The First Wives Club (1996) on Netflix
Three college friends reunite at the funeral of a fourth and compare what became of their marriages. Annie, Elise and Brenda band together to make their husbands pay.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.5/1060,904 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes50%
Trailer
Plot summary
At their Middlebury graduation in 1969, Cynthia Swann gives Annie, Brenda and Elise matching pearl necklaces and makes them promise to keep in touch. Years later the three have lost contact, and Cynthia's death brings them back together in New York. Each has been left or is being left: Annie's husband Aaron, an advertising executive, has moved on; Elise, an Oscar-winning actress, is divorcing the producer Bill Atchison; Brenda is in financial trouble after her split from the electronics tycoon Morty Cushman. Remembering their old promise and the younger women who replaced them, the three form the First Wives Club, aiming at the fortunes of the men who walked out.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The First Wives Club (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- With no ending written, the finale of The First Wives Club, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton singing Lesley Gore's 1963 hit "You Don't Own Me", was invented during production on a suggestion from producer Scott Rudin. Hugh Wilson chose the song and the sequence was shot in a single take in the early morning hours.
- Bronson Pinchot accused director Hugh Wilson of abusing him, and in the same 2009 interview blamed Bette Midler, saying she was difficult for the director. Wilson later said Midler questioned how a "southern heterosexual with five children" could direct a film about divorced New York women.
- Bette Midler wanted the glamorous part of Elise, but producer Scott Rudin planned to cast Jessica Lange in the role until the character was rewritten to be "glitzier"; it went to Goldie Hawn instead.
- Goldie Hawn tried to get Sally Field to play Annie, but Field turned it down because she felt she lacked musicality. Diane Keaton took the part after Scott Rudin cast her while they were working on the film Marvin's Room.
- Mandy Patinkin was cast as Annie's husband Aaron but dropped out shortly before shooting started to pursue his musical ambitions, and Stephen Collins replaced him.
- Writer David Rakoff was originally cast as the decorator Duarto but was fired after only one day on set, and Bronson Pinchot replaced him.
- Jon Stewart was hired to play the lover of Goldie Hawn's character Elise, but his scenes were cut from the finished film.
- Jenny McCarthy was offered the role of the young actress Phoebe LaVelle but turned it down, saying she did not want to play what she called a "dumb girl" character; Elizabeth Berkley took the part.
