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Nutshell Review: The Divorcee (1930)
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Starring: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel
Studio: MGM
Viewing: Forbidden Hollywood Vol 2. Warner Home Entertainment
Plot: Ted (Morris) & Jerry (Shearer) are in love and promise to share a marriage of equals. They get married and enjoy 3 years of wedded bliss, until Ted’s one night stand shows up with their friends on the occasion of their 3rd anniversary. In the spirit of honesty, Ted admits the indiscretion to Jerry, repeatedly intoning that “it just doesn’t matter” when trying to explain it away. She is expected to take it “like a man” and understand, but she can’t and while Ted is out of town she drunkenly accepts to advances of Ted’s best friend Don (Montgomery). With Ted’s return comes Jerry’s admission that she “has settled our accounts”, sending Ted into an agree rage. Unfortunately, Jerry’s argument that “it just doesn’t matter” doesn’t quite cut it with Ted. After making a drunken scene at a wedding, Ted packs his bags and moves out, but not before cruelly chastising Jerry for her mistake. It is only then that Jerry, broken hearted & remorseful, turns on Ted, uttering The Divorcee’s most famous line, “from now on you’re the only man to whom my door will be closed to.”
With that the marriage is over & Jerry embarks on making her words ring true with a series of one night stands and meaningless affairs. Only when she runs into Paul (Nagel), still holding a torch for Jerry, does she break down and admit her unhappiness and yearning for Ted, which she knows if futile. Turning instead towards Paul, who himself is married to the disfigured Dorothy, herself injured in a drunk driving accident with Paul at the wheel (the depth of the melodrama is awesome), Shearer agrees to go away. Ted, meanwhile is on a full year drunken bender, trying to drown his misery & forget Jerry. When Dorothy shows up & begs for Paul back, Jerry realizes that’s what she need to do: fight for Ted! She tracks Ted to Paris on New Year’s eve, admits that she’s made a grave mistake, they kiss and the picture fades.
Thoughts: Not surprisingly, The Divorcee is all about marriage. Not just the marriage of Ted & Jerry, however, but the institution itself, in both obvious ways and some more subtle. The initial ideal of a marriage of equals is the opening premise, but as the film evolves that equality is tested in different ways. Their names, for instance, remove the male/female dynamic and Jerry’s admission that “waiting isn’t my favorite indoor sport” intimates her “masculine” attitude towards coupling; an attitude that comes into play later on. The interplay by the supporting players in the opening scenes works to undermine this ideal right away, however, teasing the couple with lines like “a man should be able to lay down more than 1 wife for his country” when talking about fidelity.
The opening provides quite a bit of foreshadowing for individual characters, but it also sets up the dichotomy between the idea of marriage for love (Ted & Jerry) & marriage for obligation (Paul & Dorothy). The repeated images of clasping hands, first Ted & Jerry’s, then Paul & Dorothy’s also layers on the institutional elements of marriage, a motif that later is used to undermine the idea of both love & the responsibility of marriage. The immediate jump to 3 years later initially reinforces Ted & Jerry’s blissful existence, with a scene of pure romantic schmaltz, only to be interrupted & permanently fractured by the appearance of Janice (Mary Doran), Ted’s one night stand. Her appearance sets in motion the crux of the argument about what marriage is really about.
In this case, Ted’s admission of infidelity, which reflects the promise of honesty laid out in the opening scene, immediately undermines the ideal of equality when he repeatedly utters “It doesn’t mean a thing.” The seal is broken in their marriage, in the ideal of marriage and the rest of the film makes the case that the ideal was always unrealistic. Jerry’s revenge sex admission, albeit exercised with a great deal of regret & restraint and the encouragement of Don’s echoing Ted’s rationalization is the first test & Ted miserably fails again. It does matter; and Jerry’s cool admission that “I’ve settled our accounts” further amplifies that fact.
