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Bright Lights Film Journal | Norma Shearer |
 | | (Shearer's ultra-chic contemporary style was usually signified by her seductive Deco wardrobe, courtesy of MGM's top designer, Adrian.) Toward the end of her career, George Cukor cast her in a role that comments heavily on this early incarnation Mary, the devoted mother and victimized wife in the classically catty The Women. |
 | | Here, Norma's familiar ruthless buoyancy and unyielding "goodness," contrasted with Joan Crawford's cynical sexuality as Crystal, are subtly ridiculed a natural development as the '30s drew to a close and the world moved toward war and chaos. |
 | | Shearer was married to MGM's production chief Irving Thalberg, and had some degree of freedom in choosing her vehicles, so we can assume she wanted/needed the kind of cultural validation that went along with such parts. |
| www.brightlightsfilm.com /16/norma.html (930 words) |
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