Private Lives

One of M-G-M's biggest stars, Norma Shearer was also married to producer Irving Thalberg. This sparkling Pre-Code adaptation of Noël Coward's wicked comedy premiered only a year after the play's stage debut. Shearer and co-star Robert Montgomery play ex-spouses who run into each other on their honeymoons and discover they still have a yen for each other. Director: Sidney Franklin. (US 1931) 84 min. Not on DVD. Followed by discussion.

Mick LaSalle is film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of Complicated
Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood and Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood
and the Birth of the Modern Man. Mark A. Vieira's previous books include Greta Garbo: A
Cinematic Legacy and Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood.

Presented as part of the Irving Thalberg's MGM Series