The Divorce of Lady X,

Starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, is pretty as all get out to look at, in beautiful English Technicolor.  (Yup, there is Natalie Kalmus' name in the credits.)  And the "meet cute", involving Ms Oberon finagling a (separate, natch) bed in Larry's hotel suite would nearly make a special short film.

But it is all downhill after that.  Oberon is not a remotely serious acting talent, and Sir Larry is his usual mugging self, selling the comedy short.

"Larry, could you pass me the marmalade?"

Ms Oberon does these things, though, either wrinkling her bottom lip, or biting it, that are supremely intoxicating.

The Divorce of Lady X seems to be a valiant English swing and a miss at Hollywood's sophisticated and/or rollicking Screwball 30s comedies.  Or a stab at something like Lubitsch would do.

Lubitsch would have nailed this material, for sure, and made a great picture.  Of course, there is no way Larry could have been in it then.  Lubitsch did all the line readings for his actors, acting out all their parts, as he wanted them played.  No way Larry would have gone for that.

Of course, Larry and Ms Oberon were in another picture together, a lavish Hollywood picture, Wuthering Heights.  And, yeah, I am going to rain all over that parade, as well.  Despite Gregg Toland's rich, foreboding photography, Wuthering Heights is an absolute travesty of a film, and colossally over-rated.