Norma Shearer demonstrating what a STAR looks like in The Divorcee.

Adultery is the theme of this early pre-Code talkie. Norma Shearer stars, in the role that won her an Oscar. In those first years after the movies acquired speech she and Greta Garbo vied for the title of Queen of MGM. It didn’t hurt that Shearer was married to producer wunderkind Irving Thalberg. By the time of America’s entry into the Second World War both women would be finished with the motion picture business.

As she was normally cast as more honorable women, Shearer had to convince her husband to give her the rather sensual part of Jerry Martin. Apparently she did this by posing for some revealing photos in sexy lingerie. At any rate she is quite convincing as the wife whose husband cheats, causing her to react in kind. She looks quite glamorous in the fabulous gowns by Adrian. She certainly knew how to pose, walk and lounge around.

Chester Morris plays her unfaithful husband. He expects his wife to get over his infidelity, but when she turns the tables on him by sleeping with another man, he reacts with a typical male double-standard (it’s a good thing she doesn’t reveal the identity of the man (Robert Montgomery) as he is her husband’s best friend!). During their dramatic confrontation she tells him, “From now on, you're the only man in the world that my door is closed to.”

She then proceeds to live up to her words by having a string of affairs. These are cleverly shown by director Robert Z. Leonard by showing a series of close-ups of her hand getting a ring placed on it by a man’s hand. During the last one she makes a subtle erection reference. As a man’s hand caresses hers we hear a male voice speaking in French. Jerry replies, “I don’t understand a word of French but I can recognize the symptoms of high blood pressure in any language.”

There is a rather dated subplot involving another man (Conrad Nagel) that pines for Jerry. At the beginning of the movie, after he learns of Jerry’s engagement, he gets drunk and causes a car accident that disfigures his girlfriend. Later in the movie she shows up, melodramatically wearing a black veil over her face as if her appearance is too horrifying to be gazed upon.

The Divorcee gets off to a slow start. It picks up quite a bit after Jerry learns of her husband’s affair. I won’t give away the ending. Norma Shearer, although not remembered by the general public today, was a shimmering movie star of the highest order. She remains the only reason for watching The Divorcee. Trust me, she’s reason enough.
 

Did you enjoy Patrick's review? +6 -0

Norma Shearer and Chester Morris in The Divorcee.

This movie is pure soap opera, remarkable really only because of its subject matter. I agree with you Patrick that Shearer is a star, but even she can't raise the material above its sordid source.

None of the characters are very sympathetic, except perhaps for Dot, who is the girl disfigured in the car accident. Jerry and Ted start off likable enough, but he turns out to be a thoughtless cad who thinks nothing of cheating on his wife while she responds to his infidelity by sleeping with every man she can land regardless of the consequences. I certainly wasn't rooting one way or the other for the two of them to reconcile before the movie ended.

There are some moments of humor. When one of Jerry's many lovers tells her, "But, my dear, my feeling for you is purely platonic." She replies, "Really? I've heard of platonic love, but I didn't know there was such a thing as platonic jewellery." The maid Hannah also provides some comic relief. When she tells Jerry that she has a date with her butcher, Jerry asks if his intentions are honorable. Hannah responds with disappointment, "I'm afraid they are. He just wants to keep a good customer." Later, when Paul and Jerry are on his yacht and he proposes to her, despite him still being married to Dot, Jerry tells Hannah that it's heaven on the boat, to which Hannah replies, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Of course, I ain't heard any angels singing, but aside from that..."

As always with these pre-code films, I found the adult nature of the plot to be refreshing. We so often sanctify the past and think of it as a time of innocence. How much of that though, was simply a product of the Hays Code censorship? On this site we have often stated how older films are a window into the past. While that's still true in the later 1930s through the early 1960s, once the Code began to be enforced, the view through that window became a little more murky and distorted.

Did you enjoy Scott's review? +3 -0