In Name Only

John Cromwell's 1939 film is a drama in which three actors work outside their usual registers. Alec is wealthy and his marriage survives only on paper; his wife Maida, who convinced his parents she was the ideal daughter-in-law, refuses a divorce because she will not give up the position. When Alec falls for Julie, a widow, the balance between the three begins to break. Cary Grant works in a measured key far from comedy, and so does Carole Lombard. The most interesting figure is Kay Francis's Maida: malicious but with comprehensible reasons, a character who makes economic dependence visible. Few films of the late thirties speak this plainly about what divorce cost a woman socially and materially. Who it's for: viewers who like classic Hollywood melodrama and seeing stars in a different register. Who it's not for: anyone expecting comedy from Grant and Lombard; the film is serious throughout.