Review of The Gay Divorcee (1934) by Marie M — 17 Jan 2010

The recipe for an Astaire-Rogers film: boy meets girl; boy courts girl; girl rejects and is generally annoyed by boy; boy persists; eventually, girl relents and falls in love with boy; temporary separation threatens boy and girl; boy redeems himself; and boy and girl dance off through the doorway happily ever after. Add two dance duets for Astaire and Rogers, one fun and the other romantic; a dance solo or two for Astaire; a romantic love song sung by Astaire to Rogers; a touch of (identity) confusion that is rather extraordinarily resolved by the end; the direction of Sandrich; and the offbeat support of cast members Horton and Blore, and you've got 1930s musical gold. The Gay Divorcee epitomized the formula.

One of my favorites in the Astaire-Rogers cycle, for no reason at all really - the musical numbers are alright, modest stepping stones for the team who would reach their peak choreographically in later years; the rapport among supporting characters is typical of the cycle, always enjoyable; and Rogers plays her comedy card with sheer biting wit as always. Perhaps I found Astaire's charm most appealing in this, their second film, despite the fact that his persistence in this incarnation is the only time in the cycle where it flirts rather heavily with harassment and stalking (that level of romantic perseverance would later be perfected and trademarked by Gene Kelly's characters); yet Astaire pulls it off with such grace and endearment as only he can muster. At any rate, the film is a must-see for Astaire-Rogers aficionados, particularly because it smacks rather resoundedly of Top Hat and Astaire even acknowledged the latter film as such. Notable numbers include "Night and Day" (imo, one of their most romantic ending poses, and he plays it so coolly as he woos her to the couch and offers her a cig while she sits and stares at him breathlessly - enter discussion of dance as metaphor for sex) and "A Needle in a Haystack"; "The Continental," though a satisfactory send-up of the Carioca, seemed far too overdrawn for me. My only real objection to the film is Brady's Hortense who is at times so utterly intolerable in her pre-feminist ridiculousness.