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The Gay Divorcee (1934) More at IMDbPro »

Astaire & Rogers Collection Volume 1 (Flying Down to Rio, The Gay Divorcee, Roberta, Top Hat, Follow the Fleet) (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Fans of classic movie musicals will be in heaven with two five-video sets of the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the quintessential dancing duo. Fred and Ginger weren't always stars--the former Broadway hoofer and studio chorus girl were cast as the second-tier "comic" couple in three of their early films (Flying Down to Rio, Roberta, Follow the Fleet), and the pace drags whenever they're not on the screen. The high points of the first set are The Gay Divorcee, which proved that the pair could carry a film, and Top Hat, generally considered their definitive movie. All the films mix light romantic comedy (usually centered around mistaken identities and ending, inevitably, in blissful wedding promises) with elegant dinner wear and surreal sets intended to transport '30s audiences away from the Depression to such locales as Rio, Paris, and Venice. But of course the real reason to watch these films is the sensational dancing set to great songs by the likes of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern, numbers that are not merely entertaining but also innovative for their time in that they reveal character and advance the plot. The quintessential romantic duet "Night and Day," the grand ensemble number "The Continental," the definitive tuxedo setting "Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails," the famously feathery "Cheek to Cheek," and the epic show-within-a-show "Let's Face the Music and Dance" are some of the best musical moments ever set to celluloid. --David Horiuchi

The Gay Divorcee (vhs):

Amazon.com Essentials: The year before, in 1933, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had grabbed America's attention in Flying Down to Rio, even though they were the second bananas in that film. The duo had a certain chemistry--Fred with his lighter-than-air elegance, Ginger with her moxie--and studio heads gambled that they could carry a starring vehicle of their own. Nobody guessed there would be another eight movies together after The Gay Divorcee, which turned into a huge success for RKO Pictures. The plot is the usual silliness, with Ginger a divorce-minded gal in England, Fred a dancer whose sincere interest in her is mistaken for something else. But plots never mattered much in these affairs, and this one achieves a kind of free-floating bliss. Astaire had starred in the stage version of the story, titled The Gay Divorce. The censors forced the extra e to be added to the title because surely no divorce could be portrayed as a happy one (this frothy movie's evidence notwithstanding). Only one song was carried over from the stage show, Cole Porter's smash hit "Night and Day," which forms the basis for a sublime pas de deux between Fred and Ginger. A tune, "The Continental," written for this film won the first Oscar ever awarded in the best-song category. --Robert Horton