The Gay Divorcee
The Gay Divorcee is a
1934 film that was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture. It was based on the
musical play The 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, it would be unseemly to allow a divorce to appear so. The movie was directed by
Mark Sandrich.
The movie is a romantic
musical with a slim plot. It included the popular dance team of
Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers, and also starred
Alice Brady,
Edward Everett Horton,
Eric Blore and
Erik Rhodes. The song "
The Continental" by
Con Conrad and
Herb Magidson won the
Academy Award for Best Song, and is the music to the twenty-minute dance sequence towards the end of the film.
The stage version included many songs by
Cole Porter, most of which were excised from the film, "
Night and Day" being a notable exception.
*
Karin Longworth's analysis of the Night and Day routine]
