Directed by:
Tim WhelanCinematography:
Harry Stradling Sr.Composer:
Miklós RózsaCast:
Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Binnie Barnes, Ralph Richardson, Hugh McDermott, Patricia Roc, Michael Rennie, Hal Gordon, Joan Benham, Eileen Peel (more)Plots(1)
The four screenwriters' literate script of Biro's adaptation of the stage work takes Oberon to a London hotel where she is attending a costume party. The weather turns foul and she must spend the night at the hostelry with several other ladies who were unable to make it home. Olivier is a young lawyer occupying a suite and the manager prevails on him to give up some of the space in his copious quarters, but Olivier is adamant until Oberon uses her wiles on him. The result is that she gets the comfortable bed and Olivier must snooze on the floor in the next room.
In the morning, she leaves before he can find out anything about this fascinating and attractive woman. Her alacrity causes him to wonder if she's married. When he arrives at his office, an old school chum contacts him and wants Olivier to handle his divorce. The man is sure his wife spent the night with another man at the same hotel we've seen earlier. Olivier can't believe this nerd could be married to Oberon. He isn't, of course, and his wife is someone else entirely. But Olivier doesn't know that yet.
So it gets down to one of those British drawing-room farces where identities are mistaken, accusations are made, absurd situations occur, and Olivier and Oberon are together at the finale. Richardson is very funny as the man who wants a divorce from wife Barnes, who has been married thrice before and has backhanded fidelity on many other occasions.
(Criterion)
Cast
Merle Oberon
India
Best movies:
Wuthering Heights (1939)
Deep in My Heart (1954)
These Three (1936)
Laurence Olivier
UK
Best movies:
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Sleuth (1972)
Hamlet (1948)
Binnie Barnes
UK
Best movies:
The Last of the Mohicans (1936)
Holiday (1938)
Frontier Marshal (1939)
Ralph Richardson
UK
Best movies:
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The Heiress (1949)
O Lucky Man! (1973)
Hugh McDermott
UK
Best movies:
A King in New York (1957)
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
Lawman (1971)
Patricia Roc
UK
Best movies:
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
Canyon Passage (1946)
Circle of Danger (1951)
Michael Rennie
UK
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966)
Hal Gordon
UK
Best movies:
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
It Happened One Sunday (1944)
Romance and Riches (1936)
Joan Benham
UK
Best movies:
A Night to Remember (1958)
The V.I.P.s (1963)
Murder Ahoy (1964)
Eileen Peel
UK
Best movies:
Battle of Britain (1969)
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
In Which We Serve (1942)
Edward Lexy
UK
Best movies:
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
Captain Lightfoot (1955)
Convoy (1940)
Victor Rietti
Italy
Best movies:
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
The Ghost Goes West (1935)
21 Days (1940)
C. Denier Warren
USA
Best movies:
Night and the City (1950)
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
Eva Moore
UK
Best movies:
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
The Old Dark House (1932)