A Bill of Divorcement is a 1940 film drama directed by John Farrow. It was also known as Never to Love and was based on a 1921 British play of the same name written by Clemence Dane that had been filmed in 1932 with John Barrymore and Katharine Hepburn.
Contents
Plot
Hilary Fairchild returns home after a long spell in a lunatic asylum. He has regained his sanity but finds that his strong-willed daughter Sydney, now an adult, is planning to marry and that his wife has divorced him.
Cast
Maureen O'Hara as Sydney Fairchild
Adolphe Menjou as Hilary Fairchild
Fay Bainter as Margaret Fairchild
Herbert Marshall as Gray Meredith
Dame May Whitty as Hester Fairchild
Patric Knowles as John Storm
C. Aubrey Smith as Dr. Alliot
Ernest Cossart as Rev. Dr. Pumphrey
Kathryn Collier as Basset
Lauri Beatty as Susan
Production
The film was announced in November 1939 with the lead roles allocated to Adolphe Menjou and Maureen O'Hara. O'Hara had just moved to Hollywood with Charles Laughton and appeared in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Producer Robert Sisk and director John Farrow had made a number of films together, including the popular Five Came Back (1939). It was considered an "A" picture, Farrow and Sisk's first such film at RKO.
Filming began on December 2, 1939.
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Theodore Strauss wrote: "Under the restrained direction of John Farrow, the performances of an ably selected cast are fused into a film that is continuously eloquent and moving. ... Out of a familiar play the producers have again drawn a suspensive drama of courage and despair."
The film recorded a loss of $104,000.