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THE GAY DIVORCEE – Kenneth S. Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The 1933 film Flying Down To Rio starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was a huge commercial success for RKO Pictures, earning the studio a profit of $1.08 million. Pandro S. Berman, the Head of Production at RKO, decided to strike again while the iron was hot with another pairing of the duo. He chose to adapt the very successful 1932 Broadway stage musical The Gay Divorce by Dwight Taylor. He purchased the film rights but was forced to change the film title by the Hays Office censors who determined; “A divorcee might possibly be happy, but it was felt that the institution of divorce itself could never be”. Berman would manage production with a modest $520,000 budget, Mark Sandrich was tasked with directing, and George Marion Jr. and Dorothy Yost would write the screenplay. For the cast, Fred Astaire would reprise his Broadway stage role as Guy Holden, joined by Ginger Rogers as Mimi. Read more…
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