Mary Haines’ House in “The Women”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on MARCH 28, 2010

The original 1939 version of The Women is a classic. It’s so campy and over the top that I always get a kick out f it. There were several “gimmicks” to the movie. For one thing, there wasn’t a single man in it. For another, it was filmed in black and white except for a lengthy fashion-show scene that they shot in color.

Writer and Director Diane English says she always thought it should be remade for contemporary audiences “because women have changed so much since then.” In 2008, she did just that, with a version that features actresses like Meg Ryan, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Annette Bening.

The tagline for the original was “It’s All About the Men.” But Diane believed that women have many more interests than just the opposite sex these days, so she says she “wanted to weave in issues of female empowerment, body image, and self-esteem.” She wrote the first draft in 1995, but it was stuck in development for over a decade.

Maybe that’s why the movie felt a little stale when it finally did come out? After shows like “Sex and the City” and the “Real Housewives” series on Bravo, The Women seemed dated, almost like it was actually made in ’95.

Meg Ryan plays good-girl-done-wrong Mary Haines, and her traditional red-brick house held my interest more than the movie itself.

Here’s a shot of the living room during a party Mary threw for a large group of women. She supposedly did all the cooking for it herself “because I think people appreciate it.” Considering the size of the party, I had a hard time believing she did everything herself, but whatever.

Mary’s Kitchen:

I really liked the kitchen with the stained wood backsplash and the open shelves. The fabulous Cloris Leachman plays Mary’s housekeeper and was one of my favorite characters in the movie.

Meg Ryan is one of my favorite rom-com actresses, but she just didn’t look like herself in this movie. I watched her in the 2001 movie Kate & Leopold yesterday (photos of her NYC apartment in that one coming soon!) and was surprised by the difference.

Ryan’s first acting job was playing Candice Bergen’s daughter in the George Cukor filmRich and Famous. Bergen played her mother again in The Women.

Diane English wrote the TV show “Murphy Brown” in the 1990s, which turned Bergen into a sitcom star.

The brass and hunter green in the kitchen seemed like a bit of a ’90s flashback to me. Was that to show that the kitchen had been around a long time and wasn’t too trendy? Or is it a sign of trends to come?

I’m a little puzzled by the TV on the counter, too. Wouldn’t that make it hard to open the cabinet doors above it? You may recall that they used that TV to show us part of a Dove commercial. Dove products were also shown on the bathroom counter in one scene.

The Powder Room:

Stephen’s Study:

It felt like many of these rooms, including Stephen’s study, were part of the real house and not sets. Some of the rooms felt a little empty–not as staged and “decorated” as you’d expect from a movie like this.

Master Bedroom and Bath:

Linda, who writes about movie sets at Silver Screen Surroundings, points out that the bed looks small for a master bedroom.

She also notes that the arched window in the bathroom matches the one on the exterior of the house. She believes this scene was filmed in the actual house (you can see more photos and information about the movie in her post):

Decorating for Christmas:

I thought this room looked so pretty when they were decorating it for the holidays. The painted mantel is gorgeous.

The Screened Porch on the Side:

This may be one of my favorite parts of the house–the screened porch. I wish they showed us an inside view!

A lot of the movie was filmed in Massachusetts (Georgetown and Boston). I believe that’s where this house is located, as well, but I couldn’t confirm it. If anyone knows for sure, let me know.

Clare Boothe Luce wrote the original play as a poison-pen letter to all the catty, back-biting women she had met in New York City society. It was a smash hit on Broadway.

It was made into a movie in 1939 with MGM’s biggest female stars who were under contract with the studio at the time. Joan Crawford was one of them. She didn’t want to play the role of mistress Crystal Allen, but it turned out to be a great career move for her.

Eva Mendes played the part of Crystal in the remake but was fairly toothless compared to Crawford’s maneater:

Norma Shearer was perfectly cast in the role of good-girl-done-wrong Mary Haines. She had a great house in the original movie, too. Let’s take a look at it while we’re at it!

Rosalind Russell played Sylvia Fowler, and it was her first comedic role. Her next movie was the classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday with Cary Grant, one of my all-time favorites. I’ve seen it so many times, I could probably recite it from memory…

I love the corner window seat at the base of Mary’s stairs. The windows are lined with open shelves:

In the play, there was a lesbian character that didn’t make it into the original movie. Diane English revived the character and developed Alex more thoroughly for the remake (played by Jada Pinkett Smith).