His reaction further removes the idea of a marriage of equals when he says, while imaging her pedestal “it can’t be true. You’re too decent & good.” As he packs to leave, ignoring her imploring apology, however, he swings to the other side when he chastises her with “once a woman throws down her fences” anything is possible. The wife as virgin or whore in one scene.
Once on the downward slope of recrimination both Jerry & Ted pay the price for their high minded ideals, Ted in the bottle & Jerry in a series of meaningless trysts. Here is where the supporting characters come back in to reflect on marriage as they did in the opening. Jerry’s friend Helen (Florence Eldridge) speaks to the initial romanticism of marriage dreamily remembering “you stand at the alter and feel all dizzy,” which quickly fades to “but that’s all gone.” Helen perfectly represents the yin to Ted & Jerry’s idealized yang of marriage. For her marriage is merely a means to an end; social status, money, position.
Paul & Dorothy’s marriage of obligation is the reflection of what is missing in Ted & Jerry’s 3 year marriage. When Jerry realizes what was missing in her & Ted’s breakup, it was that sense of belonging of obligation to another. Ultimately, that is what marriage is about; the balance of many things, obligation, passion, trust, romance.
Category: Pre-code Classic
See Also: Free Soul, Riptide
Random Quotes & Notes:
-Shearer won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance
-Shearer posed for sexy pictures taken by George Hurrell to convince her husband Irving Thalberg that she was right for the part.
-The film is based on scandalous novel The Ex Wife, but by agreement with censors the title was changed. Both Novel and screenplay were written by women (Ursula Parrot-Novel & Zelda Sears-Treament)-Sears also plays Jerry maid in the film.
Singin in the Rain plays under film’s opening scene
Pre-code dialogue: “A man should be able to lay down more than 1 wife for his country”-Don (Montgomery)
-“I always chose sophisticated parts because you can’t really be interesting as a young girl, [or]…outstanding as an ingénue.” Shearer from Hurrell’s Hollywood Portraits Mark A. Viera p18.
-Shearer’s voice was deemed “dynaphonic” when tested, a voice perfect in pitch, which enhanced her appeal in talkies.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Starring: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel
Studio: MGM
Viewing: Forbidden Hollywood Vol 2. Warner Home Entertainment
Plot: Ted (Morris) & Jerry (Shearer) are in love and promise to share a marriage of equals. They get married and enjoy 3 years of wedded bliss, until Ted’s one night stand shows up with their friends on the occasion of their 3rd anniversary. In the spirit of honesty, Ted admits the indiscretion to Jerry, repeatedly intoning that “it just doesn’t matter” when trying to explain it away. She is expected to take it “like a man” and understand, but she can’t and while Ted is out of town she drunkenly accepts to advances of Ted’s best friend Don (Montgomery). With Ted’s return comes Jerry’s admission that she “has settled our accounts”, sending Ted into an agree rage. Unfortunately, Jerry’s argument that “it just doesn’t matter” doesn’t quite cut it with Ted. After making a drunken scene at a wedding, Ted packs his bags and moves out, but not before cruelly chastising Jerry for her mistake. It is only then that Jerry, broken hearted & remorseful, turns on Ted, uttering The Divorcee’s most famous line, “from now on you’re the only man to whom my door will be closed to.”
With that the marriage is over & Jerry embarks on making her words ring true with a series of one night stands and meaningless affairs. Only when she runs into Paul (Nagel), still holding a torch for Jerry, does she break down and admit her unhappiness and yearning for Ted, which she knows if futile. Turning instead towards Paul, who himself is married to the disfigured Dorothy, herself injured in a drunk driving accident with Paul at the wheel (the depth of the melodrama is awesome), Shearer agrees to go away. Ted, meanwhile is on a full year drunken bender, trying to drown his misery & forget Jerry. When Dorothy shows up & begs for Paul back, Jerry realizes that’s what she need to do: fight for Ted! She tracks Ted to Paris on New Year’s eve, admits that she’s made a grave mistake, they kiss and the picture fades.
