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Raft, George: Their affair began when when Charles Boyer and his wife threw a party at the Waldorf-Astoria. When Norma and George danced together they both became aware they spoke the same body language, and only two days later started a sexual affair. They made immediate plans to sail to Europe with the Boyers while gossip columnists had a field day, keeping track on every move George and Norma made. Rumors began circulating they would star in a remake of A Free Soul (1931), since art seemed to be imitating life. Raft, one of the most notorious gangsters, told journalists of their relationship:"I am very much in love with Miss Shearer. She is the swellest person I’ve ever known and I wish I could tell you we are going to be married soon. If I could make that announcement, it would be the happiest day of my life, but I do not know what my wife plans to do. There is no talk of a settlement between us at this time, and nothing has happened that changes things from what they have been for a long time."
They remained hot and heavy for over a year, and Raft became more attached to Katherine and Irving Jr. than Norma herself. When his wife refused to allow a divorce, they were forced to call off the affair, but remained friends. In 1957 Norma sought out to help George revive his career, and the idea of them appearing in Bolero came up, but the project quickly died down and the film was never made.
Rapf, Harry(10/16/1882-2/6/1949): Vice president of the Mayer company and Loews theaters, Rapf immediately took the job as vice president under Louis B. Mayer, as he had been, at the newly formed Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Rapf also performed as a talent scout for the studio on occasion, where he discovered such stars as Joan Crawford. Rapf, Mayer, and Thalberg were not only the head of MGM, but also best friends as well. He remained in position at MGM until his death in 1949 an also helped contribute to the foundation of the Academy of the Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Restless Sex, The(1920, silent): Directed by Robert Z. Leonard and Leo D’Usseau. From a story by Robert W. Chambers. Produced by Cosmopolitan. Norma had a bit part in this epic Marion Davies production.
Riptide(1934): Directed by Edmund Goulding. Based on the play, The Green Hat. Stars Norma, Robert Montgomery, Herbert Marshall, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Norma's last pre-code movie about a wife to meets up with an old fling and begins an adulterous affair in the tropical settings. Riptide didn't go well with its audience when the film was tested, so Thalberg made a few minor adjustments to the plot and the editing and Riptide found its own audience at the box office, which was a good sign for Norma's career after a long time off like that. Mick LaSalle said of the film in Complicated Women:
Riptide is no classic, but it is so peculiar and so pre-Code in its elements that it works. What makes it something to cherish, however, has less to do with the movie than with what was rumbling in the world outside of it: It’s the last Norma Shearer movie that just feels like a Norma Shearer movie.
Father Daniel Lord wrote in the June issue of his magazine, Queen's Work:
It seems typical of Hollywood morality that a husband as production manager should constantly cast his charming wife in the role of a loose and immoral woman. In this case, she has an affair before marriage and an elaborate affair after marriage… We advise strong guard over all pictures which feature Norma Shearer. They are doing more than almost any other type of picture to undermine the moral code and the Production’s Code.
(Don’t be fooled by the prudish warning however, Riptide [1934] is one of Norma’s sexiest movies, and fun in its nostalgia. Both excerpts are from Mick LaSalle's Complicated Women. Click here to purchase the book from Amazon.)
Romeo and Juliet(1936): Directed by George Cukor. Stars Norma and Leslie Howard. A major financial disaster upon its initial release, the lavish production costs made the film lose $900,000 at the box office. Irving Thalberg had originally planed to make the film in the early talkie days (unknown if he wanted it for Norma), but then decided to wait until the technology improved. It did, and this movie remains as one of the best film versions of William Shakespeare's play. In Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer, director George Cukor says:I wish I had given it more of an Italian flavor. I wanted to catch the period, scale it down, make it a little more intimate. When I see it now I see so many things I would have changed. But Norma and Leslie and John Barrymore were wonderful- couldn’t be improved on. Rathbone, all of them, were good, too. But in 1936 we were all caught up in production gloss, giving a film a big, stately look. The feeling at MGM was: Let’s show them we can put on the dog with the best of ‘em. So I guess I got caught up in all that and the picture suffered a bit- maybe more than a bit. There’s too much of the old overproduced Hollywood stuff in it, though some of it is handsome- the staged dances for instance.
Casting of the film proved difficult. Fredric March was naturally the first choice for Romeo and later said, "I would have looked like a damn fool in tights climbing balconies and making pretty speeches. My God, I was thirty-eight years old at the time! I would have totally lost my audiences bouncing around like a sixteen year old kid!" When John Barrymore’s drunken antics started getting out of control, Thalberg looked to replace him with William Powell, who also refused.
Romeo and Juliet remained Norma’s second favorite movie she ever made. Though she obviously had a different viewpoint on the movie since it was the last film she made for Irving Thalberg, she later said, “It was my last with Irving and he put so much of himself into it; he so wanted it to succeed. And I feel I did expand my range, and I had the benefit of some good coaching that stood me in good stead for the future, and the cast surrounding me would have been an asset to any actress!”
My Note: Though Thalberg’s Shakespeare adaptation remains one of the most respected films of the legendary play, certain critics love to hate it, and it causes them to hate Norma. It was obviously tailor made for Norma Shearer to win a second Academy Award, and though she was nominated, she lost to Luise Rainer. The film ends abruptly and isn't exactaly a favorite Norma film of mine.
Russell, Rosalind(6/4/1907-11/28/1976): In Norma's 1939 classic film, The Women, Russell stole every scene she was in, and practically walked off with the film.