Mary’s kitchen in the original:

A lot of the action in the original took place in a spa where the women gathered to gossip:

Did you like the remake as well as the original? What did you think of Mary Haines’ house–past and present?

4/10 UPDATE: I found the real house that the 2008 version of The Women was filmed in. To see the photos and compare the real interiors to how they appeared in the movie, click here.

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for more, including other Meg Ryan movies like You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle.

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Meg Ryan’s Spanish-Style House in “Hanging Up”

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The American President: The West Wing on the Big Screen

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on JANUARY 18, 2009

In honor of Inauguration Week, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the Michael Douglas-Annette Bening romantic comedy “The American President” for Movie Monday. It was filmed in 1995 and all of the White House interiors were based on the then-Clinton White House.

Aaron Sorkin wrote the movie and felt that he had so much more to say that he went on to create the popular television series “The West Wing” a few years later. Much of the TV show was initially inspired by the film, especially in early episodes where some of the dialogue is almost identical and Sorkin used a lot of the material he had edited out of “The American President.” Even the sets used for the film were used again for “The West Wing.”

Michael Douglas plays the popular Democratic President Andrew Shepherd, who has a 63% approval rating as he prepares to run for re-election. He’s a widower raising his daughter Lucy on his own. Then he makes the mistake of falling for the tough-talking environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening). Before you can say “love at first sight,” Shepherd’s approval ratings are plummeting, Republicans are attacking his lack of “family values,” and it looks like he may have to choose between his new relationship and a second term.

What’s a President in love to do?

Andrew Shepherd plays pool with his Chief of Staff, played by Martin Sheen. Aaron Sorkin promoted Sheen to President for “The West Wing.”

Sydney’s townhouse in Georgetown (well, it’s technically her sister’s place that she’s living in):

Panning up:

The President’s bedroom: his daughter helps him get dressed for his first date with Sydney.

The President shows Sydney “The Dish Room” as he calls it:

The attention to detail is amazing. Compare the set of the China Room to this photo taken of the actual one in the White House (via The White House Museum):

Dinner at Sydney’s new place:

Sydney watches TV at home:

A romantic getaway to Camp David:

Producers found snapshots taken of Camp David from the Nixon era and based the sets on them. It used to be a Boy Scout camp and still retains some of that rustic feel.

(As usual, I took these photos myself while watching the movie. Sorry for the black bars, but I can’t stand the “full screen” versions of movies that chop parts of the picture off the edges.)

Director Rob Reiner’s attention to detail when it came to the White House set was impressive. According to the White House Museum website:

The opening scene in particular of the president’s morning walk to the Oval Office is very hyper-detailed as it involves the Center Hall of the second floor, the Elevator, the ground floor corridor, the West Colonnade, right to the Oval Office. The office, right down to the grandfather clock, the Resolute Desk, the fireplace and the art, are all accurate to the last detail.

In some other examples of the film, the White House and West Wing are not hyper-accurate in their floor plan but they do such a good job it almost doesn’t matter. The president and his chief of staff are shown playing pool in what must be the Treaty Room decorated in Clinton’s chosen color of burgundy (but as wallpaper and not paint). In almost every other scene of the movie we find things to be quite accurate.

This film is a real treat for White House enthusiasts in its detail. And you won’t be disappointed when viewing the reproductions listed above as well as the Master Bedroom(with hidden closet), Cabinet Room, West Sitting Hall, East Wing Entrance, Green Room, Grand Staircase, state floor Entrance Hall, Situation Room, Press Briefing Room, Roosevelt Room, and a great scene in the China Room. This is a movie that can be trusted to give any White House buff their fill.

Some pundits have compared Barack Obama‘s eloquent and inspiring speeches to those of President Shepherd’s character in “The American President.”

But it was a character on “West Wing”–presidential hopeful Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits)–who was actually based on Obama: “‘I drew inspiration from [Obama] in drawing this character,”West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie told the Guardian. “Obama was just appearing on the national scene. He had done a great speech at the convention and people were beginning to talk about him.”

TV/Movie Houses is where I link to all of my movie posts, including “You’ve Got Mail” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”

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