The Opposite Sex ** (1956, June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Gray, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller) – Classic Movie Review 12,508

MGM’s 1956 Scope and Metrocolor musical film The Opposite Sex may be a slight disappointment but it boasts an irresistible cast. June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Gray, Ann Sheridan and Ann Miller star in a pleasant remake of all-time great The Women.

Director David Miller’s 1956 MGM CinemaScope and Metrocolor musical film The Opposite Sex may be a slight disappointment but it boasts a marvellous, irresistible all-star cast.

The result is a pleasant enough remake of the all-time great The Women (1939), based again on Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 play, with added songs and male players (the original has an all-women cast), plus some other changes.

A cast of rousing, energised performers have fun with this tale of a wealthy woman, Kay Hilliard (June Allyson), pondering whether she should welcome home her adulterous theatre producer husband Steven (Leslie Nielsen), after his affair with showgirl Crystal Allen (Joan Collins).

The songs, though, are pretty feeble: ‘Dere’s Yellow Gold on De Trees’ (sung by Joan Collins) and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Tumbleweed’ are highly forgettable. Jo Ann Greer dubs Allyson’s ballad ‘A Perfect Love’.

The cast are June Allyson, Dolores Gray, Joan Collins, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller, Agnes Moorehead, Joan Blondell, Barbara Jo Allen, Charlotte Greenwood, Leslie Nielsen, Carolyn Jones, Sam Levene, Dean Jones, Jim Backus, Alice Pearce, Alan Marshal, Jeff Richards, and Dick Shawn. Really, it could hardly be better, though producer Joe Pasternak was pursuing Marlene Dietrich and Miriam Hopkins to star.

Grace Kelly and then Esther Williams were supposed to have June Allyson’s role, but Kelly retired from acting and Williams turned it down, resulting in her suspension from MGM, followed soon by leaving the studio after 14 years.

Fay Kanin, who co-wrote the script with her husband Michael Kanin, recalled that MGM said ‘you can’t play a love scene alone’. Michael said the studio ‘felt the movie audience would somehow be disappointed at not seeing men in it. After all, a man is a fact.’

A new character was added, Amanda Penrose, a playwright who served as Kay Hilliard’s kind friend confidante. Ann Sheridan was cast in this part. The role of Mrs Morehead, the loving, wise, and supportive mother, was dumped.

Release date: October 26, 1956.

Running time: 117 minutes.

The film flopped, with the box office the same as the budget. It cost $2.8 million and earned $2.8 million globally, losing MGM $1,513,000.

Barbara Jo Allen is in both versions: in the first film an uncredited part as a receptionist; in the second, gossip columnist Dolly DeHaven.

It is Allyson’s final film for MGM after working there for nearly 15 years. So that was it for both her and Williams.

Jeff Richards was third lead in the big hit Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) so MGM started to build him up as a star. Dore Schary, head of the studio, said he had ‘tremendous personal charm’ and ‘looks like a great bet’. He was finally given a star part in The Marauders (1955), played the lead in It’s a Dog’s Life (1955) and one of the male leads in The Opposite Sex, but they all lost money and MGM lost interest in him.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,508

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