THE DIVORCEE (1930)

Norma Shearer was ready to push her career in a new, sexier direction when MGM bought the rights to Ursula Parrott’s steamy tale of divorce and infidelity, Ex-Wife. Her only problem was that the studio’s production chief, Irving G. Thalberg, was her husband, and he couldn’t imagine his wife playing a woman who responds to her husband’s infidelity by doing a little cheating of her own. So, Shearer enlisted then-unknown photographer George Hurrell to shoot her in some provocative poses that not only won her the part but also got him a lot more work at MGM. Gowned elegantly by Adrian and accompanied by Chester Morris as her husband and Conrad Nagel and Robert Montgomery as her two extra-marital flings, Shearer scored a triumph with audiences and critics. The film brought her the Oscar for Best Actress and the chance to star in more sophisticated films like Private Lives (1931) and A Free Soul (1931). New print courtesy of the Packard Humanities Institute, Warner Bros. Discovery, and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

d. Robert Z. Leonard, 82m, 35mm

Courtesy of The UCLA Film and Television Archive and Warner Brothers Classics.