The Divorce of Lady X

Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson, and Binnie Barnes star in "The Divorce of Lady X," a 1938 comedy based on a play. Olivier plays a young barrister, Everard Logan who allows Oberon to spend the night in his hotel room, when the London fog is too dense for guests at a costume ball to go home. The next day, a friend of his, Lord Mere (Richardson), announces that his wife (Barnes) spent the night with another man at the same hotel, and he wants to divorce her. Believing the woman to be Oberon, Olivier panics. Oberon, who is single and the granddaughter of a judge, pretends that she's the lady in question, Lady Mere, when she's really Leslie Steele.

We've seen this plot or variations thereof dozens of time. With this cast, it's delightful. I mean, Richardson and Olivier? Olivier and Oberon, that great team in Wuthering Heights? Pretty special. Olivier is devastatingly handsome and does a great job with the comedy as he portrays the uptight, nervous barrister. Oberon gives her role the right light touch. She looks extremely young here, fuller in the face, with Jean Harlow eyebrows and a very different hairdo for her. She wears some beautiful street clothes, though her first gown looks like a birthday cake, and in one gown she tries on, with that hair-do, she's ready to play Snow White. Binnie Barnes is delightful as the real Lady Mere.

The color in this is a mess, and as others have mentioned, it could really use a restoration. Definitely worth seeing.

Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson who went on to knighthood as they entered the primes of their respective career show a comic talent in this film which in America would have been done by Cary Grant or William Powell. Later on Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall and/or Gig Young would have played some of those parts in this film. In America, Carole Lombard would have been in Merle Oberon's part at the time this was made.

Olivier is one tired divorce attorney who checks into a hotel one night for a little sack time. The hotel is booked to the gills, but Merle Oberson fresh from a party at the establishment also needs a place to sleep. She guiles and charms her way into his room and heart. But Olivier inadvertently mistakes who she is and that's where the fun begins.

Ralph Richardson and Binnie Barnes lend good support as a battling titled Lord and his much married wife. Morton Selten does a nice turn as Oberon's grandfather. He's best known for Fire Over England as Lord Burleigh and Thief of Bagdad as the wise old king that Sabu expropriates the flying carpet from. The beard he sported in those parts is gone here.

Olivier stated many times that he didn't think too much of his film performances before Wuthering Heights. He credited Wiliam Wyler for teaching him the art of cinema as opposed to stage acting. But even second rate Olivier is better than 90% of other players.

I saw it for presence in cast of Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. And , after final credits, it remains the good reason. Because it is one of many easy romantic comedies of time, with a small misunderstanding as knott, with a very forced- unrealistic end, with fair manner to create his grandfather by Morton Selten and a nice Magyar restaurant.

The reason to appreciate it is a mix of nostalgia and passion for old Hollywood. But, in essence, nothing more.

In short, just pleasant, charming, amusing and good opportunity to discover a couple on screen out of so familiar images of 1939 Wuthering Heights.

This short, unique and original screen-play proved no short of brilliant. It has a simple and entertaining plot of charming but mischevious young Leslie (known at first as Lady X) imposing herself on a foggy night on irritable young masoganistic barrister Everard Logan. Logan declares that he is not in the least bit stirred by her charms, however she finally ends up enjoying his bed, pyjamas and breakfast whilst he has the mattress next door. Ofcourse, being the eligible handsome typical thing that he is, he falls in love with her and vows to arrange her divorce for her, (despite the fact she has no husband!) Ralph Richardson as Lord Mere (Leslie's supposed husband) and Binnie Barnes (the REAL Lady Mere)also help to put him in the light at last. Hurt and irritated, Logan throws his affections for Leslie back in her face and leaves. She goes after him, and naturally, they agree to the marriage finally that Logan had always wanted, and Leslie finalises in curing Logan of his haughtily sexist views.

Some say Laurence Olivier is out of his depth in this sort of a film, since in no way is this Hamlet or Harry V or any great feat of literature such as Wuthering Heights, and in no way is he a born comedian. But he gives it unmatched gusto and IS HE SARCASTIC!! His scenes with Merle Oberon, who plays the sweet little charmer of a Leslie are delightful. Oberon is adorable and could not have been better as Leslie.

It's been said before that Oberon and Olivier had a wonderful chemistry on screen, just as well as Leigh did in fact; however it could be argued so. They were just as contrastingly wonderful in Wuthering Heights, a classic film which I adore.

If you're in the mood of a short but sweet comedy, you couldn't ask for better than this. Fantastic!

This was the first movie to be watched in my project to discover more about the career of Sir Laurence Olivier. I've seen many of his films. However after watching an interview with Dick Cavett, I've become more fascinated. I just started piling Olivier movies on to my watchlist on Amazon. Everyone knows Olivier's Shakespeare...but to see him in a romantic comedy? Never thought it existed. He, along with the entire cast, nailed it. The story, script, and direction are wonderful. Merle Oberon is an impish, mischievous delight, more than holding her own across from the man who is synonymous with the word Actor. Watch it by all means!