Director: RALPH MURPHY. Screenplay: Frank Butler. Original screen story: Adela Rogers St. John. Photography: Ted Tetzlaff. Film editor: LeRoy Stone. Art directors: Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegte. Music composed and directed by Victor Young. Assistant director: George "Dink" Templeton. Sound director: Loren Ryder. Producer: George Arthur.
Copyright 20 September 1940 (also U.S. release) by Paramount Pictures Inc. New York release at the Paramount: 2 October 1940. 75 minutes. This is the version reviewed below. However, a much longer cut of the film was released at the Sydney Mayfair on 15 November 1940. This version ran almost 95 minutes (8,539 feet).
SYNOPSIS: An odd film subject for Hollywood to attempt. Beneath a clever sugar-coating of comedy, the script dares to treat divorce as a social evil and to put forward a well-reasoned solution.
COMMENT: Paramount were obviously half-hearted about this pairing of real-life marrieds, Dick Powell and Joan Blondell. The film is no more than second-feature length, the direction is flat-footed and production values are distinctly moderate. Even Ted Tetzlaff's lighting photo¬graphy fails to measure up to his usual highly polished standard. Still the subject matter is certainly unusual for the censor-ridden 40s and represents a brave attempt to explore a commonplace situation that was virtually - so far as the cinema was concerned - taboo.
Copyright 20 September 1940 (also U.S. release) by Paramount Pictures Inc. New York release at the Paramount: 2 October 1940. 75 minutes. This is the version reviewed below. However, a much longer cut of the film was released at the Sydney Mayfair on 15 November 1940. This version ran almost 95 minutes (8,539 feet).
SYNOPSIS: An odd film subject for Hollywood to attempt. Beneath a clever sugar-coating of comedy, the script dares to treat divorce as a social evil and to put forward a well-reasoned solution.
COMMENT: Paramount were obviously half-hearted about this pairing of real-life marrieds, Dick Powell and Joan Blondell. The film is no more than second-feature length, the direction is flat-footed and production values are distinctly moderate. Even Ted Tetzlaff's lighting photo¬graphy fails to measure up to his usual highly polished standard. Still the subject matter is certainly unusual for the censor-ridden 40s and represents a brave attempt to explore a commonplace situation that was virtually - so far as the cinema was concerned - taboo.