''The Gay Divorcee'' is a 1934 American
musical film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...
directed by
Mark Sandrich
Mark Sandrich (born Mark Rex Goldstein; October 26, 1900 – March 4, 1945) was an American film director, writer, and producer.
Early life
Sandrich was born in New York City on October 26, 1900 into a American Jews, Jewish family. His siste ...
and starring
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history.
Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
and
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
. It also features
Alice Brady
Alice Brady (born Mary Rose Brady; November 2, 1892 – October 28, 1939) was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked until six months before her death from cancer in ...
,
Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons.
Early life
Horton was born in Kings County ...
,
Eric Blore
Eric Blore Sr. (23 December 1887 – 2 March 1959) was an English actor and writer. His early stage career, mostly in the West End of London, centred on revue and musical comedy, but also included straight plays. He wrote sketches for and appe ...
, and
Erik Rhodes. The
screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...
was written by
George Marion Jr.
George Marion Jr. (August 30, 1899 – February 25, 1968) was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 106 films between 1920 and 1940. He also wrote lyrics for at least one Broadway musical revue: 1943's "Early To Bed" with music by Thomas "F ...
,
Dorothy Yost
Dorothy Yost (April 25, 1899 – June 10, 1967), later married as Dorothy Yost Cummings, was a prominent screenwriter whose career lasted from the silent era well into the sound era. Over her lifetime, she worked on more than 90 films, inc ...
, and Edward Kaufman.
Robert Benchley
Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. From his beginnings at ''The Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, thro ...
, H. W. Hanemann, and Stanley Rauh made uncredited contributions to the dialogue. It was based on the
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
''
Gay Divorce
''Gay Divorce'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Dwight Taylor, adapted by Kenneth Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein. It was Fred Astaire's last Broadway show and featured the hit song " Night and Day" in which Astaire d ...
'', written by
Dwight Taylor, which had been adapted into a musical by Kenneth S. Webb and
Samuel Hoffenstein from an unproduced play by
J. Hartley Manners
John Hartley Manners (10 August 1870 – 19 December 1928) was a London-born playwright of Irish extraction who wrote ''Peg o' My Heart'', which starred his wife, Laurette Taylor, on Broadway in one of her greatest stage triumphs.
Biography
...
.
The stage version included many songs by
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Born to ...
which were left out of the film, except for "
Night and Day". Though most of the songs were replaced, the screenplay kept the original plot of the stage version. Three members of the play's original cast repeated their stage roles: Astaire, Rhodes, and Eric Blore.
The
Hays Office
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
insisted that
RKO
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
change the name from "Gay Divorce" to "The Gay Divorcee", on the grounds that while a divorcée could be gay or lighthearted, it would be unseemly to allow a divorce to appear so. According to Astaire, the change was made proactively by RKO. The director, Mark Sandrich, told him that ''The Gay Divorcee'' was selected as the new name because the studio "thought it was a more attractive-sounding title, centered around a girl." RKO even offered fifty dollars to any employee who could come up with a better title. In the United Kingdom, the film was released with the title ''The Gay Divorce''.
This film was the second (after ''
Flying Down to Rio
''Flying Down to Rio'' is a 1933 American pre-Code RKO musical film famous for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, although Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond received top billing and the leading roles. Among the fe ...
'', 1933) of ten pairings of
Astaire and Rogers on film.
Plot
Mimi Glossop (
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
) seeks a divorce from her geologist husband Cyril Glossop (
William Austin), whom she has not seen for some time. Under the guidance of her domineering and much-married Aunt Hortense (
Alice Brady
Alice Brady (born Mary Rose Brady; November 2, 1892 – October 28, 1939) was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked until six months before her death from cancer in ...
), she consults incompetent and bumbling
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
Egbert Fitzgerald (
Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons.
Early life
Horton was born in Kings County ...
), once a fiancé of her aunt. 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
In English law, a co-respondent is, in general, a respondent to a petition, or other legal proceeding, along with another or others, or a person called upon to answer in some other way. 7.4.19
Divorce
More particularly, since the Matrimonial C ...
, Rodolfo Tonetti (
Erik Rhodes). But Egbert forgets to arrange for private detectives to "catch" the couple.
By coincidence, Guy Holden (
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history.
Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
), an American dancer and friend of Egbert's, who briefly met Mimi on his arrival in England, and who is now besotted with her, also arrives at the hotel, only to be mistaken by Mimi for the co-respondent she has been waiting for. While they are in Mimi's bedroom, Tonetti arrives, revealing the truth, and holds them "prisoner" to suit the plan. They contrive to escape and dance the night away.
