Craig's Wife

Rosalind Russell’s breakout performance is a tour de force in Dorothy Arzner's high melodrama.

Over the course of a single day, Dorothy Arzner’s Craig’s Wife follows Harriet Craig, a meticulous and controlling woman who views love as a threat to order. Obsessed with maintaining her perfect home and reputation, Harriet’s carefully constructed world begins to unravel when her husband becomes embroiled in a scandal.

Adapted from George Kelly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Arzner’s searing melodrama exposes the suffocating ideals of marriage and domestic femininity. Featuring striking production design by William Haines – one of Hollywood’s first openly gay stars who became a designer after being shut out as an actor for refusing to deny his homosexuality – the film stands as both a critique of social conventions and a showcase for Rosalind Russell, whose commanding performance marked a major turning point in her career.