The Divorcee (1930)

The Divorcee

Director: Robert Z. Leonard

USA 1930

82 min

From The Forbidden Hollywood Collection - volume two.

The film begins with a New York "in-gang" spending a pleasant time in a cabin in the woods. Ted and Jerry (Chester Morris and Norma Shearer) are young and in love, and soon they pronounce they are engaged. Most of their friends are thrilled by the surprise (including an unbelievably charming Robert Montgomery as Don and Florence Eldridge, one of the Thirteen Women, as Helen), except for Paul (Conrad Nagel) who in secret always have been in love with Jerry. (God, that was a long sentence. Really kafkaesque!)

When it gets time to leave the cabin, Paul has gotten so drunk that he in a shockingly horrifying scene wrecks his car, the accident causing one of the women, Dorothy (Judith Wood), to become totally disfigured. Out of pity, Paul marries her by the same time of Ted and Jerry's marriage.

Chester Morris and Norma Shearer in the leading roles.

We jump in time. Ted and Jerry Martin proves to be happily married, but on the night of their third anniversary Jerry finds out that Ted has been unfaithful to her. Ted is going away on business and has no time to explain the situation more than "it didn't mean anything at all". Feeling betrayed and disillusioned, Jerry goes out for a night on the town with her friends and eventually end up in the beautiful Don's bed.

When Ted gets home from his business trip, Jerry explains to him that she has "balanced their accounts", and Ted gets furious. After having shown up drunk and crashed the wedding party of one of their friends, Ted leaves Jerry and they seek for a divorce.

We once again take a leap in time, to the time where the divorce has been finalized. Jerry is devastated, but tries her best to feel the greatness of being single again. But no matter how many men she meet and charms, she only realizes more and more that the divorce was a mistake.

Norma Shearer with Conrad Nagel.

The Divorcee is without a doubt one of the best pre-codes I've seen (competing violently with Red-Headed Woman and Baby Face), and the Norma Shearer film I've seen that her acting is at her best.

When casting the film, the MGM producers doubted that Shearer would suit the part - until this time she had mostly played "proper" characters. Interestingly enough, producer and Shearer's husband Irving Thalberg was the one who doubted her most. To prove them wrong, Norma did a photo shoot where she posed provocatively in lingerie - and after having seen those photos, all doubts about Shearer being able to play sensual women were gone with the wind.

Shearer received the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role, as well-deserved.

Norma with the irresistible Robert Montgomery.

At the time of The Divorcee's release, the subject of divorce was a sensitive issue. When the Hays Code was finalized in 1934, this film would be unthinkable. I therefore found the introduction dialogue of the film very interesting, having four people playing cards and casually joking about their ex-husbands and ex-wives.

And now I must admit that I fell in love with Robert Montgomery today. He is just swell in this film. And even though I was quite charmed by Chester Morris in Red-Headed Woman, his character in The Divorcee is too proud not to be annoyed with. Conrad Nagel is nothing I would turn down, neither, but his character is quite flat. Montgomery's self-confident Don Juan is more my type. In conclusion: with Montgomery in the lead, The Divorcee has a lot of eye-candy for a woman!

Ever seen Robert Montgomery, Chester Morris and Conrad Nagel play The Cocoanuts?

Quotes:

Jerry Bernard Martin: [slipping on a diamond ring] Oh, I couldn't think of accepting such a valuable gift!
Offscreen man: But, my dear, my feeling for you is purely platonic.
Jerry Bernard Martin: Really? I've heard of platonic love, but I didn't know there was such a thing as platonic jewellery.

Red-Headed Woman (1932)

Red-Headed Woman

Director: Jack Conway

USA 1932

79 min

Chester Morris and Jean Harlow in one of many sedustion scenes i Red-Headed Woman.

Times to review the second film in the Forbidden Hollywood Collection volume 1 - Red-Headed Woman.

The screenplay (originally written by the most influential writer in the 1920's America, F. Scott Fitzgerald, but re-written entirely by the admirable Anita Loos) is reminiscent of the screenplay to Baby Face (1933) (or is it the other way around?): Our protagonist is a woman determined to climb the social ladder by seducing rich and powerful men. There is bootleg whiskey, bare legs and a sceptical yet faithful side-kick who follows the leading lady whatever she does.

The likenesses of the films are however nothing remotely negative - it's a great concept for pre-code classics.
The leading lady Lillian (or "Lil" or "Red") is played by the irreplacable Jean Harlow, looking astonishing in a pre-code moviestar's typical wardrobe. Even though she became famous as "the platinum blonde", she wore a red wig for this film - with successful results. Her charming broad accent is the only thing that reveals that she is "from the wrong side of rail road".


Scene: The lovely introduction scene of the film, with Jean Harlow and Una Merkel.




Scene: The slap scene with Chester Morris and Jean Harlow. Naughty woman!




The first victim for Lil's irresistible legs is her boss Bill Legendre (Chester Morris, handsome as ever), happily married to a beautiful woman, Irene (Leila Hyams, known for playing "Venus" in the disturbing Tod Browning masterpiece Freaks from the same year). Lil is however successful in seducing her boss ("Well, he's a man, isn't he?"), and soon she gets hungry for more "up-grade". Bill Legendre's father (Lewis Stone) gets suspicious after finding one of Lil's handkerchieves in one of his important business partner's hotel room, and eventually Lil is revealed to both wanting the cake and eat it too...

Screenwright Anita Loos, director Jack Conway (I think...) and Jean Harlow.

If you haven't, for some reason, yet seen this film - the action is not over at that point. This is an amazing film, quite shocking even for a modern audience. (At least I think so, maybe I just have gotten used to old films.) This is clearly Jean Harlow at her best - I understand people getting disappointed with her being reduced to toned-down roles in films like Wife vs. Secretary (1936) after the despicable Hays Code tied the hands of film making.
Anyway, screenwright Anita Loos deserves an honorable mention for having written a fantastic screen play full of witty lines and a perfect variety of obvious sexual indications and not-so-obvious ones. Jean Harlow's sidekick Una Merkel as her room mate Sally does a lot to the film, and the early appearance by Charles Boyer as the French chauffeur Albert is very amusing. And I was surprised that the quality was held until the very last minute of the film - the end is very clever. I'm also happy to see that no alternative ending was added, as it was to Baby Face. Huah...

But I must admit that I am quite curious about how Fitzgerald's script looked like... (It was tossed away for "taken the matter too seriously". The best argument for rejecting something ever.)

Jean Harlow and Anita Loos. Such a charming pic.
(Anita Loos was the writer of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, first a not-so-successful silent film in 1928 with Ruth Taylor and Alice White, in 1953 a smash hit with Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe.)

"I'm furious about the women's liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket."

- Anita Loos

Quotes:

Lillian 'Lil': [trying on a dress in a store, Lil positions herself in front of a sunny window] Can you see through this?
Off-camera store clerk: I'm afraid you can, Miss.
Lillian 'Lil': I'll wear it.
Off-camera store clerk: Oh!

Lillian 'Lil': Sally I'm the happiest girl in the world. I'm in love and I'm gonna be married.
Sally: You're gonna marry Albert?
Lillian 'Lil': No, Gaerste.
Sally: In love with Gaerste?
Lillian 'Lil': No, Albert.