Cukor Goes Crazy with A Bill of Divorcement (1932) | Blu-ray Review

A dated romantic melodrama based on a 1920s play by Clemence Dane (who won a Best Screenplay Oscar in 1945 for Alexander Korda’s Vacation from Marriage), three filmed versions of A Bill of Divorcement exist, including a 1922 entry and John Farrow’s 1940 remake starring Maureen O’Hara. The most notable version is George Cukor’s 1932 version, headlined by John Barrymore and introducing the world to Katharine Hepburn in her on-screen debut. A rigid examination of social mores regarding marriage and mental illness, it has the potential to be a rousing screwball comedy but instead hovers on dread and melodrama.

At a Christmas Eve party in England, Margaret Fairfield (Billie Burke) is on the verge of marrying her second husband, Gray Meredith (Paul Cavanagh) while her happy-go-lucky daughter Sydney (Hepburn) solidifies her romantic aspirations with Kit Humphreys (David Manners) by planning to move to Canada and raise a whole gaggle of kids. However, Margaret’s first husband Hilary (John Barrymore) is still alive, residing for the past fifteen years in an asylum following his experiences in WWI (or so Sydney has been told). As the foreboding and ultra-Christian Aunt Hester (Elizabeth Patterson) predicts, the past will come to rain on her sister’s parade as Hilary escapes from the asylum and suddenly reappears on the family estate.

Margaret, who had divorced Hilary while he was reposed, must choose whether to marry anew or return to the man she first vowed to love in sickness and in health while Sydney learns his mental illness runs in the family forcing her to break ties with the lovelorn Kit.

Hepburn is a breath of fresh air in this otherwise stagnant material, and it’s amazing (but not surprising) to note Cukor struggled to have her cast (they would eventually collaborate on seven projects together) thanks to unwilling producer David O. Selznick. Despite Barrymore’s looming presence, whose overblown acting style leans allows him overwhelm his co-stars, A Bill of Divorcement, like many of Cukor’s pictures, clearly prizes the women’s perspectives. In what could have easily been a throwaway role, the idiosyncratic Billie Burke, forever emblazoned in our minds as Glenda the Good Witch, is rather touching as a woman doomed to be swayed by social expectations rather than the desires of her own heart.

Disc Review:

Kino Lorber presents A Bill of Divorcement in 1.33:1 for this addition to their Studio Classics selection. Picture and sound quality are serviceable in this presentation, which does not include any extra features.

Film Review: ★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★/☆☆☆☆☆