Thoughts: Not surprisingly, The Divorcee is all about marriage. Not just the marriage of Ted & Jerry, however, but the institution itself, in both obvious ways and some more subtle. The initial ideal of a marriage of equals is the opening premise, but as the film evolves that equality is tested in different ways. Their names, for instance, remove the male/female dynamic and Jerry’s admission that “waiting isn’t my favorite indoor sport” intimates her “masculine” attitude towards coupling; an attitude that comes into play later on. The interplay by the supporting players in the opening scenes works to undermine this ideal right away, however, teasing the couple with lines like “a man should be able to lay down more than 1 wife for his country” when talking about fidelity.
The opening provides quite a bit of foreshadowing for individual characters, but it also sets up the dichotomy between the idea of marriage for love (Ted & Jerry) & marriage for obligation (Paul & Dorothy). The repeated images of clasping hands, first Ted & Jerry’s, then Paul & Dorothy’s also layers on the institutional elements of marriage, a motif that later is used to undermine the idea of both love & the responsibility of marriage. The immediate jump to 3 years later initially reinforces Ted & Jerry’s blissful existence, with a scene of pure romantic schmaltz, only to be interrupted & permanently fractured by the appearance of Janice (Mary Doran), Ted’s one night stand. Her appearance sets in motion the crux of the argument about what marriage is really about.
In this case, Ted’s admission of infidelity, which reflects the promise of honesty laid out in the opening scene, immediately undermines the ideal of equality when he repeatedly utters “It doesn’t mean a thing.” The seal is broken in their marriage, in the ideal of marriage and the rest of the film makes the case that the ideal was always unrealistic. Jerry’s revenge sex admission, albeit exercised with a great deal of regret & restraint and the encouragement of Don’s echoing Ted’s rationalization is the first test & Ted miserably fails again. It does matter; and Jerry’s cool admission that “I’ve settled our accounts” further amplifies that fact.
His reaction further removes the idea of a marriage of equals when he says, while imaging her pedestal “it can’t be true. You’re too decent & good.” As he packs to leave, ignoring her imploring apology, however, he swings to the other side when he chastises her with “once a woman throws down her fences” anything is possible. The wife as virgin or whore in one scene.
Once on the downward slope of recrimination both Jerry & Ted pay the price for their high minded ideals, Ted in the bottle & Jerry in a series of meaningless trysts. Here is where the supporting characters come back in to reflect on marriage as they did in the opening. Jerry’s friend Helen (Florence Eldridge) speaks to the initial romanticism of marriage dreamily remembering “you stand at the alter and feel all dizzy,” which quickly fades to “but that’s all gone.” Helen perfectly represents the yin to Ted & Jerry’s idealized yang of marriage. For her marriage is merely a means to an end; social status, money, position.
Paul & Dorothy’s marriage of obligation is the reflection of what is missing in Ted & Jerry’s 3 year marriage. When Jerry realizes what was missing in her & Ted’s breakup, it was that sense of belonging of obligation to another. Ultimately, that is what marriage is about; the balance of many things, obligation, passion, trust, romance.
Category: Pre-code Classic
See Also: Free Soul, Riptide
Random Quotes & Notes:
-Shearer won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance
-Shearer posed for sexy pictures taken by George Hurrell to convince her husband Irving Thalberg that she was right for the part.
-The film is based on scandalous novel The Ex Wife, but by agreement with censors the title was changed. Both Novel and screenplay were written by women (Ursula Parrot-Novel & Zelda Sears-Treament)-Sears also plays Jerry maid in the film.
Singin in the Rain plays under film’s opening scene
Pre-code dialogue: “A man should be able to lay down more than 1 wife for his country”-Don (Montgomery)
-“I always chose sophisticated parts because you can’t really be interesting as a young girl, [or]…outstanding as an ingénue.” Shearer from Hurrell’s Hollywood Portraits Mark A. Viera p18.
-Shearer’s voice was deemed “dynaphonic” when tested, a voice perfect in pitch, which enhanced her appeal in talkies.
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