The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Director:

Mark Sandrich

Writers:

J. Hartley Manners (unproduced play)
Dwight Taylor (musical play "Gay Divorce") ...
(more)

Release Date:

12 October 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

The King and Queen of 'Carioca'

Plot:

Mimi Glossop wants a divorce so her Aunt Hortense hires a professional to play the correspondent in apparent infidelity...

Plot Keywords:

Mistaken Identity | Ballroom Dancing | Tap Dancing | Dance | Attorney

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 nominations

Cast

Fred Astaire	...	Guy Holden
Ginger Rogers	...	Mimi Glossop
Alice Brady	...	Aunt Hortense
Edward Everett Horton	...	Egbert 'Pinky' Fitzgerald
Erik Rhodes	...	Rodolfo Tonetti
Eric Blore	...	The waiter
Lillian Miles	...	Singer, Continental Number
Charles Coleman	...	Guy's Valet
William Austin	...	Cyril Glossop
Betty Grable	...	Dance Specialty
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Norman Ainsley	...	Undetermined role (uncredited)
Jimmy Aubrey	...	Undetermined role (uncredited)
Finis Barton	...	Undetermined role (uncredited)
De Don Blunier	...	Chorus girl (uncredited)
Jack Chefe	...	Table Extra (uncredited)
Cy Clegg	...	Porter (uncredited)
E.E. Clive	...	Chief Customs Inspector (uncredited)
George Davis	...	French waiter #1 (uncredited)
Charlie Hall	...	Messenger at dock (uncredited)
Shep Houghton	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Arthur Jarrett	...	Vocalist (uncredited)
Sydney Jarvis	...	Undetermined role (uncredited)
Vivian Keefer	...	Chorus girl (uncredited)
Lois Lindsay	...	Chorus girl (uncredited)
Alphonse Martell	...	French waiter #2 (uncredited)
Ted Oliver	...	Customs Inspector #3 (uncredited)
Paul Porcasi	...	French headwaiter (uncredited)
Sonny Ray	...	Undetermined role (uncredited)
Ronald R. Rondell	...	Dance Extra, Continental Number (uncredited)
Larry Steers	...	Extra (uncredited)
Cyril Thornton	...	Customs Inspector #2 (uncredited)
Florence Wix	...	Undetermined role (uncredited)
Bruce Wyndham	...	Undetermined role (uncredited)

Directed by
Mark Sandrich

Writing credits
J. Hartley Manners		(unproduced play)
Dwight Taylor		musical play "Gay Divorce" and
Kenneth S. Webb		musical adaptation for play and
Samuel Hoffenstein		musical adaptation for play
George Marion Jr.		(screenplay) and
Dorothy Yost		(screenplay) and
Edward Kaufman		(screenplay)
Robert Benchley		uncredited

Produced by
Pandro S. Berman	....	producer

Original Music by
Samuel Hoffenstein
Herb Magidson
Harry Revel
Kenneth S. Webb		(as Kenneth Webb)

Cinematography by
David Abel

Film Editing by
William Hamilton

Art Direction by
Carroll Clark
Van Nest Polglase

Costume Design by
Walter Plunkett

Makeup Department
Mel Berns	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
J.R. Crone	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ray Lissner	....	second assistant director (uncredited)
Argyle Nelson	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Ivan Thomas	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Thomas Little	....	props (uncredited)

Sound Department
George Marsh	....	sound editor
Hugh McDowell Jr.	....	recording director
Robert Wise	....	sound effects editor (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Vernon L. Walker	....	photographic effects (as Vernon Walker)
Harry Redmond Jr.	....	special effects (uncredited)
Harry Redmond Sr.	....	special effects supervisor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Willard Barth	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Joseph F. Biroc	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Jim Davis	....	grip (uncredited)
Fred Hendrickson	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Clifford Stine	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
James Vianna	....	electrician (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Claire Cramer	....	wardrobe (uncredited)

