The Opposite Sex
Theatrical release poster

Both 1939 and 1956 films are based on Clare Boothe Luce’s original 1936 play “The Women.”

However, unlike the 1936 play and the 1939 film adaptation, The Opposite Sex includes musical numbers and features male actors who portray the husbands and boyfriends, whose characters were only referred to in the previous film and stage versions.

Unfortunately, this change alters the structure and tone of the base storyline significantly.

Fay Kann, who cowrote the script with husband Michael, said the studio’s argument was “you can’t play a love scene alone. The studio felt the movie audience would somehow be disappointed at not seeing men in it. After all, a man is a fact.”

Kanin thought that the play’s “manless world” was “a stunt, an artificial trick. But in a movie, which has the freedom to go out, the device would seem constrained and self conscious. We only put in men to relieve the strain – and only when they are called for.”

The Kanins gave the story a show business background to justify its promotion as a musical, but there are no big production numbers; Jo Ann Greer dubbed Allyson’s ballad “A Perfect Love.”

In the 1939 The Women, Lucille Watson played Mrs. Morehead, the loving, wise, and supportive mother of Norma Shearer’s character Mary Haines. For the 1956 version, the role was eliminated, and a new character was created instead–Amanda Penrose (Ann Sheridan), a playwright who served as Kay Hilliard’s friend confidant.

Barbara Jo Allen appeared in both the 1939 and 1956 versions—in the first film, she had small, uncredited part as receptionist; in the second, she played gossip columnist Dolly DeHaven.

This was Allyson’s final film at MGM, after having worked at the studio for 15 years.

The film earned $1,735,000 in the U.S.nd $1,025,000 in other markets, resulting in a loss of $1,513,000.