Trailer
Plot summary
Kay Hilliard, once a nightclub singer, is married to Steven, a theater producer. Her friends Sylvia Fowler and Edith Potter hear at a Manhattan salon that Steven is seeing showgirl Crystal Allen and keep it from her; Olga, Kay's manicurist, is the one who tells her. Amanda Penrose tells Kay to keep up appearances while Steven's affair runs its course. At the couple's tenth anniversary party, a recording of Kay singing recalls how she and Steven met, and her own torch song drives her from the room in tears. Crystal dances at a charity benefit, and after a backstage confrontation Kay leaves for Reno to end the marriage.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Opposite Sex (1956)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- MGM production head Dore Schary wanted Esther Williams for June Allyson's part in The Opposite Sex; Williams objected, was suspended by the studio, and on agent Lew Wasserman's advice left MGM after 14 years.
- The Opposite Sex added musical numbers and male actors playing the husbands and boyfriends that the 1936 play and 1939 film The Women lacked; screenwriter Fay Kanin said MGM's argument was "you can't play a love scene alone."
- Grace Kelly was intended for June Allyson's role in The Opposite Sex but had retired from acting, and Elaine Stewart had been promised Joan Collins's part before filming began.
- Eleanor Parker was cast as Kay Hilliard, the role June Allyson ultimately played in The Opposite Sex, but Parker was replaced by Allyson.
