Best Pictures #26:
1929-30 (3rd) Academy Awards Outstanding Production Nominee
The Divorcee’s
nomination for Outstanding Production shows that the Academy’s interest in
controversial but popular films existed since its early years. This film is
based novel The Ex-Wife by Ursula
Parrott, which was also popular and controversial when it was released. The
controversy of the novel and film stems from its subject matter: marital
infidelity and divorce. MGM was hesitant to be associated with the racy novel,
so the title of the film adaptation was changed to The Divorcee, a classier way to say “ex-wife” I suppose. This would
not be a racy or controversial film today, but it remains quite entertaining. The Divorcee has interesting characters,
good performances, and a good sense of humor and drama. The Divorcee was released on DVD in the TCM Archives Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 2, but this set has since gone out of print making tracking down a copy slightly difficult and expensive (it currently sells on Amazon.com for $130). However, it airs occasionally on TCM, and I very much recommend watching it should it be on the schedule.
MGM may have acted like they did not want to court
controversy, but is seems as though they didn’t put great effort into making The Divorcee any less controversial. The Divorcee may be tame and even
conservative by 21st century standards, but modern viewers should
keep in mind that this was a time when the subject of divorce, let alone female
sexuality, made for impolite and improper conversation. This movie pushed
boundaries, addressed the double standards of male vs. female infidelity, and,
most of all, it had a good, well-developed, strong, and interesting female
character as the lead.
I had been looking forward to watching The Divorcee since I haven’t seen many Pre-Code movies. Pre-Code
Hollywood refers to the brief time period after the advent of sound films until
the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934. At this time films were not
protected under the First Amendment because of a Supreme Court ruling in 1915,
which declared films were purely commercial and not art. That unfortunate and
idiotic decision would be overturned in 1952. The Hays, or Production Code, was
actually created in 1930, but it was not enforced until the summer of 1934 when
every film was required to have a Production Code seal of approval before it could be released. The
Production Code severely regulated and limited a film’s content and subject
matter. Before then movies were free to contain violence, risqué subject matter
(like infidelity and divorce), and, most notable of all, highly suggestive
innuendo.
The coveted title role of The Divorcee went to Norma Shearer, but it did not come easy to her even though she was married to MGM
production chief Irving Thalberg. He originally wanted to cast Joan Crawford.
At that time, Shearer was known for playing “lady-like” characters, so Thalberg
thought she lacked the sensuality the role would require. To prove her husband
wrong, Shearer had a series of photos taken of her posing provocatively in a
revealing dress. Her plan worked. Thalberg cast her and she won Best Actress at
the next Oscars. Shearer’s nomination, however, was for The Divorcee and her
performance in another film, Their Own Desire (1929). When she was announced as the
winner, only The Divorcee was specified and the reason for this remains unknown
even to Academy historians.
The film begins with a group of friends having a getaway
party at a country house. Jerry (Norma Shearer) announces her engagement to
Ted, played by Chester Morris, much to the poorly hidden disappointment of her
other suitors, Paul (Conrad Nagel) and Don (Robert Montgomery). Paul gets very
drunk but still drives a car full of people, including Jerry’s sister, Dorothy,
down a winding road. The car crashes and Dorothy is disfigured. As Jerry
marries Ted in a pretty ceremony in a church, Paul marries Dorothy out of pity
in a hospital room. After three happy years, Jerry discovers that Ted has been
unfaithful and responds by having an affair of her own, with Don. Jerry and Ted
divorce, and then Jerry decides to live it up.
I was worried that The
Divorcee would be tonally uneven with the first half being light and
romantic and the second half being mostly dramatic, such as with The Crowd (1928) and The Love Parade (1929). Like those
films, it does begin as a light romance, then becomes a drama but never becomes
too heavy to be entertaining. Though the second half of the film is where all
of the drama and tension lies, it is not devoid of comedy. The Divorcee has a good sense of humor and delivers laughs at a
steady, consistent pace. In a scene late in the movie, Don runs into Ted in New
York. Ted is a mess from the divorce. The scene grows tense as Ted describes to
Don what he’d do if he ever found the man with whom Jerry had her affair. It’s
an awkwardly funny and tense scene that is capped with a good visual punchline
from Montgomery.
