The Gay Divorcee (1934)
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The Gay Divorcee Movie Review
The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 musical film directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It’s a disappointing flick.
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“I don’t care what you did as a boy.
Well, I did nothing as a girl,
so there goes my childhood“
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I expected so much more from this film having in mind it’s a Rogers/Astaire vehicle, but ultimately what I got is far from their best works and certainly one of their most overrated. It’s solid, don’t get me wrong, but far from great or particularly memorable despite some striking moments.
The plot is particularly weak. It’s soapy and unbelievably contrived and convoluted at every step of the way. In their films, the story is always unimportant, but at least it’s fun or somewhat well crafted, and here unfortunately it wasn’t as it was convoluted and not really entertaining.
The characterization is very strong across the board, but the problem I’ve had with it lies in the approach where the supporting characters are unimportant to the overall story and seem like filler, no matter how fun they are. And they’re great for sure as Alice Brady and Edward Everett Horton deliver their usual, but great comedic shtick really well.
I liked Astaire quite a bit and Rogers is also pretty good. Their relationship is fun to follow and their dynamic is always great and here it’s the same. I just wanted a better start to their romance, but overall they were very charming in their every scene together.
The Gay Divorcee is at its best during the musical numbers and thus it succeeds as a solid musical in spite of its storytelling and structural problems. All songs are pretty solid and reliably greatly performed by the duo or just Astaire who’s always got killer moves, but the standout is of course The Continental which got the first ever Oscar for Best Original Song and deservedly so.
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Yes, it’s very long, but it doesn’t feel like it as some dialogue is interspersed throughout, and it’s simply a very entertaining, catchy number which is so well sung and instantly memorable. It’s also stupendously performed and this is where the movie reached its most epic heights. But overall the direction is very weak and the pacing is quite problematic. It only deserved those technical nominations in my opinion.
The Gay Divorcee is a disappointing film which does benefit from per usual great Astaire and Rogers as well as two memorable supporting turns from Horton and Brady. The Oscar-winning The Continental is where the movie reached its greatest heights. But, the supporting characters serve almost as a filler in the context of the story which itself is very uninspired and unbelievable. The direction is also pretty weak. It’s a solid film, but at the end of the day it’s quite overrated.
