The Gay Divorcee

Mimi wants a divorce and her husband will not agree. Under English law at the time the route to one lay through producing evidence: the wife had to be seen with another man. A lawyer finds a solution; a professional will be hired to spend the night in a room at a seaside hotel and a waiter will testify. Mimi goes to the hotel. But the man waiting there is taken to be Guy, a dancer she met recently in London who has not left her alone. Mark Sandrich directs. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers take the leads. It is the first film in which the pair play the leads together; they had appeared in supporting parts in the same film before, and a series followed from here. The dance number called The Continental runs seventeen minutes, and the song won the first Academy Award given for best song. It was adapted from a stage musical; most of the songs were replaced and only one was kept. The narrative rests entirely on misunderstanding and the plot is slight; the reason the film exists is the dancing. Astaire insisted that dances be shot unbroken and in full figure, and that is applied here, so that the dancing is visibly real. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Hollywood musicals and the Astaire and Rogers pairing. Who it is not for: the script is simple, the humour is of its time, and the passages outside the dancing run long.