dougdoepke Super-slick soaper, the kind that big budget MGM could do to a "T". Poor Jerry (or should it be a feminized "Geri"). Her love life goes through a tangle from adoring husband to broken marriage to loose living among NY's upper crust. For example, there's drunken Paul who screws up Dorothy's life by parking their car on a cliff's bottom. Then there's hubby Ted who strays in a weak moment, and even Jerry herself who strays in return. And catch charming Don patiently waiting his turn. So will Jerry ever find the happiness that comes from finding an inner self. The limelight's on Shearer the whole way. Happily, she delivers without getting too sappy, always a pitfall for this type role. The wardrobe department gets a real workout, upholstering NY's elite in the latest fashionable rags. And catch the boisterous nightclub scenes, a welcome counterpoint to all the gab. Too bad that I was hoping for more nightclub bands and the fun stylings of the day. But no luck. On the coin's flip side, producer Thalberg spared no expense doing right by his lady-love. Plus, Shearer gets to run the emotional gamut all the way to an Oscar statuette. Of course, no one will get brain drain from escapist material like this. Still, the 80-some minutes amounts to soap opera at it's most watchable, even for this Hopalong Cassidy-loving geezer.

Benedito Dias Rodrigues On the thirties had a lot of productions like that maybe for transition over Silent to talkies movies,they grasping the opportunity to offer more dialogues which weren't able on silent movies,but somehow it were enough as can proves this picture,there's no soul,just a silly drama,very usual....Just Norma Shearer is worthy to see,all cast is moving around her,Morris is a UGLY actor with a flattened nose....Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6

Antonius Block I have to say, it's fun to watch the partying and horseplay 1930 style, and it's always nice to see Norma Shearer. The film clearly exposes the double standard, with Shearer's husband in the film (Chester Morris) explaining that "it doesn't mean a thing" when he's caught having an affair, but then seeing red when Shearer "balances the account". How nice that she stands up to him after he rebuffs her efforts to reconcile, how telling (and somewhat sad) that she's then shown bouncing around from man to man, as if she must necessarily have swung from a prim and proper housewife to a woman with questionable morals, fitting into one of two defined roles for woman. What is in one sense 'liberated' is in another melodramatic, and a bit lost. I didn't like how it played out, and hated the ending. The Academy Award nominations (and win for best actress) are surprising, but from what I've seen, 1930 was not a great year for movies. Regardless, a much better Shearer vehicle is 1931's "A Free Soul" – I'd recommend watching that instead.

MissSimonetta Norma Shearer went very much against type in this 1930 drama. Usually saddled with ingénue roles or the occasional con-woman/woman of ill repute, in The Divorcée she plays Jerry, a mature married woman who decides to retaliate when her husband has a one night stand. When hubbie finds out she's slept with his best friend, he spews nothing but contempt while feeling his unfaithfulness is natural since he is a man with uncontrollable urges after all. Thus begins Jerry's erotic adventures, in which her door is open to every man but the one she married.The film does have the awkward qualities of many early sound films and some of the actors are clearly ill at ease with the microphone, but nevertheless this is a gem of pre-code Hollywood. And it's not all naughty bed hopping and innuendos; there is genuine, relevant drama about love, faithfulness, and marriage. There are haunting, thoughtful moments in what could have otherwise been sleaze and I appreciate the filmmakers for including them, not taking the easy way out.Of course, much has been said of Norma Shearer and she is excellent: sexy, charming, vulnerable, and whip smart as Jerry. If you have never watched her in anything else, then this film is not a bad introduction. In the early 1930s, she was at her peak as a star and you should not miss Shearer in her prime for all the world.