Le Divorce de Lady X

I loved the dialogue above all - the sharp and witty banter between British 'icons' Olivier and Oberon, and even the playful back and forth between Morton Selten as Lord Steele and H.B. Hallam as his long-suffering butler, Jeffries. Binnie Barnes was also superb as Lady Mere; her accent might have slipped, but she definitely had the right attitude for her character! The use of colour was also a plus, particularly with the wonderful outfits. I think Merle Oberon would have done better without the continuous close-ups - though she did have a certain magnetism, she doesn't quite hold up to such inspection - and Olivier was definitely better suited to the stage: indeed, that is probably where he thought he was, judging by the delivery of some of his character's lines. The improbability of the story aside, 'The Divorce of Lady X' is a wry 'snapshot' of its era: gender, class, morality - even weather (it's very hard to believe that London had smog so bad that people were unable to travel, but it did happen).

I had really only been exposed to Olivier's dramatic performances, and those were mostly much later films than *Divorce*. In this film, he is disarmed of his pomp and overconfidence by sassy Merle Oberon, and plays the flustered divorce attorney with great charm.

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!

"The Divorce of Lady X" is a lovely color film produced by Alexander Korda--a man who had a great history producing films in the UK and US. However, compared to many of Korda's other great films, this one comes up a bit average. It has a great idea but something about it kept it from being a bit better.

The film begins in a horrible London fog. It's so foggy that folks can't get home and a hotel is totally booked. The last person to get a room, Everard (Laurence Olivier), is dead tired and miffed when the management asks him to share his suite since there are so many looking for rooms. Despite this, a very pushy and determined woman, Leslie (Merle Oberon), is able to finagle a bed in his room--and here is complications arise. He thinks she's a married woman and the next day, a man comes to hire him (as he's a barrister--that's a lawyer to us Americans) to sue his wife for divorce--and the woman the new client describes sounds EXACTLY like the woman who just spent the night with him! What's he to do? He's initially afraid that he's about to be named a co-respondent but later it's more complicated when he thinks that he's falling in love with this woman--a woman he thinks has been married four times already!

I nearly gave the movie a 7, so I did like it. However, sometimes I really thought they made Oberon's character too obnoxious and unlikable. Additionally, why Olivier's character would want to marry her is perplexing considering she's so obnoxious, manipulative AND he thinks she's been married many times already. Add to this a ridiculous courtroom scene at the very end, it just kept me wishing they'd edited or re-written the thing a bit.

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.