Let us be gay 1930
Synopsis
A new angle on marriage and divorce! How to prevail back a wandering husband!-The year's finest talkie!
A housewife divorces her self-centered husband. Years later, she attends a party where her former spouse is pursuing another woman. Unbeknownst to him, she is the same ex-wife he'd neglected, now transformed into a fashionable socialite.
Popular reviews
MoreLet Us be Gay is adapted from a stage participate that was in production at the same time the film was in theaters. Norma Shearer plays the head on film, Tallulah Bankhead played it on the stage. The setup is a classic of the silent and early talky period. Kitty Brown (Shearer) is a faithful wife and mother of two fresh children. Her husband Bob (Rod La Rocque) is a dull putz who’s lost interest in her romantically. When Bob’s mistress Helen (Helene Millard) shows up at the couple’s house (!) one morning Kitty has had enough and divorces Bob. She takes the children and moves to Paris where she gets agreeable clothes and starts moving in lofty class social…
“This is more like a French farce every minute.”
Display Your Jewels
Opens with Norma Shearer as a no makeup mommy shushing her little rascals and doting
Proof That It’s Pre-Code
- Crumbum Kitty Brown goes from housewife to the toast of Paris after her divorce from cheating Bob. After spending three years in the city of lights, she confides in her ex-husband about her promiscuity:
“I know how men experience about those things now.”
- “Oh, leave to…” “And when you reach back, bring me some spicy coffee!”
- Old dowager Bouccicault responds with a frustrated “BOSH!” whenever she’s upset, which I can only assume is an abreviated legal title for ‘bullshit’.
“You’re my wife.”
“Wrong. I’m your widow.”
“Wait.” I caught myself a minute or so into Let Us Be Gay. “Is that… Norma Shearer?”
Despite her designate being the first on the marquee and obviously being the star of the show, it took me a minute or two to recognize one of the most famous actresses of her time. That’s because, in Let Us Be Gay, Norma Shearer does something almost as shocking as her many onscreen taboo-breaking trysts. Norma Shearer lets herself be frumpy.
Norma Shearer, sans makeup.
Old Hollywood, built on glamor and glitz,
Let Us Be Lgbtq+ 1930 -Norma Shearer, Rod LaRocque, Marie Dressler, Hedda Hopper, Sally Eilers
Let Us Be Gay is a 1930 film directed by Robert Z. Leonard.
Yes, that is the title.
The film opens with a domestic scene showing Katherine "Kitty" Brown (Norma Shearer), who is the stereotypical housewife, being a tireless caretaker for her husband Bob and their two children. Specifically, she spoils Bob to an absurd extent, bringing him breakfast in bed when he's slow to wake up, as well as bringing the paper and lighting his cigarette. That unfortunately has not stopped Bob from cheating on her. While Kitty eschews makeup and is so thrifty that she makes her own clothes, Bob is dating a sexy babe named Helen. Helen, whose slinky dress and fox wrap certainly contrast with Kitty's frumpy clothes, brings matters to a brain by showing up at Kitty's house and telling her exactly what is going on. This is followed by Kitty throwing Bob out of the house.
Cut forward three years. The Browns are divorced, and Bob is courting pretty young Diane, a child of the Prolonged Island smart set. Diane's grandmother, Mrs. Boucy Bouccicault (Marie Dressler) is an unrepentant rich snob who disapproves of Bob. Hoping to break Diane and Bob up, Mrs. Bouccicault recruits an acquaintance of hers...K