The Gay Divorcee

CinemaSerf 6/13/2022 8:26:24PM 8.4

"Guy Holden" (Fred Astaire) is already a celebrated American star of the stage, when he meets the delightfully named "Mimi Glossop" (Ginger Rogers) on a cross-channel packet boat as he travels from Paris to London. He accidentally tears her dress (no, not in mad passion...) so lends her his overcoat which which he hopes will be returned with some details of how he can continue to see her... Meantime, she is trying to organise a complicated divorce - not so very easy in the 1930s - and we embark on a fairly fast-paced story of loves, lusts and just plain old miscommunication that leads her, "Holden" and a really good support cast that includes Alice Brady, Erik Rhodes and a short cameo from the inimitable Betty Grable on a jolly, jaunty - if entirely insubstantial romantic drama. As ever with these Astaire/Rogers presentations, the actual plot is little better than a skeleton for the wonderful dance routines and here - some Cole Porter "Night and Day" and Con Conrad "The Continental" to help keep the toes tapping.