The Divorcee Movie Review

 

The Divorcee=***

The Divorcee made in 1930 and directed by Robert Z. Leonard is a romantic story about love and loyalty to the people you love. Most filmmakers want their audience to walk out of the theater feeling or seeing a main theme, and I think the themes in The Divorcee are love and loyalty. Ted was cheating on another women for a while and keeping it a secret form his wife, Then Jerry seeing that if its ok for Ted to do it she can cheat too, so she cheats on Paul and keeps it a secret from Ted until Jerry learns that she really still loves Ted. Ted and Jerry and are a happily married couple until Jerry walks in on Ted with another women. (A big no no in that time.) Seeing that Ted found another women, Jerry decides to party and find another man.

          In this film, The Divorcee, women are portrayed very differently than men. For example, when Ted has an affair Jerry was supposed to shrug it off and make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal, but when Jerry has an affair, oh no, Ted wants a divorce! Hm… double standers.

The Divorcee shows a wide view on how wealthy people are portrayed and how the poor are treated. First of all, the wealthy people don’t seem to work, on the other hand the poor/poorer class only work. The wealthy go to parties, drink, smoke and have fun while the lower classes are busy serving food at parties if their lucky, if not lucky they’re working on trains opening doors for people. The wealthier classes seem somewhat shallow. For example, they are always at parties and if not at a party, they are on a boat or train going somewhere and being served. In addition, their conversations are shallow too. They talk about what people wear, parties, etc… they never really talk about marriage or the divorce for that matter. Overall this film doesn’t really show much of the poor people but when it does, it’s definitely not fair how differently these two classes are treated.

          Every movie has a conflict and I am happy to say that the conflict in this movie isn’t very hard to find: the Divorce. When Ted and Jerry get divorced from what seems a very successful long lasting marriage, Jerry starts to live a party life while Ted sinks into a life of alcoholism. L But it does get resolved, don’t worry. Ted still loves Jerry and after realizing that she still loves him, she goes to find him and get him back.

Although this movie is quite good, it does go against some of the laws that were stated firmly in the Motion Picture Production Code. The first law they break are several loooonngggg kisses lasting more then three seconds which was the maximum. They also mention sex, which was absolutely forbidden. In every party scene, you see people drinking alcohol which was illegal back then. And not only in the party scenes but also at people’s houses. And last but not least, adultery. I mean if you think about it, having sex with someone who is already married?! What? Weird. But people did it and they still do it today. Jerry slept with Paul and Ted probably slept with several women. Given all this, how did the movie s  get the approval to be shown in theaters?