The Gay Divorcee (1934)

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1. 

   tippaty

   LOVE this movie! This is the rom-com that all rom coms try to be!
   
   Fred Astaire is by far the most charming actor I've ever seen on screen. 13 years ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   In The Gay Divorcee, Ginger Rogers wants a divorce from her boring possessive husband, so her lawyer invents an excuse so he'll let her go - a paid Lothario in her room all night. Misunderstandings lead to Fred Astaire being there instead (or in addition to), and off we go with song, dance, and romance. And comedy too. While the bulk of the humor is meant to come from the zany supporting cast - Alice Brady is especially amusing as the hare-brained aunt, Edward Everett Horton is as usual playing it as broad as possible, and Erik Rhodes' pro romancer is good for a chuckle (and interestingly coded gay) - Astaire and Rogers deliver zingers of their own. I'm a tough audience, so I always love it when I surprise myself laughing out loud. I did, several times, with this one. Bonus: The big hit from this musical is Cole Porter's "Night and Day", one of my favorite crooner-type songs to sing in the shower or doing chores or whatever. There's also an extended sequence of people dancing the Continental (with a song about it), which makes me realize this is how people used to learn the newest dance craze, right? Takes me back to my youth when my sister insisted we learn square-dancing steps off the ol' community-access channel's western variety show. I think I could still approximate the "pinto". I bet she still knows it by heart. 5 years 6 months ago

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