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Ex-Lady

Play trailer Poster for Ex-Lady Released May 14, 1933 1h 5m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 1 Reviews 40% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Feeling social pressure to make their union legal, happily unmarried couple Helen (Bette Davis), a successful illustrator, and Don (Gene Raymond), an ad man, wed. After their honeymoon, Don's business flounders and the lovers begin quarreling, each finding solace in the arms of another. While Don turns to the married Peggy (Kay Strozzi), Helen begins dating ladies' man Nick (Monroe Owsley). When Helen suggests she and Don live apart, the couple must decide whether to call the marriage quits.
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Ex-Lady

Critics Reviews

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Bette Davis' first starring role. Rated: B- Jan 31, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Steve D The original was no classic. This is worse. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/02/24 Full Review Tom M years ahead of it's time Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/18/19 Full Review Audience Member The script, while not a masterpiece, is considerably above the norm. It is witty, and understanding of the desires, pride and foolishness of young, intelligent people in love. Bette plays it superbly with a slightly bored, worldly-wise exterior, and a passionate but somehow innocent interior. She is the focus of the film, the other actors being mainly satellites around her. They do a competent job, but the show is all hers--Ex-Lady was important as a film way ahead of it's time in content and expression... Lighthearted Pre-Code Fun!! Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member A bourgeois story of women's liberation, sexual liberation, and marriage. The conflict is between petty-bourgeois monogamy/monopoly and big-bourgeois open marriage (free love/competition). The ending is reactionary, petty-bourgeois, with the husband observing/concluding to his wife that a woman without a protective husband will always be vulnerable (to threats of rape), and the wife accepting that "it hurts both ways, and...this way it hurts less." Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member good pre-code sex comedy Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Bette had little regard for this early film, her first certified starring vehicle and she's right. Being a pre-code it's racier than pictures even two years later would be but other than that it's an ordinary, insipid drama. Raymond is terrible in the male lead. A scene from this was used in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? to show how untalented the adult Jane was and it was a solid choice since this is not one of Davis' better performances. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Ex-Lady

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Ex-Lady

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Movie Info

Synopsis Feeling social pressure to make their union legal, happily unmarried couple Helen (Bette Davis), a successful illustrator, and Don (Gene Raymond), an ad man, wed. After their honeymoon, Don's business flounders and the lovers begin quarreling, each finding solace in the arms of another. While Don turns to the married Peggy (Kay Strozzi), Helen begins dating ladies' man Nick (Monroe Owsley). When Helen suggests she and Don live apart, the couple must decide whether to call the marriage quits.
Director
Robert Florey
Producer
Darryl F Zanuck
Screenwriter
Edith Fitzgerald, Robert Riskin, David Boehm
Production Co
Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 14, 1933, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 27, 2017
Runtime
1h 5m
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