| Ex-Lady | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Florey |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Written by | David Boehm |
| Starring | Bette Davis Gene Raymond Frank McHugh Monroe Owsley |
| Music by | Leo F. Forbstein |
| Cinematography | Tony Gaudio |
| Editing by | Harold McLernon |
| Studio | Vitaphone Warner Bros. |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | May 15, 1933 |
| Running time | 67 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $93,000 |
Ex-Lady is a 1933 American comedy film directed by Robert Florey. The screenplay by David Boehm is based on an unproduced play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin.
Contents |
Helen Bauer, a glamorous, successful, headstrong, and very liberated New York graphic artist with modern ideas about romance, is involved with Don Peterson but doesn't want to sacrifice her independence by entering into matrimony. The two agree to wed only to pacify Helen's conventional immigrant father Adolphe, whose Old World views spur him to condemn their affair. They form a business partnership, but financial problems at their advertising agency put a strain on the marriage and Don begins seeing Peggy Smith, one of his married clients. Convinced it was marriage that disrupted their relationship, Helen suggests they live apart but remain lovers. When Don discovers Helen is dating his business rival, playboy Nick Malvyn, he returns to Peggy, but in reality his heart belongs to his wife. Agreeing their love will help their marriage survive its problems, the two reconcile and settle into domestic bliss.
The plot is unusual for its time in that Helen is not denigrated for her beliefs about marriage and Don is not depicted as being a cad.[1] In addition, although they are sleeping together and unmarried, neither is concerned about the possibility of children, and certain dialog could suggest that they are using birth control.[1]
The Warner Bros. film was a remake of the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Illicit released two years earlier.[2]
Following the film's release, producer Darryl F. Zanuck resigned from Warners to form his own production company, 20th Century Pictures, which eventually merged with Fox to become 20th Century Fox.
The prologue to the 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? includes a scene from Ex-Lady as an example of former child star Jane Hudson's failure to achieve screen success as an adult due to her lack of talent.
The New York Times described the film as "an honestly written and truthfully enacted picture of the domestic problems which harass two persons in love with one another".[3]
TV Guide calls it a "lame little melodrama notable chiefly for being the first film to have Bette Davis' name above the title".[4]