Ex-Lady

Just after intrusion from her upright immigrant parents, who busted her over his habit of staying overnight, New York single career gal Helen (Bette Davis) and boyfriend Don (Gene Raymond) joust happily over the idea of marriage, with unusual score under the dialogue, in Warner Bros.’ Ex-Lady, 1933.

Opening with blonde Bette Davis in her first top-billed role, as chic New York illustrator Helen, Frank McHugh asleep, Clare Dodd his wife, Monroe Owsley as amorous Nick, and Gene Raymond the boyfriend Don who bounces back after the party, in the Darryl Zanuck production, from an original David Boehm screenplay, Robert Florey directing, Warner Bros.’ Ex-Lady, 1933.

Now at a chic Manhattan show hosted by painter Nick (Monroe Owsley), Bette Davis, as in-demand magazine illustrator Helen, parries his advances, with provocative chat about his nudes, until they’re joined by her less-prominent but loyal beau Don (Gene Raymond), who reaffirms their plan to not marry, in the edgy pre-Code Warner Bros.’ sex comedy Ex-Lady, 1933.

A female artist (Bette Davis) is torn between her belief in free love and the constraints of romance in the pre-Code drama, Ex-Lady (1933).