screenwriters, including a failing F. Scott Fitzgerald and an on-the-rise Donald Ogden Stewart, fought over their vision of The Women. Jane Murfin was completing her script when Anita Loos was brought in to work with her on a new draft for George Cukor, then recently fired from Gone with the Wind and determined to use The Women to get his career back on track. He became, as one newspaper called him, the lion tamer to the ladies. With sophisticated direction by Cukor, lavish fashions by Adrian, and gorgeous sets by Cedric Gibbons, its all-star cast was led by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Fontaine. Not a single male actor appeared, proving that women didn’t need men to rule the box office. Gossip columns were filled with stories about fierce on-set rivalries, which proved fairly combustible, leading one columnist to refer to the set as “a female kennel,” with behind the scenes antics as fierce and flamboyant as the film itself. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “The Women is a vitriolic masterpiece!” Now, it’s time to fall in love with The Women all over again! In Jungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women, and using never-before-seen photographs, memos, and script notes, Douglas writes not only how the film came together, but captures how the lives of the people who made it intersected before, during and after, and how the conflicts on-set and off resulted in the greatest film ever made about women . . . by a man!
À propos de l'auteur :
Illeana Douglas has starred in films like Cape Fear, To Die For, Grace of My Heart, and Ghost World, as well as in TV shows like Goliath, Shrill, Entourage, and Six Feet Under. Douglas is the granddaughter of two-time Academy Award-winning actor Melvyn Douglas. A classic film lover, she hosted Trailblazing Women for Turner Classic Movies and participated in many film documentaries, including CNN: The Movies and Kino Lorber’s Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, which she also executive produced and hosted. Her first book, I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies was named Best Pop Culture book of the year in 2015 by Entertainment Weekly. Her most recent book, Connecticut in the Movies, was a regional bestseller in 2023.
Revue de Presse:
"One of the Year’s Best Film Books . . . [Jungle Red! is] one of the most entertaining and enlightening books ever written on a single film . . . [Douglas's] filmmaking experience gives her the ability to clearly convey all the complex machinations at work on a film set, but what makes the book special is the way she combines this intimate firsthand knowledge with a historian’s broader perspective . . . a vital work of film history that addresses larger issues like the nature of collaboration, the ways in which film production and film publicity are intertwined, and women’s power (or lack of it) in the studio system and how its use (and sometimes, abuse) informs the art they create . . . Above all, however, Jungle Red! is a celebration of women artists, many of whom never really received their due credit . . . [Douglas's] greatest gift as a writer is her talent for simultaneously honoring the melodrama and the more down-to-earth nature of her subjects’ lives." -- IndieWire ― Jim Hemphill
"After devouring Jungle Red! in two sittings, I’m here to say that the multitalented Illeana Douglas was born to write about the making of one of the all-time funniest, bitchiest, wisest, most enjoyable movies of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Jungle Red! brims with the wit, intelligence, knowhow, self-assurance, and high style the subject deserves. It’s impressively researched, empathetic, amusingly reported, jam-packed with delicious gossip, and it assigns blame and lavishes credit on all the right parties—the playwright, the screenwriters, the director, the producer, the cast, the studio, the sexist culture in which it was created, the works. I’m guessing that any fan of The Women will savor this book’s intrigues, revelations, and delicious indulgences. Consider it the literary equivalent of the film's high caloric Pancakes Barbara." -- Stephen Rebello, author of Criss-Cross – Making Hitchcock’s Dazzling, Subversive Masterpiece Strangers on a Train
