Private Lives (1931)

Private Lives
Directed by Sidney Franklin
Written by Hans Kraly and Richard Schayer from a play by Noel Coward
1931/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Amanda: I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives. It all depends on a combination of circumstances. If all the various cosmic thingummys fuse at the same moment, and the right spark is struck, there’s no knowing what one mightn’t do. That was the trouble with Elyot and me, we were like two violent acids bubbling about in a nasty little matrimonial bottle.

MGM glamor meets Noel Coward in this solid early screwball comedy.

The setting is among the cosmopolitan young and wealthy.  Amanda Prynne (Norma Shearer) and Elyot Chase (Robert Montgomery) were formerly Mr. and Mrs. Chase.  They had a tumultuous passionate marriage that lasted three years. Constant bickering and even mutual combat did them in. Now they are divorced and have remarried. Amanda is with Victor Prynne (Reginald Denny) and Elyot is with Sybil (Una Merkel). Both new spouses constantly want to be reassured and are pretty boring.

As fate would have it, the two couples have booked romantic honeymoon suites next to each other on the French Riviera. It doesn’t take long before Elyot and Amanda hook up again and leave their new partners in the lurch. But can this new pairing overcome the differences that made them divorce in the first place?

This is a charmingly sophisticated movie with a preposterous plot. It’s a sort of proto-screwball comedy.  The dialogue and acting is spot on. Recommended.