Review of When Ladies Meet

. . . (that would be A WOMAN'S FACE), this movie has the novelty of being the only pairing between the old face of MGM--Crawford--and the Roaring Lion's new visage, the future Mrs. Miniver herself, Greer Garson. Crawford's tyrannical ways had worn out her welcome at Tara, and Garson was several years away from ruining her own Reign on the Mane by wedding "Mrs. Miniver's" son in Hollywood's version of reality. However, when Joan and Greer's characters finally get to have their wildly-anticipated heart-to-heart toward the end of WHEN LADIES MEET, there is no talk of wire hangers or virtual incest. Instead, they have a highly contrived conversation about a "hypothetical" love triangle that the viewers already know is Hyper-Actual. Herbert Marshall's performance as the man in their middle is so smarmy that it's hard to imagine the women in a theater audience NOT loudly hissing collectively whenever he's on-screen. On the other hand, Robert Taylor as a thinner, wise-cracking good guy with a mustache is so similar to William Powell or Don Ameche's usual performances, it's surprising that those three were not born triplets in real life.