The Gay Divorcee
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| The Gay Divorcee | |
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 The Gay Divorcee movie poster |
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| Directed by | Mark Sandrich |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Starring | Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers Alice Brady |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures Inc. |
| Release date(s) | October 12, 1934 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 107 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was based on the musical play The Gay Divorce written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, with screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman, from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners. The Hays Office insisted on the name change, believing that while a divorcee could be gay (meaning happy back then, not a homosexual), it would be unseemly to allow a divorce to appear so. The movie was directed by Mark Sandrich.
The movie is a romantic musical with a slim plot. It included the popular dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and also starred Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore and Erik Rhodes. The song "The Continental" by Con Conrad and Herb Magidson won the Academy Award for Best Song, and is the music to the twenty-minute dance sequence towards the end of the film.
The stage version included many songs by Cole Porter, most of which were excised from the film, "Night and Day" being a notable exception.
The plot sees Mimi Glossop (Rogers) arrive in England to seek a divorce from her geologist husband, whom she hasn't seen for several years. Under the guidance of her domineering and much-married aunt Hortense (Brady), she consults a bumbling and less-than-competent lawyer Egbert Fitzgerald (Horton), who happens to be one of Hortense's previous husbands. He arranges for her to spend a night at a seaside hotel and to be caught in an adulterous relationship, for which purpose he hires a professional co-respondent, Rodolfo Tonetti (Rhodes). But Egbert forgets to arrange for private detectives to 'catch' the couple.
By coincidence, Guy Holden (Astaire) an American dancer, who briefly met Mimi on her arrival in England, and is now besotted with her, also arrives at the hotel, only to be mistaken by Mimi for the co-respondent. Whilst they are in Mimi's bedroom, Tonetti arrives and holds them 'prisoner'. They contrive to escape and dance the night away.
[edit] Quotes
Rodolfo Tonetti - Your wife ia safe with Tonetti, he prefer spaghetti!
Guy Holden - Chance is the Fool's name for Fate.
[edit] External links
- The Gay Divorcee at the Internet Movie Database
- Karin Longworth's analysis of the Night and Day routine
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| Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers |
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Flying Down to Rio (1933) • The Gay Divorcee (1934) • Roberta (1935) • Top Hat (1935) • Follow the Fleet (1936) • Swing Time (1936) • Shall We Dance (1937) • Carefree (1938) • The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) • The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) |
