Fri 4 Sep 2009
Movie Review: THE DIVORCE OF LADY X (1938).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[2] Comments
THE DIVORCE OF LADY X. United Artists (UK/US), 1938. Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Binnie Barnes, Morton Selten. Director: Tim Whelan.
The print of this film I recently watched on TCM must be a new one, or that is to say, one that’s been remastered, cleaned up and refreshed, since the colors in this early Technicolor comedy romance are vivid and bright — they’re really quite spectacular if not dazzling — while many of the comments that have been left on IMDB are complaints about the poor quality of the color, pale and not only faded, but fading in and out.
They all seemed to like the movie itself, however, and so did I, up to a point, and I’ll get back to that in a paragraph or so. It all begins in a London pea soup of a fog, and the crowd who’ve been attending a masquerade ball at a hotel are forced to stay there all night — without rooms for everyone, amusingly enough.
The amusement grows even more so when a young minx of a lady (not a contradiction) inveigles her way into the suite that a barrister named Everard Logan (Laurence Olivier) had claimed for himself earlier in the evening and is unwilling to share it with any of the others who have found themselves fogged in.
Not only that, but Leslie Steele (that’s her name), played by Merle Oberon, as you must have guessed, takes over Logan’s bed as well. Since this movie was made in 1938, you needn’t even begin to worry that something untoward happens. Logan sleeps on a mattress on the floor outside the bedroom in the suite, and one can easily imagine that the door between was locked.
Any other imagining would be left to the viewer, but those would be thoughts of what might have been only — you can take it from me: there is no hanky-panky that goes on in this film.
The cinema was different in 1938 than it is today, and it is all very amusing how cleverly Leslie Steele outwits her slow-witted male counterpart in this movie to take over his bed so neatly and slyly (and so innocently) as this.
The second half of the movie, while still amusing, is an anti-climax from here on, at least in comparison. Logan, as it so happens, is a divorce attorney … Wait, wait. I forgot to tell you this. In the morning, Logan discovers that he has fallen in love with the mischievous young lady who took over his accommodations, but she skips out without even telling him her name.
To get back to the divorce proceedings, Logan’s very next client is a gentleman (Ralph Richardson) who wants a divorce from his wife because — you’re ready for this, aren’t you? — she stayed overnight in that same hotel the exact night before in the rooms of another man.
Logan, of course, jumps to the immediate conclusion that the other man is none other than himself.
A merry mixup up like this in Part Two could have as amusing as the clever shenanigans in Part One, but dragging the charade out for far too long, as it’s done here, eventually begins to feel cruel and mean-spirited.
This is only one person’s point of view, you understand — mine, that is — and I seem to be in the minority on this, so by all means, if you’d like to see two great stars in fine action, romantic comedy style, even if it turns into a frothy mess — relatively speaking — then by all means, put this one on your list of movies to see as soon as you can.
Be sure to watch the restored print, though. It really is an eye-catcher.
And do you know what? I’m even willing to bet that I’ll like the entire movie more myself, the next time I watch it!
September 5th, 2009 at 12:21 am
Good film though it does have a mild case of schizophrenia. Just goes to show how hard the sprightly Hollywood style comedy was to do.
But anyone watching this will probably enjoy it, and it’s always interesting to see Olivier in his early leading man roles.
Director Tim Whelan helmed Q Planes with Richardson and Olivier too. A good director whose career might have been major if he had come to the States like Hitchcock.
September 5th, 2009 at 1:07 am
I meant to mention the Q PLANES connection in my comments above, but I forgot.
Walter Albert reviewed it here not too long ago. Here’s the link, in fact:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1339
I haven’t seen it, alas, but it’s been high on my To Be Obtained Next list, and seeing Olivier and Richardson working in tandem together in LADY X has pushed it even higher.
I’m also planning on watching more Merle Oberon films too. I think the screen shots I found and posted capture her personality in LADY X very nicely.
— Steve