Saw a pre-Code oldie over the weekend that I just have to talk about, in the must-be-seen-to-be-believed way.
It's called Smarty. It's Vicki's (Joan Blondell) birthday, and her husband Tony (Warren William) has tickets to the theater. But Vicki would rather invite her friends Vernon (Edward Everett Horton), Anita (Claire Dodd), and George (Frank McHugh) over for bridge. Vicki starts teasing Tony and doesn't stop until Tony slaps her. At this point, Vernon urges Vicki to get a divorce on the ground (it's the 1930s, you still needed grounds for divorce) of extreme cruelty. Should I mention that Vernon is a divorce lawyer as well as madly in love with Vicki? And Anita likes the idea because, well, Anita already has several divorces under her belt. Soon, Vicki has divorced Tony and married Vernon.
A year or so later, Vicki wants to give a dinner party. She runs into Tony, so she invites him and his new sweetheart, Bonnie (Joan Wheeler). They both accept -- after all, Bonnie's husband is out of town, so she's free. Vicki decides to get a new dress for the occasion, so she buys a backless gown that Vernon thoroughly disapproves of. She insists on wearing it. Soon Vicki and Vernon are bickering, and Vicki taunts Vernon with language along the line of, "Go ahead and hit me. You really want to hit me, don't you? Why don't you hit me?" Vernon slaps Vicki, and Vicki leave Vernon -- for Tony.
I'm not sure what the most flabbergasting moment of the movie is. A few options:
A (proto?) screwball comedy about domestic abuse.
Some of the dialoge, which to say the least, both suggests that it's acceptable to hit a wife and also suggestst that it's kind of inconsistent for a wife to divorce a husband that hits her. (Sample: Vicki to Anita: If [Tony] really loved me, he'd have hit me long ago.) (Yes, that's really in the movie.)
Vicki is so unlikeable that you wonder why one man, never mind two, would want to marry her.
The aforementioned dress, which is not only backless, but so low-cut that it defies the laws of physics by not falling off.
Vicki's look of complete shock when Vernon takes her advice and slaps her.
I know we're talking about the '30s, when James Cagney could become a star by shoving a grapefruit into a woman's face. But this movie goes out of its way not just to condone domestic abuse, but to suggest that it's a necessary part of a good marriage.
Not to mention, it isn't that well-made a movie. Only Frank McHugh gives any snap to the supposedly snappy dialogue. Although it might have helped if Warren William and Edward Everett Horton had traded roles.