"In this fun and smart account, actor and film historian Douglas (Connecticut in the Movies) chronicles the making of The Women, a 1939 film featuring a cast of 135 women—including Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, and Norma Shearer—and no men. Douglas traces the long, circuitous development process for the film . . . [Jungle Red!] reveals the complexities inherent to getting a movie made, from stars buying the favor of the crew by having ice cream delivered to set to the perceived politics of a costume choice and camera setup. Film buffs will flock to this." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[C]onversational yet info-packed . . . offers gossipy tidbits about [The Women's] offscreen feuds and fights but also provides plenty of background that might surprise even the most devoted fans . . . will please cineastes, Old Hollywood buffs, and readers of LGBTQIA+ histories." -- Library Journal (starred review)
"With a breezy but incisive veracity, [Illeana] Douglas reveals the intrigue behind granular aspects of the production of [The Women], especially the personality conflicts that upended everything from costume design to set lighting. A film fan's dream." -- Booklist (starred review)
"The only thing more fun than watching The Women, the classic 1939 all-star, all-female bitchfest, is poring through Illeana Douglas’ book Jungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women. Researched with the thoroughness of Joan Crawford smoking in a bathtub, the riveting read takes you behind the bon mots and into the old-school Hollywood machine, detailing how it turned a fabulous bunch of Luce women into one of the most lacerating comedies of all time. Best of all, the book reminds us that being a bitch isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For me, that’s potentially life saving!" -- Michael Musto, entertainment columnist
"Illeana Douglas goes behind the scenes [of 1939's The Women] in her wonderful new book Jungle Red!, which looks at all the drama that took place on the making of that delightful clawfest . . . Douglas does a masterful job of weaving together all of the history . . . [she] proves herself a skillful writer and superb Hollywood historian . . . She does the women of The Women proud."
-- Daniel Bubbeo, Newsday
"[An] engaging work . . . a book for cinema completists who like a deep dive into one film, with details about everyone from the art director to the hair stylist . . . contains juicy stories . . . A fun biography of an underappreciated cinema landmark." -- Kirkus Reviews
"From recounting the firing of F. Scott Fitzgerald as the script writer and the pressure on Oscar-winning director George Cukor to keep his homosexuality a secret, and detailing the bitchiest conflicts between the all-female cast, Illeana Douglas has crafted a hilarious book on the making of The Women. The result is a spicy tale of how the meanest behavior behind the scenes led to a beloved, timeless classic. It made me miss old Hollywood." -- Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author of The Library Book
"A long, delicious deep dive into The Women's world of 1939, the story, the stars, the writers, the truth behind the gossip and the gossip behind the truth. In Illeana Douglas's deeply researched, stylishly rendered account, everyone gets a backstory and they are fascinating, some (the many sides of Clare Booth Luce) revelatory. It's illuminating to see how these characters and the actresses who play them both conform to and—occasionally, gleefully—subvert the conventions of their time. Jungle Red! is the case of a great idea in the hands of the perfect writer!" -- Molly Haskell, film critic and author of From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies
"I relished every word of this spectacular book. It’s a subject dear to my heart, painstakingly researched and beautifully told by a real Hollywood insider. A treasure." -- Isaac Mizrahi, Performer/Designer
"Among all the Hollywood biographies and histories I’ve read, [Jungle Red!] truly stands out. I was genuinely impressed by the depth of research and the behind-the-scenes revelations I had never encountered. It’s a compelling and exciting read. Even the famous Bette Davis–Joan Crawford feud pales in comparison to the Norma Shearer–Joan Crawford rivalry that explodes off the pages . . . a sharp, funny, and surprisingly tender deep dive into one of the most daring films Hollywood ever made: a 1939 picture with an all-star cast, a Gay director, and not a single man on screen." -- Seattle Gay News (SGN) ― Frank Gaimari
"If a major studio film was directed by a known homosexual, had an entirely female cast, and was made in 1939, one would assume it was decades ahead of its time, politically correct, and (excuse the expression) ‘woke.’ Illeana Douglas’ Jungle Red! puts that idea to rest with this thoroughly addictive deep dive into Hollywood bitchiness at its most hilarious." -- Amy Heckerling, writer/director, Clueless
