Ex-Lady

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Steve D 03/02/2024 The original was no classic. This is worse. See more 12/23/2014 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!! See more 08/31/2014 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." See more 04/22/2014 good pre-code sex comedy See more 08/14/2013 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. See more 08/29/2012 Early Bette Davis vehicle notable mainly for its overt pre-code sexuality, including many plunging necklines and a fairly shocking scene in which it is implied that Davis and Raymond have sex in public. (This public sex scene is largely without dialogue and quite masterfully done. As the two watch a sensuous dance by a dancer in a nightclub, they exchange a series of passionate glances and caresses before exiting to the verandah. With the music lingering in the background, they disappear from view as Davis slowly leads Raymond into a prostrate position on the bench. The scene fades out with the camera showing the dancer gyrating in the distance over the back of the bench.) The script is clunky and the direction seems a little listless, but Davis exhibits the magnetic quality that would soon make her a major star. See more Read all reviews

Ex-Lady

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