The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Director:

Mark Sandrich

Writers:

J. Hartley Manners (unproduced play)
Dwight Taylor (musical play "Gay Divorce") ...

Release Date:

12 October 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

The King and Queen of 'Carioca'

Plot:

Mimi Glossop wants a divorce so her Aunt Hortense hires a professional to play the correspondent in apparent infidelity...

Plot Keywords:

Dance | Aunt | Dancer | Divorce | Astaire And Rogers

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 nominations

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Fred Astaire	...	Guy Holden
Ginger Rogers	...	Mimi Glossop
Alice Brady	...	Aunt Hortense
Edward Everett Horton	...	Egbert 'Pinky' Fitzgerald
Erik Rhodes	...	Rodolfo Tonetti
Eric Blore	...	The waiter
Lillian Miles	...	Singer, Continental Number
Charles Coleman	...	Guy's Valet
William Austin	...	Cyril Glossop
Betty Grable	...	Dance Specialty

Also Known As:

The Gay Divorce (UK)
Cerco il mio amore (Italy) [it]
Continental (Sweden) [sv]
Continental (Denmark) [da]
Hupainen avioero (Finland) [fi]
I efthymi zontohira (Greece) [el]
Kontinental (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
L'alegre divorciada (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
La alegre divorciada (Spain) [es]
La joyeuse divorcée (France) [fr]
Lustige Scheidung (Austria) [de]
Scheidung auf amerikanisch (Germany) [de]
Tanz mit mir! (Germany) [de]

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario) | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #282)

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

This is the only film in which Fred Astaire plays a role that he originated in the Broadway stage production, which opened on Nov. 29, 1932 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and ran for 248 performances. Although Astaire had appeared in both the 1927 Broadway musical play and later the film Funny Face (1957), the stories were entirely different, using many of the same songs.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Hortense first meets Tonetti, she is wearing a black cape. When she goes back upstairs to warn Mimi that she might have the wrong man in her room, she doesn't have the cape on. Then when she returns downstairs and talks to Egbert, she's wearing the cape again.

Quotes:

Mimi Glossop: I hope you like what I ordered. I've never had breakfast with two men before.
Guy Holden: I've tried it. It's no fun.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Simpsons: Life on the Fast Lane (#1.9)" (1990)

Soundtrack:

A Needle in a Haystack

Sensational

Following an apparently accidental teaming in 1933's Flying Down to Rio (a fun Dolores Del Rio vehicle), Fred and Ginger got their first starring feature a year later. It was based on J. Hartley Manners' play 'The Gay Divorce'. The Hays Office insisted on shoving an 'e' on the end, for how could a divorce be so trifling as to be gay? Some UK prints still run with the original title. RKO assembled a sparkling ensemble cast of top-flight farceurs, bringing together (in ascending order of sublimity) Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton and Erik Rhodes ("Are you a union man?"). Mark Sandrich directs the thing with a maximum of fuss and style. Hermes Pan helped Fred choreograph the numbers.

The plot is suitably - and delightfully - trivial. Musical star Guy Holden (Fred) happens upon a girl (Ginger), falls desperately in love with her, then spends the rest of the picture trying to free himself from marvellously silly plot threads and Everett Horton's exquisite quadruple-takes.

Keeping just one song from Cole Porter's original score, the timeless 'Night and Day', and adding only four others, The Gay Divorcée is more a comedy with songs than it is a musical comedy. But what comedy - and what songs! 'Looking For a Needle in a Haystack' is a masterpiece of economy: Fred a whirlwind of frustrated, lovestruck energy as he spins around his hotel room lamenting his missing love in peerless style. "Men don't pine," he memorably concludes, "Women pine. Men ... suffer." Everett Horton's rare excursion into song-and-dance territory is a breath of hysterical, liberating ludicrousness, as he knocks knees with a young Betty Grable. 'Don't Let It Bother You', performed by a chorus of dancing girls (and dolls), then spectacularly reprised by a tapping Astaire, is another treat. 'The Continental', the film's vast production number is peculiarly edited but sporadically fine and offers a fitting climax.

It's exceptional fluff, the sort of heady, heightened escapism that you don't come close to very often. An extravagantly mounted, joyous comedy played to perfection by two stars at their irresistible peak. Unmissable.