In the morning, after several mistakes with the waiter, Cyril arrives at the door, so Guy hides in the next room, while Mimi and Tonetti give a show of being lovers. When Cyril does not believe them, Guy comes out and embraces Mimi in an attempt to convince him that ''he'' is her lover, but to no avail. It is an unwitting waiter (
Eric Blore
Eric Blore Sr. (23 December 1887 – 2 March 1959) was an English actor and writer. His early stage career, mostly in the West End of London, centred on revue and musical comedy, but also included straight plays. He wrote sketches for and appe ...
) who finally clears the whole thing up by revealing that Cyril ''himself'' is an adulterer, thus clearing the way for Mimi to get a divorce and marry Guy.
Cast
Songs
New songs introduced in the film
* "
The Continental The Continental may refer to:
* ''The Continental'' (1952 TV series), a 1952–53 television series on CBS
* ''The Continental'' (miniseries), an upcoming television series on Peacock
* "The Continental" (''Saturday Night Live''), a recurring sk ...
" (w.
Herb Magidson
Herbert A. Magidson (January 7, 1906 – January 2, 1986) was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway revues. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934.
Life and career
Magidson was bo ...
m.
Con Conrad
Con Conrad (born Conrad K. Dober, June 18, 1891 – September 28, 1938) was an American songwriter and producer.
Biography
Conrad was born in Manhattan, New York, and published his first song, "Down in Dear Old New Orleans", in 1912. Conrad p ...
) won the first
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...
for its elaboration in the over-17 minute song and dance sequence towards the end of the film, as sung by Rogers,
Erik Rhodes and
Lillian Miles
Lillian Miles (August 1, 1907 – February 27, 1972) was an American actress in several films in the 1930s.
Biography
Miles was born in 1907 in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Aside from singing and performing in the celebrated 'Continental' musical number in ...
, and danced by Rogers, Astaire and ensemble performers.
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was an American conductor known for his association with both the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one o ...
and the
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...
recorded the music in their very first
RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...
recording session, in Boston's Symphony Hall, on July 1, 1935; the recording can be heard on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
* "Don't Let It Bother You" (w.
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon (born Morris Gittler; June 21, 1904 – February 28, 1959) was an American composer and lyricist for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times in 11 years, including five consecutive years betwee ...
m.
Harry Revel
Harry Revel ( Glaser; 21 December 1905 – 3 November 1958) was a British-born American composer, mostly of musical theatre, working with various lyricists, notably Mack Gordon. He is also seen as a pioneer of " space age pop".
Early life and c ...
) opening number, sung by chorus, danced by Astaire
* "Let's K-nock K-nees" (w.
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon (born Morris Gittler; June 21, 1904 – February 28, 1959) was an American composer and lyricist for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times in 11 years, including five consecutive years betwee ...
m.
Harry Revel
Harry Revel ( Glaser; 21 December 1905 – 3 November 1958) was a British-born American composer, mostly of musical theatre, working with various lyricists, notably Mack Gordon. He is also seen as a pioneer of " space age pop".
Early life and c ...
) at the beach resort, sung by
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer.
Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million; for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reign ...
with talking verses vocalized by
Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons.
Early life
Horton was born in Kings County ...
, danced by Grable, Horton and chorus
* "Needle in a Haystack" (w.
Herb Magidson
Herbert A. Magidson (January 7, 1906 – January 2, 1986) was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway revues. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934.
Life and career
Magidson was bo ...
m.
Con Conrad
Con Conrad (born Conrad K. Dober, June 18, 1891 – September 28, 1938) was an American songwriter and producer.
Biography
Conrad was born in Manhattan, New York, and published his first song, "Down in Dear Old New Orleans", in 1912. Conrad p ...
), sung and danced by Astaire
Other songs
* "
Night and Day" (
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Born to ...
) sung by Astaire, danced by Rogers and Astaire in a hotel suite overlooking an English Channel beach at night
Production
Development
After the success of Astaire and Rogers' first feature, ''Flying Down to Rio'', RKO's head of production, Pandro S. Berman, purchased the screen rights to Dwight Taylor's Broadway hit ''Gay Divorce'' with another Astaire and Rogers matchup in mind. According to Fred Astaire's autobiography, director Mark Sandrich claimed that RKO altered the title to insinuate that the film concerned the amorous adventures of a recently divorced woman ("divorcée").
