Best movie of this year hands down!

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It's a mass state of confusion for barrister Laurence Olivier when he is manipulated to share his hotel suite with the stranded Merle Oberon whom he later believes to be the wife in question when he takes on the divorce case by Ralph Richardson. Oberon, actually single and the only heir to her grandfather's estate, knows the truth but having fallen in love with him, keeps it secret while the real wife (Binnie Barnes) continues her own charade. It's a sex comedy without sex, and very funny and romantic.A year before their classic pairing as Heathcliff and Cathy in "Wuthering Heighrs", Olivier and Oberon play totally different emotions, giving a British taste of screwball comedy. They share complete chemistry as they romp around innocently in pajamas, moving bedroom furniture yo his living room. Gorgeous in Technicolor, this takes two people known more for drama and gives them something fun to play with. The innuendo is there, but it remains classy the entire time.

Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon did two movies together within two years. One is considered one of the great romantic films of all time, and the movie that made Olivier a great movie star (and gave Oberon her best performance role): WUTHERING HEIGHTS. The other is this film, made in England a year earlier. THE DIVORCE OF LADY X is a romantic comedy (as WUTHERING HEIGHTS is a romantic tragedy). Olivier is a lawyer, Everard Logan, who is a dynamic barrister, but is also a total misogynist. One night he checks into a hotel just ahead of a crowd of people. It is a very foggy night (the type of pea soup fog that London was known for up until a notorious "killer" fog in the 1950s), and the crowd (who'd been attending a party in the hotel) need beds. The management tries to get Logan to allow one or two socialite ladies to sleep on a couch and a day bed in his rooms, but he refuses. But he has not reckoned with Merle Oberon as Leslie Steele. The granddaughter of a high court judge, she manages to get into Logan's rooms and manipulates him to not only agree to her sleeping there, but appropriates his bed (he goes onto the couch - much to his discomfort).The next day they share a breakfast, and in the smalltalk it is evident that despite his mistrust of women Logan finds Leslie very attractive. But she kittenishly refuses to tell him her name. She is determined to learn more about him, and she finds his attitude toward women infuriating. In the meantime, Logan is approached by a wealthy nobleman (Ralph Richardson as Lord Mere) as a potential client. Mere suspects his wife Lady Mere (Binnie Barnes) of having an affair. In fact, he tells Logan her Ladyship was with her lover in the hotel that Logan knows he was in on the night of the fog. Logan (naturally) jumps to the conclusion that Lady Mere was his mysterious roommate that night. I will not go into the plot any further, except to say that Leslie eventually realizes what a mistake Logan has made, and decides to use it to teach him a lesson about women.The script has the feel of a Wodehouse novel, but is slighter. Still the performances of Olivier, Oberon, Richardson, Barnes, and Morton Selden (as Oberon's grandfather) are all splendid. It shows what a good cast can do with even the slightest of materials. Take a look at some of the minor scenes to see what I mean: Selden's first scene, complaining about his weak coffee to his butler/valet, who tells him off properly (they've been used to each other's personalities for years). Or Olivier dealing with a young clerk in his office, who is certain there were two Lady Meres in the office two minutes before (there were, but Oberon and Barnes left together), and ends up thinking the poor clerk is a simpleton. Or the waiter in the hotel who can't understand why the tenant in Olivier's room is constantly changing from a man to a woman to a man. As I said, a slight charming comedy - but it is very charming.

The plot of "The Divorce of Lady X" is a silly confection of misunderstandings among the London upper crust which cries out for dance interludes by Fred and Ginger. We have the crusty grandfather, a judge, with an impertinent butler; the screwball granddaughter and the stuffy lawyer at whom she sets her cap; a dotty peer; a harassed hotel manager; the de rigueur beauty parlour scene; and the eclaircissement at a stately home where a hunt is meeting.That is almost the only non-foggy exterior in a story shot in Natalie Kalmus's three-strip Technicolor. It was in its infancy in the UK: luxury hotel suites and posh flats glow in soft, rich tones. (Olivier: 'Where shall we meet? Savoy, Embassy, Claridges?')Korda had got the British industry over the longueurs of early 'teacup drama' in talkies, and the film is quietly but fluently piloted by Hollywood's Tim Whelan. It is stagy neither in blocking nor in the delivery of lines, though the cast other than Oberon (Mrs Korda) are West End veterans.Merle is skittish and fretfully British, posing as 'the wickedest woman in the world'- 'four husbands in five years and two adventures'. Binnie Barnes as the genuine adventuress was one of Britain's first Atlantic movie commuters, and sounds American: her inclusion is Korda's nod to his partners in United Artists and the US market.But the film's fascination, Technicolor apart, is to watch Laurence Olivier on the brink of supremacy: his great voice plangent or whispering, his impatience poking through. It was his last light comic role (unless you count "The Prince and the Showgirl") and he can do it asleep. He is ready for his Hollywood purple patch and the transmogrification to Shakespearean king of Britflicks which would ensue. Here he's predominantly moody and reflective, or peppery. His court outburst against the hypocrisy of modern woman (see the post below for a verbatim transcript) seems heartfelt, however; it gains piquancy from our knowing what heartache Vivien Leigh would give him. Ralph Richardson's bumbling and havering are a good counterpoint to Larry's crispness.Miklos Rozsa, then 30, was a compatriot of Korda. His sprightly score includes Gershwin pastiches. He too would soon take off for Hollywood. Unlike Larry, he stayed there..

I loved the dialogue above all - the sharp and witty banter between British 'icons' Olivier and Oberon, and even the playful back and forth between Morton Selten as Lord Steele and H.B. Hallam as his long-suffering butler, Jeffries. Binnie Barnes was also superb as Lady Mere; her accent might have slipped, but she definitely had the right attitude for her character! The use of colour was also a plus, particularly with the wonderful outfits. I think Merle Oberon would have done better without the continuous close-ups - though she did have a certain magnetism, she doesn't quite hold up to such inspection - and Olivier was definitely better suited to the stage: indeed, that is probably where he thought he was, judging by the delivery of some of his character's lines. The improbability of the story aside, 'The Divorce of Lady X' is a wry 'snapshot' of its era: gender, class, morality - even weather (it's very hard to believe that London had smog so bad that people were unable to travel, but it did happen).