THE WRITER’S EYE with Dean James

THE WRITER’S EYE with Dean James

Recipe for a classic movie musical:

1 sophisticated dancer without much sex appeal

1 beautiful woman dancer who has plenty of sex appeal

4 character actors who provide plenty of humor for the film

The seasoning: Fred Astaire is the sophisticated dancer, Ginger Rogers is the beautiful love interest, Edward Everett Horton, Alice Brady, Eric Blore, and Erik Rhodes are the talented character actors who move the story along smartly

The Gay Divorcee is based on a Broadway musical, Gay Divorce. Many Cole Porter songs from the play were left out of the film, with “Night and Day” the notable exception

Astaire portrays Guy Holden, a famous American dancer, and Edward Everett Horton plays scatterbrained English lawyer Egbert Fitzgerald, his friend. Upon arriving by ship in England, Guy encounters Mimi Glossop, whose dress has been caught in a trunk. Endeavoring to help her, he instead rips her dress and infuriates her. He is immediately infatuated with him, but she can’t stand him.

Later they encounter one another again, and Guy proposes marriage. Mimi refuses, but she is slowly warming to him. Later they both end up in the same seaside hotel. Mimi is there to facilitate a divorce from her long-absent husband, guided by her bossy aunt (Alice Brady) and her lawyer, Egbert (who was once married to the aunt). A professional gigolo is to be caught in flagrante delicto with Mimi in order to give her geologist husband grounds for divorce. The password that Egbert gives the gigolo is a phrase he picked up for guy. Later, when Guy is romancing Mimi, he uses the phrase, leading Mimi to believe he is the gigolo. Devastated, she wants nothing more to do with him. In the end, of course, true love does win through.

Musical numbers and dancing add sparkle to the film, including a sixteen-minute number called “The Continental” that features superb dancing by Rogers and Astaire. The song, incidentally, one the first-ever Oscar for Best Original Song and became a huge hit. Despite his lack of traditional movie-star good looks (he’s no Cary Grant or Rock Hudson), Astaire is a likable presence on film, and Rogers has plenty of sex appeal and sass to sell her character. Katharine Hepburn is supposed to have quipped that “He gave her class, and she gave him sex appeal.” However you take this, you can’t deny that Rogers and Astaire were one of the greatest duos ever to grace the screen.

What can a writer learn from this film?

The first thing is using characterization to sell a plot. By creating strong and memorable secondary characters who support the hero and heroine, the writers made a frothy broth of a romantic comedy with screwball overtones that makes the plot go down easy. It might not be totally believable, but who cares? The second point is that the musical numbers do enhance the story and set the mood for the action in each “act” of the play. This is something more modern film musicals could learn to their advantage (something sadly lacking in the dreadful “La La Land.”) Finally, you can learn that sophistication can sell. No need for tawdry innuendo or shots of naked or semi-naked bodies to sell a story.