American Divorce (1934)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Divorce in American |
| Original title | The Gay Divorcee |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1934 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mark Sandrich |
| script |
George Marion Jr. , Dorothy Yost , Edward Kaufman |
| production | Pandro S. Berman |
| music |
Samuel Hoffenstein , Con Conrad , Harry Revel , Kenneth S. Webb , Max Steiner , Cole Porter |
| camera | David Abel |
| cut | William Hamilton |
| occupation | |
| |
Divorce in American , possibly also known under the title dance with me! and Funny Divorce (Original: The Gay Divorcee ), is an American film musical with the dancing couple Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers from 1934. The film was produced by RKO .
action
The dancer Guy Holden travels from Paris to London with his friend, the lawyer Egbert Fitzgerald . On the trip he falls in love with a girl who, however, does not look at him. When he arrives in London, he tries to find the girl without realizing that she is a client of his friend Egbert. Egbert is a long-time friend of Hortense, the aunt of the girl Mimi Glossup. He was commissioned by Hortense to divorce Mimis from her husband, a geologist who is constantly on the move . Egbert would like to do this with the help of Rodolfo Tonetti. Mimi is supposed to go to the sea and her husband catches Rodolfo red-handed. Egbert also goes to the sea with Guy and stays in the same hotel. There Guy sees the girl again, whom he had looked for so unsuccessfully in London, and contacts her. Mimi is initially pleased, but over the course of a romantic evening, a misunderstanding assumes that Guy is the hired lover. When they meet at night, she is much cooler to Guy than he expected. He can finally clear up the mistake, but Tonetti comes into Mimi's hotel room, determined to do his job and no longer allows Mimi to leave the room. With the help of a trick they can escape him and spend a dance evening together.
The next day, while Guy and Tonetti are in Mimi's room, Egbert takes Mimi's husband to the hotel. He finds no reason to separate from Mimi, as he lives wonderfully on the money of his rich wife, and "forgives" her. Only when the waiter at the hotel recognizes Mimi's husband as a former hotel customer and can prove that he lives in bigamy does the story for the couple Guy and Mimi, in love, resolve for the better .
background
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had a great success as a dance couple in the film Flying Down to Rio (Eng. Title Carioca ) in 1933 , but their parts were only supporting roles. The production company RKO therefore decided to produce a film with the two in the lead roles. Astaire already performed successfully on Broadway with the musical Gay Divorce by Cole Porter and so it was decided to make a film out of it. Cole Porter had written ten songs for the stage musical. Ultimately, however, all that remained in the movie was the hit Night and Day , and Hollywood composers added their music to it. The film's title was of Divorce on Divorcee changed because after the Production Code of the Federation of American film production companies a divorce , not divorced but could very well be cheerful. The later Hollywood star Betty Grable performs the song Let's K-nock K-neez in a duet with Edward Everett Horton .
Music numbers
- Don't Let It Bother You (Harry Revel / Mack Gordon ) - sung by the choir, danced by Fred Astaire
- A Needle in a Haystack ( Con Conrad / Herb Magidson) - sung and danced by Fred Astaire
- Let's K-nock K-neez (Harry Revel / Mack Gordon) - sung and danced by Betty Grable and Edward Everett Horton
- Night and Day ( Cole Porter ) - sung by Fred Astaire; danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- The Continental (Con Conrad / Herb Magidson) - sung by Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Erik Rhodes and Lillian Miles ; danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- Reprise : The Continental - danced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Reviews
"Excellent played and danced, staged at high speed and, last but not least, one of the best films of the dream duet Astaire / Rogers thanks to the comedic highlights on the edge of the plot."
“As you would expect in an Astaire film, there are a lot of music and dance scenes - too many, unfortunately, because the story would have easily supported a comedy. In contrast, the final quarter of an hour consists almost entirely of a large revue number. That may be quite interesting for Astaire and dance fans, the rest of the audience, waiting for the "resolution", should look to the side rather bored. "
Awards
The film won an Oscar for the song The Continental by Con Conrad and Herb Magidson in the first-ever Best Song category . He was also nominated in four other categories: Best Film, Best Production Design, Best Music and Best Sound.
Web links
- Divorce American in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Stanley Green, Elaine Schmidt: Hollywood musicals year by year . 2nd edition, Hal Leonard Corporation, 1999, ISBN 0-634-00765-3 , p. 36.
- ↑ Divorce in American. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Frank Ehrlacher: Dance with me. In: Movie Master. September 2, 2002, accessed February 8, 2017 .