The Gay Divorcee

Fred arrived in Hollywood, but his studio, RKO cast him in FLYING TO RIO before beginning THE GAY DIVORCE. Although he was fifth billed and the third billed male, his dance numbers with a contract dancer RKO had just obtained from Warner Brothers, Ginger Rogers, were the hit of the film. Against his wishes, RKO suggested casting Rogers in THE GAY DIVORCE because of their success as a team in FLYING TO RIO. That was what Fred was afraid of: a team. He had just managed to break free from being thought of as the lesser half of Adele and Fred, and he was hesitant about a new partner. But RKO won out and, as they say, history was made.

THE GAY DIVORCE was quickly redubbed THE GAY DIVORCEE (the Hays office objecting that divorces could not be gay but were instead always unhappy affairs, although a divorcee could be). Fred was given nearly complete artistic control of his dance numbers, and instead of the highly choreographed numbers popularized by Busby Berkeley at Warner Brothers, Fred argued for filming his scenes with cameras just barely above ground level, and as close to one shot as was possible. The result was an emphasis not on visual pyrotechnics, but on the intimacy and emotions in the dance.

The results were stunning. Although most of the songs from the stage musical were jettisoned, the greatest was kept, and in many ways it remains one of the mythic numbers in the history of musical cinema: Cole Porter's "Night and Day." The number defined for all time what Fred and Ginger were all about. Until this moment in the film, Fred had been futilely chasing Ginger, only to be rebuffed time and again. But once he begins to sing "Night and Day" she begins to have a twinge of interest. And once he grabs her arm and begins to dance with her, we manage to watch one of the great seduction scenes in the movies. At the beginning of the song, she still has no interest in him; at the end of the dance, they are in love. Although Ginger was never Fred's equal as a dancer, she was extraordinary in the manner in which she could respond emotionally to him in their dancing. Their dancing is so very nearly like love-making that we are not at all surprised that as the dance ends, and Fred's gently spins and lowers Ginger onto a couch, he rocks back on his heels, reaches into his jacket, and pulls out his cigarette and offers one to her. It is as perfect a moment as exists in film.

THE GAY DIVORCEE succeeds primarily because of Fred and Ginger's incredible magic together, but it is also a delight because of the amazing comedic cast. Erik Rhodes, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, had only two notable roles, both times as an Italian in two classic Astaire-Rogers films. In this film and in TOP HAT, he manages to steal nearly every scene he is in. Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore both were so perfect in their roles that they reappeared in several other Astaire-Rogers films. Alice Brady brings her classic insanity to the film.

The film, of course, achieved Fred Astaire's worst fears, and gave him a new partner. But given the incredible success of Astaire and Rogers, I don't think anyone believes that this was in any sense an unfortunate turn of events.