Encyclopedia Page W

Walking Up the Town(1925, silent): Norma on loan out to United Artists. Notable because it was the last time Norma would be loaned out from MGM. Jack Pickford stars, Vernon Keyes directed, and it was based on a story by James Cruze and Frank Condon. Norma was not thrilled to be working with Jack Pickford, aka, “Mr. Syphilis.” He apparently chased Norma around throughout the entire production, “I even ate garlic one morning- the leavings of dinner- to give him a good whiff during a love scene we were about to play’” she later told Vernon Keyes.(SNS)

Walking Up The Town movie page.

Waning Sex, The(1926, silent): Norma, Conrad Nagel, and Mary McAllister star; Robert Z. Leonard directed. Conrad Nagel noted Norma's frequent checking of lights and camera angles:

Norma was always delightful to work with, but even in her early career was she a scene stealer? You can bet on it! We had a photographer, Ben Reynolds, on The Waning Sex, and you know that 1926 was rather early in her MGM period, and darned if she and he didn’t have their heads together before and after every shot. We looked at rushes one time and I was completely in shadow! “It’s my skin Conrad,” she hastened to tell me. “My skin has an unusual transparency and I have to ensure the lights are right!” Her skin didn’t seem that unusual to me, but I went along with it. It was true that the ladies’ whiter skin usually got more attention than the men’s, but it seemed to me that she and Reynolds were overdoing it a bit. (SNS)

The Waning Sex movie page.

Wanters, The(1923, silent): Directed by John M. Stahl; Stars Marie Prevost, Robert Ellis, and Norma; Based on a story by Leila Burton Wells. Originally, Norma was set to star, but director John M. Stahl reduced her down to a minor role, and cast Marie Prevost in the leasing part instead. Years later, Norma remembered failing the screen test for the movie:

The Wanters movie page.

Way Down East(1920, silent): Directed by the legendary D.W. Griffith; Stars Lillian Gish and Richard Barthlemess, Based on the play by Lottie Blair Parker. Norma has an uncredited, bit part. It was on the set of this film when Norma was told by Griffith she would never become a star.

Way Down East movie page.

We Were Dancing(1942): Based on Noel Coward’s “Tonight at 8:30.” Stars Norma and Melvyn Douglas. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, her last collaboration with him. Norma infamously turned down the title role in Mrs. Miniver for this embarrassing picture. Mayer originally asked her if she wanted Herbert Marshall for the role, and Norma snapped, “He’s too old now, he must be fifty!” Nick Schenck later said of Norma’s career at this time, “Norma is not such great shakes at the box office unless she has a strong male star up there with her, she does have a certain class and panache and a lot of the women around the country like her and will turn out to see her.” It wasn’t the case, as the movie bombed at the box office. Norma had become more obsessed with checking lighting to make her look youthful, as Lee Bowman later said:

I felt she was very nervous during that picture- and she worried about everything, her clothes, her makeup, and especially the lighting. She wanted her face “white as snow,” to use one of her phrases, and the guy found himself in the shadows. In one scene she was wearing a white dress and I was up against her in white tie and tails and there was a protracted debate, instigated by her, as to whether my tie and shirt blanked out her dress and the little bowed hat she was wearing. I felt throughout the film that something was bothering her, though I had heard tales of perfectionism in other films.

In a fan magazine, Norma said of the film, "There is one statrum of society that has been neglected in definition. It's country club horesy, wealthy, neither very old, nor very young. It's all bound up in its own interests, and if anyone should ask me briefly what We Were Dancing is about, I'd say- 'House Party Society.'"

We Were Dancing movie page.

Wolfman, The(1924, silent): Directed by Edward Mortimer; Stars Norma and John Gilbert; Based on a story by Reed Heustis. This was Norma’s first movie with John Gilbert and features Norma on loan out to Fox Studios. According to Lawrence Quirk’s Norma biography, she and Gilbert were hot and heavy during the filming, but due to his marriage at the time, nothing ever came of it. “It went hot and heavy for awhile, even though Jack was married to Leatrice Joy at the time,” King Vidor later stated.

The Wolfman movie page.

Women, The(1939): The Catfight of the Century! That’s what fan magazines referred to when they advertised The Women (1939). Norma, her rival Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell star; The film was directed by George Cukor. A major critical and commercial success, and probably Norma’s most popular film, the fact that The Women became to successful meant nothing to Norma. She said of the film:

I think women are more romantic than men, but on the other hand, men are more sentimental than woman. Women are much better sports nowadays than they used to be. Their feelings are not so easily hurt. They know better how to take it on the chin. They are not as stupidly sensitive as women of another age. Perhaps, along with that, they lack some of the sentimental idealism that Mary has in the brilliant observation of women’s many-faceted personalities. Each character in the picture represents a definite and recognizable type, even the heavy of the film, the gossip who almost wreck’s Mary’s life.

According to Anita Loos, Norma wanted to have Joan Crawford in the part of Crystal Allen for box office. Crawford, after being branded “box office poison” by the Independent Film Journal, needed a hit and jumped at the chance, knowing her screen time would be brief. However, when Louis B. Mayer approached Norma about the clause in her contract which stated that no female share top billing, she refused to allow exceptions for Joan Crawford. She wouldn’t relent until a few weeks later:

I now agree that, notwithstanding the provision of paragraph 18 of my contract of employment with you dated July 14, 1937, Miss Joan Crawford may be given co-star credit with my name. The waiver to apply only to The Women.

After Rosalind Russell realized she was indeed walking off with the film, she stayed home “sick” until Norma also relented, and gave her top billing:

I now agree that both Miss Joan Crawford and Miss Rosalind Russell may be given co-star credit with my name; provided, however, that in no event shall Miss Russell’s name appear in size of type larger than 50% of the size used to display my name.

According to Hedda Hopper, Hollywood’s gossip queen, the set of The Women was the place where Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer engaged in “one hell of a catfight!” Norma was doing her close-ups, while Joan was reading her the lines off-screen. Crawford kept knitting, and the little clicking of the knitting needles got Norma’s last nerve. She screamed at Crawford to be professional or leave and Joan packed her things up and went to her dressing room, and sent her a nasty telegram that barely got past the language restrictions of the typist.

The Women movie page.