Executive producer: David O. Selznick. Copyright 30 September 1932 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Mayfair: 2 October 1932. U.S. release: September 1932. Re-issued by Selznick International Pictures. U.K. release: April 1933. 70 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: An escaped lunatic regains his sanity, only to find his wife is divorcing him and his daughter has inherited his mental illness.
NOTES: Film debut of Katharine Hepburn. Following its successful opening season in London's West End, the stage play was presented on Broadway at the George M. Cohan Theater on 10 October, 1921, starring Allan Pollock, Katharine Cornell and Janet Beecher in the roles now played by Barrymore, Hepburn and Burke. The play ran a most respectable 173 performances. The first film version was released in England in 1922 with Malcolm Keen, Constance Binney and Fay Compton, respectively in the Barrymore-Hepburn-Burke roles. In the 1940 re-make, directed by John Farrow, these roles were played by Adolphe Menjou, Maureen O'Hara and Fay Bainter.
COMMENT: As the very title itself seems to imply, "A Bill of Divorcement" is a creaky, old-fashioned, stagy melodrama. In this screen version, Cukor brings it to often stilted, often overly theatrical, yet often curiously moving life. Thanks to Barrymore and Hepburn. No doubt about it, "The Great Profile" is superb. Oddly, contemporary critics thought his performance "restrained". It's certainly not by to-day's standards, yet still most involving and compelling. Almost as impressive — perhaps more — is Hepburn in her debut movie role.
The support cast, alas — with the sole exception of Elizabeth Patterson's smooth study of a recriminating old spinster — fails to come up to the Barrymore-Hepburn standard. Billie Burke emerges as particularly forced, contrived and artificial. She seems out of place in a dramatic vehicle. So does David Manners who comes across as a priggish pain, whilst posh-accented Henry Stephenson and Paul Cavanagh rate only as lesser embarrassments in the talking automatons department because they are not around so much.
Virtually no attempt has been made to open up the original stage play for the screen. Thanks to Cukor's skill, this does not become apparent until about half-way through. At this point even the classiest of technical expertise cannot overcome the dead weight of Dane's heavy-handed plotting and too obvious construction.
Absence of background music (which gives the dialogue a hollow ring) doesn't help either.
SYNOPSIS: An escaped lunatic regains his sanity, only to find his wife is divorcing him and his daughter has inherited his mental illness.
NOTES: Film debut of Katharine Hepburn. Following its successful opening season in London's West End, the stage play was presented on Broadway at the George M. Cohan Theater on 10 October, 1921, starring Allan Pollock, Katharine Cornell and Janet Beecher in the roles now played by Barrymore, Hepburn and Burke. The play ran a most respectable 173 performances. The first film version was released in England in 1922 with Malcolm Keen, Constance Binney and Fay Compton, respectively in the Barrymore-Hepburn-Burke roles. In the 1940 re-make, directed by John Farrow, these roles were played by Adolphe Menjou, Maureen O'Hara and Fay Bainter.
COMMENT: As the very title itself seems to imply, "A Bill of Divorcement" is a creaky, old-fashioned, stagy melodrama. In this screen version, Cukor brings it to often stilted, often overly theatrical, yet often curiously moving life. Thanks to Barrymore and Hepburn. No doubt about it, "The Great Profile" is superb. Oddly, contemporary critics thought his performance "restrained". It's certainly not by to-day's standards, yet still most involving and compelling. Almost as impressive — perhaps more — is Hepburn in her debut movie role.
The support cast, alas — with the sole exception of Elizabeth Patterson's smooth study of a recriminating old spinster — fails to come up to the Barrymore-Hepburn standard. Billie Burke emerges as particularly forced, contrived and artificial. She seems out of place in a dramatic vehicle. So does David Manners who comes across as a priggish pain, whilst posh-accented Henry Stephenson and Paul Cavanagh rate only as lesser embarrassments in the talking automatons department because they are not around so much.
Virtually no attempt has been made to open up the original stage play for the screen. Thanks to Cukor's skill, this does not become apparent until about half-way through. At this point even the classiest of technical expertise cannot overcome the dead weight of Dane's heavy-handed plotting and too obvious construction.
Absence of background music (which gives the dialogue a hollow ring) doesn't help either.