The Divorcee (1930)

Precode Drama. - The Divorcee review by Steve

Classic example of the films which inspired the cult of Hollywood talking pictures before the Production Code was enforced in 1934- which were then banned or re-edited because of illicit content. They give a fascinating insight into what metropolitans thought before they were told how to think by the Hays office. Plus it's great to see the period fashions and hear the slang.

Norma Shearer stars as a modern career woman whose husband (Chester Morris) has a casual affair. So the wife retaliates in kind. When she finds she is judged by different standards, they are divorced and she plays the field. And he discovers he can't get on without her. These themes are not just obliquely alluded to, this is ostentatiously a proto-feminist polemic.

There's the jazz age setting popular in Hollywood films going back to the mid-20s. Only in the talkies, there's ragtime on the soundtrack. Norma won the Oscar for best female actor. She's unsubtle, but plays a believably strong woman. And has some astonishing lines. The screenplay is a blast, brimming with witty, acidic and salacious observations on sexual hypocrisy.

The attitude which now confounds is not the divorce, but the drunk driver who disfigures a women, but takes zero responsibility. Norma dominates, as she should, and Robert Montgomery gives good support as the rich lunkhead she evens the score with. This is badly paced, poorly directed and edited, and old fashioned. But that's part of the deal. It's also a wild experience.