A Bill of Divorcement *** (1932, John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, Billie Burke, David Manners, Paul Cavanagh, Henry Stephenson) – Classic Movie Review 3417

Director George Cukor’s 1932 drama is a creaky version of Clemence Dane’s family problem drama written for the theatre. It is virtually a static film of the play, but it is notable as the film début of the 24-year-old Katharine Hepburn, whose performance still impresses.

John Barrymore, although tending to overact all too evidently in the silent film style he was accustomed to, nevertheless has his moving moments as Hilary Fairfield, the father who escapes from a mental institution after 15 years and returns home after regaining his sanity.

However, he finds that his wife Margaret (the always undervalued Billie Burke) has divorced him and plans to remarry, and that his daughter Sydney Fairfield (Hepburn) has grown up and is planning to marry as well.

Cukor, who remained always Hepburn’s favourite director, handles it tastefully and professionally, bringing out the best in her and all the performances. Also in the cast are David Manners, Paul Cavanagh, Henry Stephenson, Bramwell Fletcher, Elizabeth Patterson, Gayle Evers and Julie Haydon.

It runs 75 minutes but the cut version is 69 minutes.

It was remade in 1940 by director John Farrow, with Adolphe Menjou and Maureen O’Hara, in a version written by later blacklisted Dalton Trumbo.

The original play opened in London on 14 March 1921. The Broadway version opened October 10, 1921 at George M Cohan’s Theatre and ran for 173 performances, with Katharine Cornell playing the role of Sydney Fairfield.

Cukor had seen Hepburn’s screen test (she chose a scene from the Philip Barry play Holiday) and was impressed, but producer David O Selznick did not like the way she looked. But, then again, Cukor turned down Cary Grant for the role of Hilary Fairfield. Eventually Selznick agreed that Hepburn had a striking, fresh screen presence and wrote that this was ‘one of the best pictures, and possibly the most adult and intelligent picture, ever made.’ Hepburn praised Barrymore for teaching her a ‘tremendous lot’ about film acting during the production.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3417

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