The Divorcee

1930 DramaRomance 84 minutes Directed by Robert Z. Leonard

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About The Divorcee

Jerry (Norma Shearer) marries Ted (Chester Morris). On their third anniversary she learns of a brief affair he treats as nothing, and while he is away she spends the night with his friend Don (Robert Montgomery) and tells him so. They divorce. She later travels with Paul (Conrad Nagel), who wants to leave his wife Dorothy, until Dorothy's visit makes Jerry pull back. She finds Ted at a New Year's Eve party in Paris, and they reconcile at midnight.

Cast & crew

More about The Divorcee

Robert Z. Leonard directed. Nick Grinde and Zelda Sears wrote the treatment; John Meehan wrote continuity and dialogue, from Ursula Parrott's 1929 novel Ex-Wife. Irving Thalberg bought the book in the summer of 1929 and first wanted Joan Crawford as Jerry. Shearer, his wife, sat for George Hurrell, and the portraits changed Thalberg's mind.

Themes

  • An affair answered with an affair
  • A divorce that does not stay finished
  • Guilt inside a second marriage
  • A New Year's reunion
  • Jerry Martin
  • third anniversary
  • Don
  • divorce
  • Paul and Dorothy
  • Paris New Year

Background

A pre-Code MGM drama, released 19 April 1930, from a novel whose title Ex-Wife the studio did not put on the screen.

Making

Thalberg had not considered Shearer sexy enough for Jerry. The Hurrell session was arranged to change that reading, and she got the part.

Look

Norbert Brodine photographed the film.

Preservation

In the U.S. public domain since 1 January 2026. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • Norma Shearer won the Academy Award for Best Actress. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Z. Leonard), and Best Writing (John Meehan).
  • Norbert Brodine photographed it and Hugh Wynn edited.
  • Florence Eldridge plays Dorothy, the woman Paul marries after a drunk-driving crash disfigures her.
  • Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on 1 January 2026.
  • Warner Home Video put it on Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2, issued 4 March 2008, on a disc with A Free Soul.

Awards

  • Academy Award for Best Actress (Norma Shearer)

Scenes

  • Jerry tells Ted she has evened the score by spending the night with Don.
  • She finds him at a Paris New Year's party and they kiss at midnight.

Influenced by

  • Ex-Wife (novel by Ursula Parrott, 1929)

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (The Divorcee (1930).webm)
  • Warner Home Video Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2 (2008)

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