tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8014874020674080213.post7417891706343585492..comments2024-03-22T11:43:15.466-07:00Comments on Oscargasms: Norma Shearer, The DivorcéeAllenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11964977693763983338noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8014874020674080213.post-68834999491745070112015-10-14T10:44:10.961-07:002015-10-14T10:44:10.961-07:00This movie, in many ways, started the pre-code ris...This movie, in many ways, started the pre-code risqué phase in film. Though it's creaky in technical matters the story is much more adult and sophisticated than anything after 1934 when the Code came in. Some of the scenes are audaciously daring and I think both Chester Morris and Norma Shearer give terrific performances. Unfortunately for Montgomery, he was in the midst of his 'hapless-second-male-lead-drunk' period so he serves as little more than a plot fulcrum, but Morris is sinewy, heartfelt, smug and yet quite likeable. Shearer really stepped it up with this one and in scenes with Morris she is both fire (the bedroom kiss-off is great) and ice ("I've balanced our accounts"). She would have better roles in the future that would tax her range more effectively, but for a VERY early sound film this is quite an accomplishment.Frank/click5https://www.blogger.com/profile/03605293626729520817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8014874020674080213.post-8564023424709315552015-08-12T10:27:12.184-07:002015-08-12T10:27:12.184-07:00:) I'm grateful for that generous compliment, ...:) I'm grateful for that generous compliment, but the fact is I'm already almost every waking hour on the computer as it is with, figuratively speaking, all 10 fingers in a different pie. Your blog has given me another opportunity for great fun. Somebody drops the names of Davis, Hepburn, Crawford, Garbo, Harlow, Dressler, and especially Shearer, I wanna be there to cheer and add. :) Thank you, Allen.dvlarieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14154934310323584284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8014874020674080213.post-30548309591177728822015-08-11T13:55:52.168-07:002015-08-11T13:55:52.168-07:00Have you considered starting up your own blog? You...Have you considered starting up your own blog? Your comments are longer than my actual blog posts :P and I can't help but feel as though your rich commentary would also be greater suited through your own outlet--not that it's unwanted here, just a thought!Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11964977693763983338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8014874020674080213.post-72782195778113997512015-08-11T05:48:50.903-07:002015-08-11T05:48:50.903-07:00For author Mick LaSalle, and he's not alone, T...For author Mick LaSalle, and he's not alone, <i>The Divorcee</i> is the gateway title into four years of particularly relaxed (or cleverly got around) censorship, now commonly called PreCode. His superb "Complicated Women" counts Shearer and Garbo "the advanced guard" in that era, but he has much praise also Crawford, Harlow, Mae West, Loretta Young, Ann Harding and many others.<br /><br />Shearer found Jerry "very strong, almost ruthless." Says LaSalle, "Shearer knew at once the significance of the role. Here was sex without victimhood and virtue without chastity." In the Ursula Parrot originating novel, Jerry’s liberation isn't nearly as defined, and she remains after the divorce something of a sex slave to her ex, Ted. For the screenplay, this was wisely thrown out and Jerry all but forgets Ted the moment he's out the door.<br /><br />Through she wanted plenty others too, Jerry in <i>The Divorcee</i>, Jan Ashe in <i>A Free Soul</i>, and Irene in <i>Idiot's Delight</i> are the foremost Shearer roles that Crawford also coveted and their loss cemented an at least 17 year long hostility from Joan. LaSalle makes a strong case that Crawford does not come into her "authenticity" until 1931's <i>Possessed</i> with Clark Gable, and thereafter Crawford also would certainly get her share of daring PreCode women in <i>Sadie McKee, Dancing Lady</i>, and her near-prostitute disguised as stenographer in <i>Grand Hotel</i>.<br /><br />But before then, charges LaSalle, "In fact, to imagine Crawford in any of Shearer's roles from 1925 through 1931, the period of Crawford's loudest complaining, is to contemplate a horror. The early Crawford with her practiced facial expressions, false energy and self-conscious speech would have annihilated <i>The Trail Of Mary Dugan</i> and <i>The Divorcee</i>, films she desperately wanted. And the thought of what she might have done to <i>Private Lives</i> and <i>Strange Interlude</i> is gruesome."<br /><br />All's well that ends well, and Crawford's own Oscar triumph in the mid-40s, three years after Shearer had to retired to the ski slopes with second husband Martin Arrouge, had to be that particularly sweet for Joan. But Crawford's enmity toward Shearer was always mostly displaced. Each was done more damage by the installation of Joseph Breen as the powerful head of Hollywood's censorship office in mid-1934 than either was ever an impediment to the other.dvlarieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14154934310323584284noreply@blogger.com