The Divorcee

"Her sin was no greater than his… but she was a woman."

1930 1h 23m EN

😐

6.2

MID

★6.2TMDB · 64

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When a woman discovers that her husband has been unfaithful, she decides to pay him back in kind.

“Her sin was no greater than his… but she was a woman.”

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Cast

Norma Shearer
Jerry
Chester Morris
Ted
Conrad Nagel
Paul
Robert Montgomery
Don
Florence Eldridge
Helen
Helene Millard
Mary
Robert Elliott
Bill
Mary Doran
Janice

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Writers: Zelda Sears, Nick Grindé
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

83 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

96 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, shot by Norbert Brodine. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Hugh Wynn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Norma Shearer and Chester Morris and Conrad Nagel carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Her sin was no greater than his… but she was a woman.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Z. Leonard directs. Norbert Brodine behind the camera. Hugh Wynn cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

183 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
396 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
5Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, shot by Norbert Brodine. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Editor Hugh Wynn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Norma Shearer and Chester Morris and Conrad Nagel carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Her sin was no greater than his… but she was a woman.".
9IMDB entry: tt0020827 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 64 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
11Classified under 10 themes, including "new year's eve", "infidelity", "husband wife relationship", "based on novel or book".

The technical file

Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Editing: Hugh Wynn
Production design: Cedric Gibbons
Runtime: 83 min · 1h 23m
Status: Released
Budget: $340,691
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Divorcee (1930)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Actress

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Robert Z. Leonard

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-10-03
★ 6/10
“What you feel for me is not love, it’s the call of a gorilla to it’s mate.” Nobody can ever say that pre-code plots weren’t racy enough, and this shows Norma Shearer, Chester Morris and Robert Montgomery’s characters at their most fickle. “Jerry” (Shearer) has been married to “Ted” (Morris) for a while now, but he is a bit of a philanderer. Meantime, another admirer “Paul” (Conrad Nagel) is living in a rather guilt-ridden marriage with “Dorothy” (Judith Wood) whom he managed to injure in a car accident when he was as plastered on the inside as she ended up all over the road. Finally fed up with her husband’s peccadilloes, she has one too many with “Don” (Robert Montgomery) and then, rather optimistically as it turns out, confesses to her hypocrite of an husband who demands a divorce. The question is, though, whilst “Don” has set his cap firmly at her and she is making the most of her new-found independence, does she really love him back, or is it still her (now ex) husband she loves? It’s borderline sarcastic at times this - which I liked, and there’s a good dose of chemistry now and again but I found the story all just a bit too contrived. Shearer has neither the lines to sink her teeth into nor a solid consistency to her part from a wobbly plot that suggest way more than it actually delivers. I thought the limited Morris played his alcoholic scenes well; Montgomery presents with an understated but quite powerful sexiness and Nagel packed quite a lot into his occasionally quite expressive glances, but this all lacked a certain cohesion. Along the way, it touches on an whole range of quite testy topics, but not quite with the gusto I would have liked and ultimately these folks all come across as fairly shallow and largely fit for each other - with the exception of the veiled Wood who might actually be the only decent one amongst them! It’s quite theatrically performed and filmed which hasn’t helped it almost a century later, but it’s worth a watch.

Production companies