Customer Reviews

Ex-Lady [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This film, which was rather risque for its day, features a very blonde and nubile Bette Davis in her first role for which she received star billing. Playing the role of sophisticated, free spirited, and successful commercial artist Helen Bauer, who believes that love does not necessarily lead to marriage, though it can lead to the bedroom, Bette is charming. It seems that Helen is in love with ad agency owner Don Peterson, who wants to marry her. At first she refuses, but finally gives in. She is a most reluctant bride, however, as she is afraid that the bonds of marriage will ruin their love.

They do run across some bumps in the road and have some inconsequential flings to make each other jealous and to test the waters, but it is nothing that true love will not conquer. She and Don weather the storms and discover that they are irrevocably bound to each other, not by the bonds of matrimony, but by the bonds of true love.

This is a brash and breezy film that is really a bedroom farce. Sex outside the bonds of marriage and the concepts of a successful working woman are some of the cutting edge issues addressed. Somewhat heavy handed and stilted, it is a still film worth seeing just to watch Bette Davis as a sophisticated, slinky siren in this early role. While she is good, however, the best is yet to come. This is a film for die hard Bette Davis fans or classic film lovers. Others may be disappointed.

Ex-Lady stars Bette Davis and Gene Raymond in an excellent, way above the norm quality motion picture. Ex-Lady was made before the "Production Code" went into effect; therefore subjects like a man and woman living together and affairs could be dealt with relatively openly. The plot moves along at a good pace; the sets are very well designed and the convincing acting impresses me.

Helen Bauer (Bette Davis), a well known, renowned illustrator, is living with her lover Don Peterson (Gene Raymond) as the plot begins. Despite protests from Helen's father the couple is happy to live life the way they please and they don't care what other people think of them. Over time, however, Don does try to convince Helen to marry him. One evening, after they both had a little too much to drink, Helen asks Don to marry her--and off starts the REAL action.

The marriage initially goes along very well; and soon Helen wants to have a honeymoon that they skipped after their wedding. Don reluctantly takes Helen to Cuba--but when they return the Don Peterson advertising agency is in a mess even though they were gone a mere ten days.

The business problems take their toll on the marriage and eventually Helen and Don agree to go back to living separate lives with occasional "dates." When Helen and Don both have more time apart they become somewhat attracted to other people. Don is pursued by the wealthy Peggy Smith (Kay Strozzi) and Helen is wooed by Nick Malvyn (Monroe Owsley).

What happens next is anyone's guess (unless you read the plot summary already). Will Don and Helen ever live together again, or will they stray and find new love elsewhere? No spoilers here, folks--you'll have to watch the movie to find out.

The choreography reflects forethought and good taste in the party scenes during the movie and the hotel lobby scenes. The cinematography is really rather good for its time; the actors are well framed within the screen unless there is a reason for doing otherwise.

Overall, this is a fine pre-Code drama that was risqué at the time it was released. I imagine that going to watch Ex-Lady in a movie theater in 1933 could easily have taken away the doldrums of the Great Depression. Bette Davis is perfectly cast as Helen Bauer; and Gene Raymond works just as hard as the supporting cast. The film does belong to Davis, though. I highly recommend this film for Bette Davis fans; and people who enjoy pre-Code movies will find this to be one of the better films from that era.

Enjoy!

I have a fondness for Pre-Code films, they have a frankness in the way they treat certain subjects that was lost during the reign of the Production Code, which was enforced firmly just one year after the release of this movie.

In this flick Bette Davis portrays a free-spirited illustrator who has a deep aversion for marriage and all that it implies, from her personal and very "modern" viewpoint; Gene Raymond, portraying a publicist who owns a small advertising agency, is the man who is in love with her and not necessarily shares 100% this particular "ways" of hers.

In my personal opinion Bette looks very attractive and alluring in this film, as this sophisticated creature that dismisses "traditional values" and goes for free love and romance. I also feel that she hadn't yet developed all her trademark mannerisms, because her portrayal seems very fresh and natural. Gene Raymond is OK as his partner in love and in work.

A Fine supporting cast of players includes Claire Dodd, Monroe Owsley and Frank McHugh. Especially amusing is Ferdinand Gottschalk who has a bit as very dull businessman, who only talks about his "boilers, boilers, boilers". Attractive actress Kay Strozzi portrays his bored young wife.

Needless to say, this film could not have been made during the Code, especially with the premise of a couple having a sexual life out of wedlock. Definitely worth a look.

This little potboiler from 1933 has the distinction of being the first film in which Bette Davis received top billing. Bette WAS rather impishly cute and sexy in her early blonde ingenue roles - but she was utterly disgusted upon the release of this tawdry little number, and, in her memoirs, she wrote "my shame was exceeded only by my fury". All she got out of it was status without achievement. Darryl F. Zanuck had personally selected it for her - one of his last productions before he quit Warners in protest at the studio's delay in restoring the pay cuts it had forced on its staff in the cost-cutting emergency following the signs that at last the cinema box-office was being hit by the Depression. Robert Florey directed this bedroom farce which stated that free love is preferable to betrothal; it was to make a star out of Davis but she felt embarrassed - not enhanced - by 'smart' situations and frivolous bedroom scenes. The film decides that while "free love" may do more for the undressing scenes, a submissive wife makes for a safer box-office (even in pre-code 1933!). EX-LADY was a re-make of a rather risque - but rather unsuccessful - Barbara Stanwyck vehicle entitled ILLICIT two years prior. The original poster for this film has received near cult status among collectors: a bare shouldered young Bette, blonde and beautifully seductive with the words describing "Filmdom's newest favourite after her achievements in CABIN IN THE COTTON and 20,000 YEARS IN SING SING" - AND - "We don't DARE tell you how daring it is" Malarkey.

I rate this movie 3 stars for Bette fans, but I would only give it 2 stars if you are not. The story is rather uninteresting, as is davis' leading man, Gene Raymond. The only thing worthwhile about this movie is that it is a good example of Miss Davis' early work. This was the first movie in which she got top billing. Her acting is very raw, but still she remains fascinating.

The other reviewers have described it pretty well.

BUT, didya' you that an excerpt from this film (along with another early Davis gem called "PARACHUTE JUMPER") was used in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE ?

It was used to poor advantage to show what a poor actress the grown "Baby Jane Hudson" had become!

Davis looks sensational as a free-spirited designer who does'nt believe in marriage! This is actually a lame little melodrama and I agree agree with the other reviewer in that the film's only claim to fame is that it's the first film with Davis's name above the title. Barbara Stanwyck starred in the same essential story only two years prior in Illicit!

This Bette Davis movie isn't bad, I guess, but it sure is a bore. So she doesn't believe in marriage and is living in sin with Gene Raymond: well, what of it? Takes more than that to be interesting, I'm afraid. Most noteworthy because it features Frank McHugh as an egghead, very different from the "Toity toid street" roles he got later in life. Rent it if you've got time to lose and money to burn.