Woman Against Woman (1938)

Woman Against Woman from MGM's B picture unit seems almost a dress rehearsal for MGM's classic The Women as both Mary Astor and Virginia Bruce scratch and claw over Herbert Marshall.

Astor and Marshall have been married and have a daughter Juanita Quigley, but Marshall's walking out. Soon enough he meets Virginia Bruce and they get married.

But Marshall wants to have his cake and eat it too. They move into the same suburban town where he lived before with Astor. The town gossips nearly do in Bruce. In the end though a modus operandi is achieved for the sake of the little girl.

Woman Against Woman is a great example of The Code at work. Divorce is a fact of life even the Catholic Breen office couldn't ignore. We could never have Marshall carrying on with Bruce while he was still married. Everyone had to be showed in the best possible light. The three in the triangle act so civilized and polite I thought it was going to end in a menage a trois.

Woman Against Woman is just a dress rehearsal. Wait till the following year when Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and company really drag the claws out.