Dance routines from the film, specifically
"Night and Day" and the scene where Astaire dances on the table, were taken from Astaire's performances in the original play, ''
The Gay Divorce''. The "Don't Let It Bother You" dance came from foolhardy antics during rehearsals and became an in-joke in future Astaire-Rogers films.
Filming
Exteriors set in what was supposed to be the English countryside were shot in Clear Lake, California. Additional exteriors were filmed in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, California.
The car driven by Ginger Rogers was her own, a 1929
Duesenberg Model J
The Duesenberg Model J is a luxury automobile made by Duesenberg. Intended to compete with the most luxurious and powerful cars in the world, it was introduced in 1928, the year before the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. The ...
, and it still exists, and has been displayed at least once, at the Amelia Island Car show, ''
Concours d'Elegance
''Concours d'Elegance'' ( French: ''concours d'élégance'') is a term of French origin that means a "competition of elegance" and refers to an event where prestigious vehicles are displayed and judged. It dates back to 17th-century France, whe ...
''.
Censorship issues
James Wingate, Director of the Studio Relations Office for RKO, warned: "considering the delicate nature of the subject upon which this script is based...great care should be taken in the scenes dealing with Mimi's lingerie, and… no intimate article should be used". Wingate also insisted that no actor or actress appear in only pajamas.
The title from the musical – Gay ''Divorce'' – was dropped "as too frivolous toward marriage by the censors" (i.e. a "divorcee" could be implied as "gay", but the act of "divorce" itself not) and modified to ''Divorcee''.
Reception
''The Gay Divorcee'' was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category ...
in 1934.
Box office
According to RKO records the film earned $1,077,000 in the US and Canada and $697,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $584,000.
Critical response
''New York Times'' critic Andre Sennwald (November 16, 1934) said of the film: "Like the carefree team of Rogers and Astaire, The Gay Divorcee is gay in its mood and smart in its approach. For subsidiary humor, there are Alice Brady as the talkative aunt; Edward Everett Horton as the confused lawyer .. and Erik Rhodes ... as the excitable co-respondent, who takes the correct pride in his craftsmanship and objects to outside interference. All of them plus the Continental, help to make the new Music Hall show the source of a good deal of innocent merriment."
Awards and honors
The film was nominated for the following
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
s, winning in the category
Music (Song):
*
Best Picture
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
(Nominated)
*
Art Direction
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...
(
Van Nest Polglase
Van Nest Polglase (August 25, 1898 – December 20, 1968) was an American art director. He was nominated for six Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. Best remembered as head of the design department at RKO Pictures, he worked ...
,
Carroll Clark
Carroll Clark (February 6, 1894 – May 17, 1968) was an American art director. He was nominated for seven Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. He worked on 173 films between 1927 and 1968. He was born in Mountain View, Calif ...
) (Nominated)
*
Music (Scoring) (
Max Steiner
Maximilian Raoul Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian composer and conductor who emigrated to America and went on to become one of Hollywood's greatest musical composers.
Steiner was a child prodigy who conducted ...
) (Nominated)
*
Music (Song) – "The Continental" (Won) – the first winner of this award; it won against "
Carioca
Carioca ( or ) is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original meaning of the term is controversial, maybe from Tupi language "''kari' oka''", meaning "white house" as the whitewashed stone ...
", from the previous Astaire-Rogers film, ''
Flying Down to Rio
''Flying Down to Rio'' is a 1933 American pre-Code RKO musical film famous for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, although Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond received top billing and the leading roles. Among the fe ...
''
[ Mankiewicz, Ben (June 7, 2016) outro to the ]Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...
showing of ''The Gay Divorcee''
*
Sound Recording
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording te ...
(
Carl Dreher
Carl Dreher (February 16, 1896 – July 13, 1976) was an American electrical engineer, two-time Academy Award-nominated sound engineer, and an author who primarily dealt with technical and scientific topics. Directly involved with two techno ...
) (Nominated)
References
Citations
General sources
*
Sarris, Andrew. 1998. ''"You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet": The American Talking Film, History & Memory, 1927–1949''. Oxford University Press. .
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay Divorcee, The
1934 films
1934 musical comedy films
American musical comedy films
American screwball comedy films
American black-and-white films
1930s English-language films
Films set in Brighton
Films that won the Best Original Song Academy Award
RKO Pictures films
Films directed by Mark Sandrich
Films produced by Pandro S. Berman
Films scored by Cole Porter
Films scored by Max Steiner
Films with screenplays by Dorothy Yost
Films about divorce
1930s American films