A story about the elopements, marriages, and divorces of a group of New York society people is not a new theme for a movie, not is it the best one that can be found these days, despite the seeming scarcity of good plots. If it isn't the plot that makes a movie good it is the actor--or actress. So it is with "The Divorcee", the current film at Loew's State.

Norma Shearer always has been an excellent actress and one particularly easy to watch as she plays on the set. In this her latest offering she gives another finished performance that is easily as good as any that she has given in the past. She does not appear to as good advantage as in "The Last of Mrs. Cheney" perhaps because there she was given a sparkling play with which to work, but she shows that she can inject into a mediocre adaptation from a novel enough life and personality to enable the movie-goer to spend a pleasant afternoon or evening.

To even hint at the plot would spoil this review for then you would know it all. It is sufficient to say that it concerns marital troubles and that the producers have added enough novelties of plot to keep the audience in suspense.

Besides the performance of Miss Shearer the other gratifying aspect of the movie is the fact that Robert Montgomery has finally arrived to the point where he has really clever lines to say and not the trite mush that he has had to mutter in the last several movies that he has appeared in. It is true that he gets off one, "Loosen up, little girl" or "Relax. baby, relax" but that can be excused on the grounds that he has been so accustomed to saying those things in the past that he had to utter just one for his satisfaction.

There are the usual side attractions of which Jack Miller's version of "Sing, You Sinners" is the best.