Jean as Crystal? Definitely.
Shearer as Sylvia? Perhaps.
Crawford as Mary Haines? After seventy years, Billy Wilder's "looks like a praying mantis who forgot how to pray", and "no more wire hangers", I really don't see Joan in that role at all. But hindsight IS 20/20.

However, I do think that, beginning with F. Scott Fitzgerald (if not before), the fascination with Thalberg has served to obscure many other, possibly more interesting creative producers. Certainly, Warner Bros. (Zanuck) AND Universal (Carl Laemmle Jr.) both turned out much more visceral films during the early 1930s than MGM did.

And, too, Selznick's MGM projects are FAR more interesting than Thalberg's during the time in which they co-existed at the studio, aren't they?

Dinner at Eight vs Grand Hotel?

David Copperfield or Tale of Two Cities vs. Mutiny On the Bounty?

for me, it's no contest.

I'm not on Pauline Kael's side either–I like Thalberg's movies (and Norma Shearer) a lot… but isn't it possible that the "Boy Wonder"'s rep has become inflated (by writers) over the years, precisely because of his paradoxical pro-writer stance (despite the fact that he perfected the writer-by-committee system)?

that's something I'd like to see explored, even more than the producer's life (and I LOVE The Last Tycoon)… also–when are we gonna see a book on Carl Laemmle Jr? Now THERE's a tragic life!!!

Dave