The tagline for The
Divorcee asked the scandalous question: If the world permits the husband to
philander, why not the wife? When Jerry and Ted become engaged they agree that
their marriage will be a partnership and they would be equals. The film takes
subtle steps to suggest that Jerry is the equal of her male counterparts. In
the novel, the main character’s name is Patricia, but— according to the DVD
commentary by film historians Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta— was changed to
Jerry for the film to represent gender equality. Vance and Maietta cite other elements
like Jerry wearing masculine clothing (trousers) in the opening scene and her
turning down Don with a polite handshake as aspects showing that Jerry would
treat people and situations the way a man would, not the way society dictated a
woman of the time would. I concur with their assertions. When Jerry confesses her
infidelity to Ted, which she feels very guilty about, she begs him to remember
what he told her about his own affair: it didn’t mean anything. As Jerry
confronts Ted with this role reversal, the movie confronts the audience with
the double standard towards female infidelity. Ted does not take it well.
Jerry’s indiscretion is done in part as an act of revenge, but also an act of
equality.
I can see why Shearer want to play the part of Jerry; it’s
an interesting, well-developed, and challenging role for any actress to play. The
great thing about Jerry is that even while “living it up” she is never indecent
or immoral. The film’s climax is a test for her character: she runs into Paul
who tells her that he still is and always has been in love with her and is
ready to leave his wife, her sister, for her.
The Divorcee has
everything I’d hoped to see in a scandalous Pre-Code movie. The parties the
characters attend throughout the movie are big, glamourous, and ornate with
balloons and streamers, and lots of alcohol, even though the movie was made during
Prohibition. The parties are what you think of when you imagine parties of that
era. It is interesting to see how films of the Pre-Code era managed to be
risqué without being crude or crass. The
Divorcee, like all Pre-Code films, implies more than it shows which ends up
making certain scenes more provocative and effective. The movie shows us Jerry
sitting close to Don in a taxi with a devious look on her
face. The next thing we see is a shot of a window and curtains closing.
The Divorcee has a
fair share of visually interesting moments beginning with a shot of everyone at
the country house standing in the doorway watching Jerry and Ted. The scene of
a drunken Paul driving a speeding car down a winding road is already tense enough,
but the POV shots of the road speeding toward the screen intensifies the danger
and suspense. Perhaps the most memorable sequence is a brief montage of Jerry
meeting men after her divorce. She is dressed glamorously and her hair is done
up gorgeously. The film shows us each man’s hand holding her hand. She accepts
jewelry from one of the gentlemen saying, “I’ve heard of platonic love but I
didn’t know there was such a as thing as platonic jewelry.” The movie leaves it
up to the audience to decide what happens before or after each shot.
I found The Divorcee
quite entertaining as both an attempt at social commentary and as a romance
film. By addressing the real and stressful moments that often do rear their
ugly head on a happy couple, The Divorcee
becomes a film of substance and emotion. While its ultimate conclusion seems
old fashioned or “traditional” by today’s standards, it also ends with a happy
couple, which fits the tone of the movie. It’s clear to any modern viewer that
the film treats divorce as something that is detrimental to everyone and seems
more forgiving of male infidelity, however, The
Divorce as a whole should not be disregarded because of these dated aspects.
I hope that modern viewers won’t dismiss it as a quaint but unsuccessful
attempt at a feminist movie. It is a glimpse at what a particular era thought
of marriage, infidelity, and sexuality. It is also enjoyable to see a strong
female character as the lead in a film from the 1930’s—something that remains
unfortunately infrequent in films of today.
Nominee: MGM
Producer: Robert Z. Leonard
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Screenplay: continuity and dialogue by John Meehan,
Treatment by Zelda Sears and Nick Grinde, based on the novel Ex-Wife by Ursula
Parrott
Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Chester Morris,
Conrad Nagel
Release Date: April 30th, 1930
Total Nominations: 4, including Outstanding Production
Win: Actress-Norma Shearer
Other Nominations: Director-Robert Z. Leonard, Writing-John
Meehan
