A divorce
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A divorce |
| Original title | A Bill of Divorcement |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1932 |
| length | 70 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | George Cukor |
| script |
Howard Estabrook , Harry Wagstaff Gribble |
| production |
David O. Selznick for RKO Pictures |
| music | Max Steiner |
| camera | Sid Hickox |
| cut | Arthur Roberts |
| occupation | |
| |
A divorce (Original title: A Bill of Divorcement ) is an American drama film directed by George Cukor from 1932 , which is based on the play of the same name by Clemence Dane . It was Katharine Hepburn's film debut .
action
England in the early 1930s: On Christmas Eve, the affluent Fairfield family have a party at their property. The family seems happy: The daughter of the house, Sydney, and the Canadian Kit Humphreys are in love, while Sydney's mother Meg can finally marry her great love Gray Meredith in a week. Meg's husband Hilary suffered a shell shock in the First World War over 15 years ago , and has been mentally deranged in a sanatorium ever since. However, a new law now allows Meg to divorce her husband because of his madness, so nothing seems to stand in the way of her wedding to Gray. Only Aunt Hester, Hilary's sister, bumps into the planned wedding because she sees the memory of her brother in danger and still hopes for his return. At the end of the evening, Sydney receives a marriage proposal from Kit, which she happily agrees to. She wants to build a future with him in Canada.
The next morning, while Meg and Gray are at church, the sanatorium calls: Hilary, who has recently shown signs of improvement, has disappeared. A little later Hilary is suddenly in the house, drawn and easily excitable, but mentally in a clear state. He meets his daughter Sydney for the first time. The atmosphere does not stay harmonious for long, however, because Meg returns from church. Overjoyed by his sudden healing, Hilary does not realize the changes in his environment over the last 15 years and believes that Meg still loves him as he loves her. When he learns that “his” wife has divorced and wants to marry another man, he reacts indignantly. However, when he overhears a conversation about how Meg wants to cancel her wedding plans despite her love for Gray in order to look after Hilary out of a sense of duty, he changes his mind. He realizes that Meg can no longer love him and grants her the wedding.
Meanwhile, Sydney learns from Aunt Hester and later from family doctor Dr. Alliot that the madness runs in the family and that not only was the war responsible for Hilary's illness, but that he had shown symptoms before. Sydney recognizes many of her character traits in her father and believes that she too could have inherited the madness. She therefore does not want to bring children into the world. With a heavy heart she breaks her engagement to Kit and sends him away, even though they are in love. After Meg and Gray have also left in order not to endanger Hilary's health with their presence, Hilary and his daughter are left alone at the piano. Happy to have come together, they consider how they can finish Hilary's sonata , which has been unfinished for 15 years .
background
Clemence Dane's play, published in 1921, had historical background as women were first allowed in Britain in the 1920s to separate from their husbands without their consent if the reason for divorce was mental illness. It particularly affected veterans of the First World War, who, like the figure of Hilary, were mentally damaged. The film by Cukor was the second adaptation of Dane's play; the first was staged in Great Britain in 1922, directed by Denison Clift with Constance Binney (Sydney), Fay Compton (Meg) and Malcolm Keen (Hilary). The silent film is now considered lost. Another film adaptation was released in 1940, directed by John Farrow, starring Maureen O'Hara (Sydney), Adolphe Menjou (Hilary), Fay Bainter (Meg) and Herbert Marshall (Gray).
Katharine Hepburn made her film debut after attracting Hollywood 's attention with Broadway hit The Warrior's Husband . After the professional recordings with Hepburn, producer David O. Selznick was not convinced that it would be well received by the audience, but in the end the young director George Cukor stood up for it. Cukor and Hepburn became friends and later shot a total of nine productions together, including classics such as Four Sisters , The Bride's Sister and Marriage War . Their collaboration only ended in 1979, 47 years after A Bill of Divorcement , with the television film Das Korn ist grün .
The budget for A Bill of Divorcement was around $ 250,000 and grossed over $ 500,000 at the box office. The film was a success and set a positive start for Hepburn's subsequent film career.
Reviews
Contrary to later reviews, which were often mediocre, Mordaunt Hall was full of praise in the New York Times of October 3, 1932. A Bill of Divorcement is an “intelligent, reserved and often touching film”. The character study of Hilary is worthy of a John Barrymore, and this manages to portray the problems of the character convincingly. Hall also highlighted Hepburn's portrayal as "one of the finest": The producers were wise enough not to downsize the role of Sydney just because Barrymore was the star. Hall also praised Billie Burke, Henry Stephenson and Paul Cavanaugh.
The film service noticed that Cukor brought two novelties to the screen with the "problem play" Divorce : Katharine Hepburn and the "divorce topic, which was by no means an everyday issue at the time". The film is "stagging not without charm between melodrama and comedy", but "psychologically not particularly credible".
Hal Erickson of the All Movie Guide criticized that "the movie's stance on male-female relationships, not to mention its archaic approach to the problem of mental illness" would be arduous to today's viewers. However, the film would be saved by the warm-hearted interplay of Barrymore and Hepburn. In its "aged quality" this film version is still better than the remake from 1940, so Erickson.
Nicholas Bell wrote on the occasion of the film's Blu-Ray release in 2018 for Incicinema that A Bill of Divorcement was a “rigid examination of social morality on the subject of marriage and mental illness”. The film had the potential to be a lavish screwball comedy , but instead opted for “fear and melodrama”. Hepburn brings a breath of fresh air to the sluggish film material in her film debut, according to Bell. Cukor's handwriting, also to be portrayed from a female perspective, is recognizable in Billie Burke's touching depiction, who plays a woman between social expectation and her own longings.
Web links
- A divorce in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A Bill of Divorcement (1922). Retrieved October 4, 2018 .
- ^ A Bill of Divorcement (1932). Retrieved October 4, 2018 .
- ↑ John DiLeo: TEN MOVIES AT A TIME: A 350-film Journey Through Hollywood and America from 1930 to 1970 . Hansen Publishing Group LLC, 2017, ISBN 978-1-60182-653-4 ( google.de [accessed October 4, 2018]).
- ↑ Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951', Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television , Vol 14 No 1, 1994 p. 39
- ^ Mordaunt Hall .: John Barrymore, Billie Burke and Katharine Hepburn in a Film of a Clemence Dane Play. ( nytimes.com [accessed October 4, 2018]).
- ↑ A divorce . ( filmdienst.de [accessed October 4, 2018]).
- ^ A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - George Cukor | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie. Retrieved October 4, 2018 .
- ^ Cukor Goes Crazy with A Bill of Divorcement (1932) | Blu-ray Review - IONCINEMA.com. Retrieved October 4, 2018 (American English).