Ex-Lady *** (1933, Bette Davis, Gene Raymond, Frank McHugh) – Classic Movie Review 6851

Warner Bros revamp their 1931 hit Illicit as a pre-Motion Picture Production Code vehicle for the young and vibrant Bette Davis, who grabs hold of her first starring role by the scruff of its neck as Helen Bauer, an emancipated New York graphic artist who thinks that marriage is the end of romance. However, she agrees to marry her lover, Don Peterson (Gene Raymond), and her idea about marriage then seems to prove to be true when his infidelities cause her to take a lover.

The risqué subject turned the fairly feeble material into another hit and enraged the moralists of the day. Davis unfairly called it ‘a piece of junk’, but the young star, smartly dressed in Orry-Kelly gowns, is very lively and at least the first half of the film is most eye-catching.

Director Robert Florey’s 1933 romantic comedy drama Ex-Lady is a fascinating film, both for its subject and for Davis’s performance, and it remains an interesting vintage curio, and easy to watch at only 67 minutes. It would certainly be notable if only for being the first film to have Bette Davis’s name above the title. And it would certainly be notable if only for being everything the Motion Picture Production Code would be against and ban: a female free spirit, people – indeed married couples! – having affairs without shame, double beds on screen and Davis’s revealing negligées.

With David Boehm’s screenplay based on an unproduced play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin, this is a remake of Illicit (1931) with Barbara Stanwyck and Ricardo Cortez. Perhaps Warner Bros remade it with their new star because Stanwyck was not one of their contract players. It is interesting, then, to compare the two movies and the two star performances. However, of course, comparisons are odorous (to quote Shakespeare’s line for Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing [1599]). Anyway, with Ex-Lady, a star is born.

Bette Davis and Gene Raymond in a scene from the trailer for Ex-Lady (1933).

Also in the cast are Frank McHugh as Hugo Van Hugh, Monroe Owsley as Nick Malvyn, Claire Dodd as Iris Van Hugh, Ferdinand Gottschalk as Herbert Smith, Kay Strozzi as Peggy Smith, Bodil Rosing as Mrs Bauer, Alphonse Ethier as Adolphe Bauer, George Beranger, Armand Kaliz, William H O’Brien, Gay Seabrook, Billy West, Renee Whitney and Ynez (Cuban nightclub dancer).

Ex-Lady is directed by Robert Florey, runs 67 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, based on an unproduced play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin, is written by David Boehm, is shot in black and white by Tony Gaudio, is produced by Lucien Hubbard and Darryl F Zanuck, is scored by Leo F Forbstein, and is designed by Jack Okey.

Ironically Davis’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? has a clip from Ex-Lady to show former child star Jane Hudson’s failure to be an adult star through her lack of talent.

After this Zanuck left Warner Bros to form his own production company, 20th Century Pictures, which merged with Fox to become 20th Century Fox.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6851

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The theatrical release poster for Ex-Lady (1933).