"How has there not been a movie about the making of The Women? Illeana Douglas' behind-the-scenes chronicle is as wickedly fun as the film itself. Hey, Ryan Murphy, you might want to put Illeana on speed-dial." -- Mo Rocca, CBS Sunday Morning
"The most juicy book ever, but the best kind of juice: pithy and pulpy and real and utterly satisfying!" -- Alan Cumming, Emmy and Tony award-winning actor/filmmaker
"If Illeana Douglas were starting her movie career back in 1939, I'm sure director George Cukor would've cast her in The Women. She could've played Roz Russell or Paulette Godard’s parts beautifully (and whoever Illeana played would’ve won the fight). Now, if George Cukor were alive today, I’m certain he’d cast Illeana to write Jungle Red!The Making of MGM’s The Women. She writes like someone who wears her love for The Women on her sleeve, a sleeve obviously designed by Adrian. Anita Loos would be proud." -- Ben Mankiewicz, host, Turner Classic Movies
"I once had a brief reputation for being a ‘woman’s director,’ until someone had the bright idea to let women tell their own stories. George Cukor had no such luck and from Douglas’s meticulously researched and entertaining book, I learned being known as a ‘lion tamer to the ladies’ came at a painful cost. What might Gone With the Wind have been like had Clark Gable not fired him for that very reputation?" -- Griffin Dunne, actor, director, bestselling author of The Friday Afternoon Club
"Illeana Douglas's riveting peek behind the scenes of the first all female-cast classic film The Women is not only so rich with early film history but charts the incredible self-made careers of these powerful, driven and incredibly talented female stars and writers, charting their own paths before women even had the right to vote. Yes, you will delight in the feuding shenanigans, especially between Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer, but you will come away with the highest respect and gratitude for their courage and determination, deeply aware of the debt we owe them all. Pure enjoyment!" -- Allison Anders, writer/director, Grace of My Heart
"Shearer! Crawford!! Russell!!! Cukor!!!! Adrian!!!!! It’s a pleasure to report that Illeana Douglas’ Jungle Red!, her forensic inquiry into the film’s difficult production, is every bit as entertaining, not to mention funny, as the movie itself." -- Scott Eyman, author of Joan Crawford: A Woman’s Face
"Jungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women is a treasure trove of facts, dish and most of all insight into one of the screen’s great comedies. Illeana Douglas explores every facet of the film’s production; writing, direction, casting and filming. What a cast of characters! Among them F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Cukor, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and Rosalind Russell, each of them drawn with respect, sensitivity and wit. This is a welcome addition to any classic film aficionado’s bookshelf." -- Charles Busch, actor/playwright, Die, Mommie, Die!
"Bold and fun and meticulously researched! ReadingJungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women you feel like a fly on an MGM soundstage wall, transported back to that iconic year in film - 1939. Told with the unique insight of an actress writing about actresses. Did I mention it’s also as gossipy and entertaining and unexpectedly moving as the film itself? Jungle Red! is the book classic movie lovers didn’t know they needed." -- Steven Rogers, screenwriter, I, Tonya
"In Jungle Red!, Illeana Douglas offers incisive insight into the making of the classic 1939 film The Women, providing readers with a valuable addition to the literature on Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age.’" -- Howard Gutner, author of Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years 1928-1941
"Everyone associated with the production of this beautifully made movie that was ahead of its time would be thrilled to see what a wonderful job Douglas has done in setting The Women in its rightful place as one of MGM’s very best movies." -- Jeanine Basinger, AFI Trustee and author of A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960
"Illeana has a big, enthusiastic, energetic presence and when she starts talking about movies, the room almost cannot contain her." -- Ink Magazine
"Illeana Douglas's fabulous new book Jungle Red!: The Making of MGM's The Women examines how this [movie's] starry cast were brought on board, and subsequently handled . . . a blockbuster." -- The Crack Magazine (UK) ― Rob Meddes
Voir le site internet de l'éditeur Lyons Press
Voir la fiche de The Women (1939) sur le site IMDB ...
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