Movie #31062 "The Gay Divorcee" (Amazon Prime) This movie's gain to fame is that it won five Academy nominations and the first Oscar for Best Song: "The Continental," a 17 1/2-minute production number. The musical number "The Continental" was the longest number ever in a musical until Gene Kelly's 18 1/2-minute ballet at the end of An American in Paris (1951) 17 years later. It is also the longest musical number in all of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' films together. 50 minutes in "Night and Day" is in this one --- truly a glorious number --- but the film has a dated story --Mimi Glossop (Rogers) wants a divorce, so her Aunt Hortense hires a professional to play the co-respondent in apparent infidelity. American dancer Guy Holden (Astaire) meets Mimi while visiting Brightbourne (Brighton) and she thinks he is the co-respondent. The plot is really an excuse for song and dance (but this is an early one -- the stories get a tad better!) When you count up the amount of screen time dancing these two do in this one (minus the Continental) it was only about 10 minutes. But the 10 minutes are dazzling.... I would give this one 4.5 out of 5)
The Gay Divorcee
1934
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
Based on the Broadway musical Gay Divorce by Cole Porter and Dwight Taylor, the story follows Mimi, who wants a divorce from her geologist husband—but the “appropriate” circumstances for her to get one need to be arranged.
Available on: Vudu, YouTube, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google Play
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