Despite some excellent inroads, Hollywood today remains male-dominated, not only behind the scenes but in the scripts and the casting, right down to the extras. Geena Davis is conducting a study that will be released in February 2014, but having heard some of the statistics already, it's pretty shocking stuff. Here are a few: women buy 55% of film tickets; however, women directed 7% of the top 250 grossing films, wrote 8% of the top 250 grossing films, comprised 17% of all executive producers, 23% of all producers, 18% of editors, and 2% of cinematographers
So it's interesting to realize that early in film history, women actually dominated as writers, directors, and producers. Even Leonard Maltin doesn't know why it changed, but in the late '30s, it ended with a big thump.
This documentary tells the story of one of the greatest screenwriters of all time, Francis Marion, responsible for some great films, including "Anna Christie," "Dinner at Eight," "The Champ," "The Scarlet Letter" and many Mary Pickford films.
This is such a fascinating documentary about not only Marion, but the early power of women in film, their contributions, and their ultimate fall for power. For Marion, this happened due to the death of one of her great champions, Irving Thalberg, and it was about the same time that it happened to all of them.
Marion was not only talented, but generous, writing roles for friends who were out of work, such as Marie Dressler and Hedda Hopper.
The focus of the documentary is on her great friendship with Mary Pickford and her very happy marriage to Fred Thomson, who became an early western star and died tragically in 1928, leaving Marion with three young boys. However, the documentary does not talk about Marion's other marriages, a subsequent one to director George Roy Hill in 1930, which ended in 1933, and two marriages before she met Rex. It sort of makes it sound as if Mary and Marion were both single when they became friends; in reality, that isn't the case. I suspect, though I can't prove it, that although she was married to someone from 1911 to 1917, she was probably not living with her husband during all of those years.
The documentary contains some neat film footage and comments by Fay Kanin, Leonard Maltin, one of Marion's sons, and others.
Highly recommended, and a real eye-opener.
