Almost exactly a year ago, I reviewed the film Top Hat, a film that starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, a duo that most classic film lovers will agree are an iconic pair, especially when allowed to go all out on the dance floor. Fred Astaire could out-dance virtually anyone, showing off just how lithe and agile he was, and Ginger Rogers could match him step for step. But it wasn’t just their dancing that made them such a popular pairing in early cinema. They played off each other well, too, matching wits and charm at every step. Top Hatshowcased that very well, and while it didn’t garner any Oscar nominations for either of them, it did give us “Cheek to Cheek,” a song that is as iconic now as it was in the 1930s.
But Top Hat wasn’t their first pairing on screen. That honor goes to Flying Down to Rio, which came out in 1933. The following year, they appeared in The Gay Divorcee, a 1934 film that would be their first foray as an on-screen couple to get some serious Oscar recognition. This film, based on a stage musical, lacks many of the stage musical’s original numbers by Cole Porter; instead, it replaces them with new songs while retaining the original plot. This was often done so that the film’s composer could insert their own music into the film and earn royalties from them.
The play was originally titled The Gay Divorce. This title, however, seemed too scandalous and lighthearted in regard to divorce that the Hays office insisted it be changed. They reasoned that divorce was too serious a subject to be gay or lighthearted. They had no issue, though, with the idea of a divorcee being gay, as it was understandable that a woman filing for divorce could be happy-go-lucky. The title was changed because of this as well as because the new title seemed attractive to audiences looking for a lighthearted romp with an attractive young woman. This would prove to be an inspired alteration, and the film would go on to be a box-office hit.
The film follows Guy Holden (Fred Astaire), a famous American dancer who is traveling in Paris with his friend, an absent-minded English lawyer Egbert Fitzgerald (Edward Everett Horton). While traveling to England, he comes across Mimi Glossop (Ginger Rogers), a young woman who has managed to get her dress locked into the side of one of her suitcases. Rather than try to get assistance, Guy tries to free her himself, resulting in tearing her dress and incensing her. He loans her his jacket and his address so that she can ship it back to him later, but the jacket arrives at his place in London, Mimi has deliberately hidden where she had it shipped from so that he can’t trace it back to her. Undeterred, he sets out to find her anyway.
This leads to a cat-and-mouse game between them as she tries to avoid him while he keeps up the chase. Meanwhile, Mimi is trying to sue for divorce from her geologist husband on the grounds that he is never home and she never sees him. He is refusing to grant the divorce, though, so she, through a friend, contacts a lawyer, Egbert, who comes up with a scheme to make it look like she is having an affair so that her husband will be upset and grant the divorce. But this plan runs into a few hitches, including a case of mistaken identity and the husband still refusing to grant the divorce.
As we can expect with these Fred and Ginger movies, the story is a bit threadbare and is there in service of the musical numbers. No more is this more obvious than in the musical number The Continental, a fabulously choreographed sequence that runs for over seventeen minutes, holding the record for the longest musical number in a film until Gene Kelly beat it in An American in Paris more than fifteen years later. While Gene Kelly’s sequence serves as a finale to the picture, though, The Continental is in the middle of the film. It looks fantastic and the music is catchy, but it does halt the movie in its tracks.
Fred and Ginger are genuine stars, and there is no denying they make a wonderful on-screen pair. This film isn’t the best they have to offer, though. There are some truly inspired set pieces, especially the chase sequence when Guy finds Mimi in the streets of London, and he out-maneuvers her in a humorous car chase. But much of the film is over-relying on the old tropes of the forgetful side-character setting up the mistaken identity gag. It was used again in Top Hat to better effect, but here it is clumsily set up, and the gag is exposed to the leads far too quickly to be an effective hook.
The resolution to the whole film is also a let-down. I will not reveal it here, but the way the problem with the absent husband is resolved feels lazy and uninspired. It feels like the writers wrote themselves into a corner and couldn’t come up with a decent way to get out of it. Instead, we get a last-minute revelation that resolves everything in a matter of seconds. This sudden resolution, barely set up earlier in the film, lets down an otherwise interesting conundrum.
The Gay Divorcee may be a Best Picture nominated film, but it’s only passable entertainment in retrospect. Fred and Ginger are bringing their A-game, but the script and a plot that is full of tropes, lets them down more often than not. Still, it is a delight to see Fred Astaire dancing like it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. Ginger Rogers is always great to watch, too, as she plays off his energy and charm. Still, there are other, better films that star these two, and, given the choice, I would rather watch one of them instead.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Production: Pandro S. Berman
Best Art Direction: Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark
Best Music (Scoring): Max Steiner
Best Music (Song): “The Continental” Music by Con Conrad; Lyrics by Herb Magidson (won)
Best Sound Recording: Carl Dreher
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Release Date: October 19, 1934
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, and Edward Everett Horton
Directed By: Mark Sandrich
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