Divorce

At one time Monogram Pictures could not have afforded the services of the three leads, Kay Francis, Bruce Cabot and Helen Mack. But by 1945 all had seen their best box office days so they were working for Sam Katzman and Monogram.

At least Katzman didn't butcher this film in the editing department. The title says it all, what the subject is about. Bruce Cabot a roughneck contractor fresh home from the war falls for chic society girl Kay Francis who collects trophy husbands. She's had four and wants to make Cabot five.

Only he's slightly married to Helen Mack with two kids. No stopping Kay though as they all end up in Judge Jerome Cowan's Divorce Court.

Given the times and the omnipresent Code, Divorce follows some strict guidelines. Everyone behaves quite heroically and even Francis in the end knows she's following a path that will lead to no good.

It's all pure soap opera, but from Monogram Divorce is positively elegant.

"Divorce" opens with a crawl condemning divorce as certain to produce misery. It follows with a scene in family court in which a judge refuses to grant one divorce (thus forcing a couple who hate each other to stay together). He reluctantly grants a second despite the obvious collusion involved. The judge preaches against divorce as purely a product of selfishness and bitterness. In the second case, the wife is the oft-married Diane Carter who is a pure gold digger. She isn't present to hear the judge's opinion of her character.

Diane then returns to her home town where she quickly establishes herself as a world class home wrecker. With little effort, she breaks up the happy marriage of Bob and Martha. Diane offers Bob unlimited investment money for his struggling business and a lot more excitement than Martha and their two loving kids. When she catches on, Martha insists on a divorce and rejects all support, taking a humble job in a department store to support herself and the children. The children suffer badly from their dad's absence. Meanwhile, Bob discovers that Diane is no bed of roses.

Viewers of this film must understand that divorce was one of those forbidden subjects under the Hays Code. Filmmakers simply were not allowed to make a serious, balanced film about divorce. The Hays Code was written by a priest and a prominent Catholic layman (Daniel Lord and Martin Quigley). From 1934 on, the Code was firmly administered by a prominent Catholic layman (Joseph I. Breen). One of the reasons the industry accepted self censorship was to ward off boycott threats from the Catholic church. So it is no surprise that the Hays Code firmly embodied Catholic moral teachings--especially including absolute opposition to divorce. Broadly speaking, the only kind of divorce movies that got made during this period were romantic comedies (like "The Awful Truth") in which couples get divorced early in the picture but remarry in the end.

"Divorce" is a serious movie on the subject of divorce that could easily have been produced by the Catholic church to impress teenagers or young married couples at weekend retreats. It puts divorce on the level of genocide in the moral firmament. Its preachiness is incredible and its dramatic value is nil. Needless to say, Breen approved of this film without any reservations. (The censorship files are preserved at the Motion Picture Academy's Herrick library in Beverly Hills).

This is not a "bad" movie on divorce it makes it's point- the kids are the real loosers in the process. Overall the movie is well written in the 30's, 40's & 50's style of tying things together for the sake of the work rather than attempting to show "realism". An early shot of Bob Phillips (Bruce Cabot)performing a "Court Marshall" for home discipline comes back to haunt him in his final scene as his two boys act as the judge & jury. I have no problem with Kay Francis in her role as the worldly woman stealing away a restless husband returning from WWII. This was a common theme following the war because it was a common problem (& again to point out it's timeliness- it is still a problem). But for pure acting the one to watch was Helen Mack as Martha Phillips. Her dialog delivery and timing are a delight to watch even when the writing does not quite live up to the best of the "golden age" of movie making.

Kay Francis co-produced and starred in three movies made in 1945 for B-movie studio Monogram pictures, two of which were made with the silent era actor-turned-director William Nigh and the screenwriter Harvey H. Gates, including this movie. I think Francis was having a bit of fun at the expense of her own tarnished Hollywood image by casting herself as a four-times divorced woman (which she would soon be IRL) looking to steal a fifth husband (played by Bruce Cabot) from a happily married friend from her childhood, portrayed by Helen Mack. This movie isn't very good (few pictures from Monogram were), but Kay Francis, after being mistreated by the Warner Brothers studio (for demanding too much money, apparently, ultimately being replaced by an inarguably better actress, Bette Davis), at least was in charge of her own destiny by the mid-1940s; that's something, I guess. 4/10.

This story is about a woman who has been married many times. Kay francis herself had already been married and divorced three times by 1945, so it was pretty good casting. There would still be a stigma attached to divorce in 1945, but the war was ending, the service folks were coming home, so there were probably other things to think about. Co-star bruce cabot was fay wray's love interest in king kong (how did king kong not get any oscars??) in this film, dianne returns to her childhood home town, and seems to spark with the (married) bob phillips. Bob's wife isn't so concerned, but her friends are! Until bob and dianne start spending so much time together in business deals. Then there's a showdown between the two. Co-stars helen mack. It's pretty good, for a monogram pictures film. Directed by bill nigh. He had done five of the mister wong detective films in the 1930s. He started as an actor in the early days of the silent films, started directing pretty quickly. Story by sidney sutherland.