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The Gay Divorcee (1934)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
12 October 1934 (USA) moreTagline:
The King and Queen of 'Carioca' morePlot:
Mimi Glossop wants a divorce so her Aunt Hortense hires a professional to play the correspondent in apparent infidelity... more | add synopsisAwards:
Won Oscar. Another 4 nominations moreUser Comments:
Sensational moreCast
(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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
107 minCountry:
USAColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (RCA Victor System)Fun Stuff
Goofs:
Plot holes: When Mimi first visits Egbert, she tells him she's been married for two years. When the waiter states that that Great Britain is 500,003.5 years old he explains that Mr. Brown, the geologist told him 3.5 years ago that GB was 500,000 years old. Mr. Brown turns out to be Mimi's husband, so if he was with someone else 3.5 years ago, it wasn't adultery since he didn't marry Mimi until a year and a half later, which of course means that Mimi doesn't have grounds for divorce. moreQuotes:
Guy Holden: You think I'm going to leave you alone with a strange Italian? He might be a tenor! moreFAQ
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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.