The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was based on the musical play Gay Divorce written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, with screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman, from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners. The Hays Office insisted on the name change, believing that while a divorcee could be gay or lighthearted, it would be unseemly to allow a divorce to appear so. The movie was directed by Mark Sandrich.

The movie is a screwball musical comedy with a slim plot. This was the second of the Rogers and Astaire musicals; Flying Down to Rio (1933) was the first. It included the popular dance team of Fred Astaire and a 23-year-old Ginger Rogers, and also starred Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore and Erik Rhodes.

The stage version included many songs by Cole Porter, most of which were excised from the film, "Night and Day" being a notable exception.

New songs introduced in the film

• "The Continental" (w. Herb Magidson m. Con Conrad) which won the very first Academy Award for Best Original Song, and is the music to the twenty-minute dance sequence towards the end of the film.

• "Don't Let It Bother You" (w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Revel) opening number

• "Let's K-nock K-nees" (w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Revel) at the beach resort

• "Needle in a Haystack" (w. Herb Magidson m. Con Conrad)

Other songs

• "Night and Day" (Cole Porter) at nighttime beach

Plot summary

The plot sees Mimi Glossop (Ginger Rogers) arrive in England to seek a divorce from her geologist husband Cyril (William Austin), whom she hasn't seen for several years. Under the guidance of her domineering and much-married aunt Hortense (Alice Brady), she consults a bumbling and less-than-competent lawyer Egbert Fitzgerald (Edward Everett Horton), who happens to be one of Hortense's previous fiancés. He arranges for her to spend a night at a seaside hotel and to be caught in an adulterous relationship, for which purpose he hires a professional co-respondent, Rodolfo Tonetti (Erik Rhodes). But Egbert forgets to arrange for private detectives to 'catch' the couple.

By coincidence, Guy Holden (Fred Astaire) an American dancer and friend of Egbert's, who briefly met Mimi on her arrival in England, and is now besotted with her, also arrives at the hotel, only to be mistaken by Mimi for the co-respondent. Whilst they are in Mimi's bedroom, Tonetti arrives and holds them 'prisoner'. They contrive to escape and dance the night away.

Quotes

Tonetti: Your wife is safe with Tonetti - he prefers spaghetti!
Holden: Chance is the fool's name for fate!

Cast

• Fred Astaire as Guy Holden

• Ginger Rogers as Mimi Glossop/Mrs. Green

• Alice Brady as Aunt Hortense

• Edward Everett Horton as Egbert Fitzgerald

• Erik Rhodes as Rodolfo Tonetti

• Eric Blore as Waiter

• Betty Grable as Guest

• Lillian Miles as Singer, Continental Number

• Charles Coleman as Guy's Valet

• William Austin as Cyril Glossop