Music Department
Philip Faulkner Jr.	....	music recordist (as P.J. Faulkner Jr.)
Murray Spivack	....	music recordist
Max Steiner	....	musical director
Maurice De Packh	....	music arranger (uncredited)
Howard Jackson	....	music arranger (uncredited)
Bernhard Kaun	....	music arranger (uncredited)
Gene Rose	....	music arranger (uncredited)
Eddie Sharpe	....	music arranger (uncredited)
Max Steiner	....	composer: incidental music (uncredited)
Clifford Vaughan	....	music arranger (uncredited)

Other crew
Peter Croft	....	technical director
Dave Gould	....	stager: dance ensembles
Zion Myers	....	production associate
Hermes Pan	....	assistant dance director
Harry Cornbleth	....	stand-in: Fred Astaire (uncredited)
Bill Hamberry	....	projectionist (uncredited)
Ben Holmes	....	dialogue director (uncredited)
Elizabeth McGaffey	....	researcher (uncredited)
Marie Osborne	....	stand-in: Ginger Rogers (uncredited)
Hermes Pan	....	choreographer (uncredited)
Frank Warde	....	doll dance director (uncredited)
Trudy Wellman	....	continuity (uncredited)
Trudy Wellman	....	script clerk (uncredited)
Bill Williams	....	photography co-operator (uncredited)
Madeline Wilson	....	stand-in: Alice Brady (uncredited)

Production Companies

• RKO Radio Pictures

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1934) (USA) (theatrical)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV)
• Turner Home Video (1999) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

The Gay Divorce (UK)

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario) | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #282)

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

This is the only film in which Fred Astaire plays a role that he originally played on Broadway.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the "Continental" sequence Rodolfo Tonetti is shown playing a concertina and singing along. Though he moves the concertina in and out, and you can hear the music, his fingers never move on the keys.

Quotes:

Waiter: That's what they call an igneous intrusion.
Guy Holden: You're somewhat of an igneous intrusion yourself.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Biography: Betty Grable: Behind the Pin-up" (1995)

Soundtrack:

Don't Let It Bother You

Sensational

Following an apparently accidental teaming in 1933's Flying Down to Rio (a fun Dolores Del Rio vehicle), Fred and Ginger got their first starring feature a year later. It was based on J. Hartley Manners' play 'The Gay Divorce'. The Hays Office insisted on shoving an 'e' on the end, for how could a divorce be so trifling as to be gay? Some UK prints still run with the original title. RKO assembled a sparkling ensemble cast of top-flight farceurs, bringing together (in ascending order of sublimity) Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton and Erik Rhodes ("Are you a union man?"). Mark Sandrich directs the thing with a maximum of fuss and style. Hermes Pan helped Fred choreograph the numbers.

The plot is suitably - and delightfully - trivial. Musical star Guy Holden (Fred) happens upon a girl (Ginger), falls desperately in love with her, then spends the rest of the picture trying to free himself from marvellously silly plot threads and Everett Horton's exquisite quadruple-takes.

Keeping just one song from Cole Porter's original score, the timeless 'Night and Day', and adding only four others, The Gay Divorcée is more a comedy with songs than it is a musical comedy. But what comedy - and what songs! 'Looking For a Needle in a Haystack' is a masterpiece of economy: Fred a whirlwind of frustrated, lovestruck energy as he spins around his hotel room lamenting his missing love in peerless style. "Men don't pine," he memorably concludes, "Women pine. Men ... suffer." Everett Horton's rare excursion into song-and-dance territory is a breath of hysterical, liberating ludicrousness, as he knocks knees with a young Betty Grable. 'Don't Let It Bother You', performed by a chorus of dancing girls (and dolls), then spectacularly reprised by a tapping Astaire, is another treat. 'The Continental', the film's vast production number is peculiarly edited but sporadically fine and offers a fitting climax.

It's exceptional fluff, the sort of heady, heightened escapism that you don't come close to very often. An extravagantly mounted, joyous comedy played to perfection by two stars at their irresistible peak. Unmissable.