She didn't turn into a gentleman

One of TCM's spotlights in July was on "Dynamic Dames", which gave me the opportunity to record Bette Davis in Ex-Lady.

Davis plays Helen Bauer, an artist who does illustrations for advertising and magazines. She hosts parties in New York for the hoity-toity set, which includes fellow adman Don Peterson (Gene Raymond). In fact, the two of them are more or less living together, except that they're not married. It's a fact that causes some friction between the two, as Don loves Helen and thinks that this sort of love should wind up in marriage. Helen loves Don too, but her belief is that women should be just as free as men, and nobody has a "right" to her.

Eventually, the two do get married and start working together in the ad business, more or less. Helen suggests that the two of them should have a honeymoon, and with Don making certain all his affairs are tied up neatly for the time they'll be away -- apparently he's a one-man business or something -- the two go off to Havana for a time. Of course they shouldn't have, since Don loses two important clients during that time, and Helen helps make ends meet by working for one of Don's competitors.

Don responds by working more, at least until Mrs. Peggy Smith (Kay Strozzi) shows up. She's the bored wife of one of Don's tedious clients, Mr. Herbert Smith (Ferdinand Gottschalk). Don eventually decides he's going to spend an evening going out with Peggy instead of working late. He doesn't realize that Helen sees them leave the building together. Helen, knowing what's going on, decides that she's going to spend time with another man either as revenge or to make him jealous. Of course, the man she picks, Nick (Monroe Owsley), is a jerk that Helen doesn't really like.

Helen and Don decide to get a divorce, but they both realize that they still have strong feelings for each other. Don's good friend Hugo Van Hugh (Frank McHugh), has to bring the two back together, even though he has some feelings of his own for Helen.

Ex-Lady is a competent little pre-Code that's full of surprises even for people who have seen a bunch of pre-Codes. It starts off right at the beginning when it's made obvious that Don has a key to Helen's apartment even though they're not yet married. Helen's parents, especially her father (Alphonse Ethier) are incensed that Helen is having these relationships and not getting married, and Don is very sympathetic to Helen. (I couldn't help but think of Ethier that same year telling Barbara Stanwyck in Baby Face to "use men to get the things you want!") There's a scene of Don and Helen in bed together, and one in Havana that strongly implies they're doing something kinky in public.

In some ways there's not much plot here, or at least not something that could have just as easily fit into a two-reeler. Not that it's just padding per se, but a very basic plot. Still, the performers all carry it well, especially Davis and McHugh. Ex-Lady is more than worth a watch.

Ex-Lady seems to be on DVD as part of the Forbidden Hollywood set, volume 7, but not as a standalone.