Tuesday, December 9, 2008

East Living (1937)

Easy Living (1937) - Starring Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Franklin Pangborn, and Luis Alberni; Dir. Mitchell Leisen; Wri. Preston Sturges.

This little gem is when I discovered "screwball comedy." Oh, I'd watched and fallen in love with Bringing Up Baby (1938) long before, but I saw it as a "Cary Grant" film, and while I'd become acquainted with the divine Preston Sturges earlier this year, I still had no clue it was about these movies that I loved. So there I was browsing Netflix for old movies when I stumbled upon this little movie without any actors I knew, save for one (Ray Milland, whom I'd seen in Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder)--but "it was written by Preston Sturges, so it had to be good" I mused.

I popped the DVD into my player the second I received it in the mail. I'd never seen Jean Arthur before in my life, but it was love at first sight. She's a marvelous actress, and that voice! It's so unique I'd recognize it anywhere.

Anyways, here's the scenario: Harried financier (the third biggest banker!) J.B. Ball (Arnold) has a shiftless heir and a spendthrift, pampered wife. He's finally had enough when his son brings him a bill for a Bugati, and his wife attempts to slip him a bill for a brand new mink coat. What follows is a hilarious pursuit of Jenny Ball by J.B.--after his son Johnny (Milland) storms out, intending to get a job--through the house, up the stairs and onto the roof. In frustration, J.B. throws the offending fur coat over the roof. It hits our heroine, Mary Smith (Arthur) while riding a bus down Fifth Avenue.

The stunned Mary gets off the bus and while she tries to find the owner, Ball and his wife continue to pull pranks on one another. As he finally leaves his mansion, he sees Mary wandering down the sidewalk with the coat. After a mixed-up conversation, he offers her a ride to the offices of The Boys Constant Companion, where she works as a writer. What ensues during the ride is an incredibly funny, incredibly frustrating debate over interest and percents that will have you trying to do the math yourself! But the real trouble (or fun) begins when Ball buys Mary a hat to replace the one broken by the fur coat (which he forces her to keep), and word gets around that J.B. Ball has a mistress!

Entering the scene is Louis Louis, chef and owning of a failing hotel with three mortgages owed to Ball's bank! With rumors buzzing about Ball's mistress, Louis gets the idea to install the young woman in the hotel to keep J.B. from foreclosing! Jean Arthur's reaction to the opulent, ostentatious hotel is priceless ("Golly!"), and the following scene is infamous--and brings Johnny Ball into the picture.

In true screwball fashion, mistaken identities and cross-talking conversations abound. Will Mary discover she's assumed to be Ball's mistress? Will Johnny ever prove himself to his father? Will Louis Louis save his hotel?

Though Carole Lombard is credited with the word "screwball," most film critics agree that Jean Arthur was the screwball comedy actress of the 1930s and 1940s. I happen to agree; there's something so infectious about her acting, something just fun, that when she's on-screen, she signals the humor and wit of the movie. Edward Arnold is no slump in the funny department either, though best known for his corrupt politicians in Capra films, he was a true delight in Easy Living, playing the plutocrat, but with a heart. A very young Ray Milland (he was so hot!) rounds out the starring cast nicely, adding a touch of class to the movie. And a word of warning to newbies to screwball comedies: you'll see a lot of character actors pop up again and again--most notably Franklin Pangborn as fussy, gossipy men.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Welcome!

In this blog, I hope to review and grant exposure to the screwball comedies which are near and dear to my heart. The Screwball Comedy is one which arose from the Production Code--in fact, many lovers and critics of the movie genre characterize the screwball comedy to be a sex movie without the sex, as many of the situations are born out of sexual frustration between the male and female leads. This is most particularly true in Bluebeard's Eighth Wife *g*.

According to my favorite book on the genre, Romantic comedy in Hollywood: from Lubitsch to Sturges by James Harvey, the screwball comedy was preeminent from about 1934 to 1948, though its roots are to be found in Lubitsch's Pre-Code musicals featuring Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald. Proto-typical screwball comedies feature rapid-fire dialogue, crazy situations, and pretty often, divorced couples fighting their attraction to one another. Screwball comedies also made the careers of a lot of struggling actresses--Claudette Colbert (won her Oscar for the first screwball, It Happened One Night), Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur, Myrna Loy, Ginger Rogers, Carole Lombard, et al--, gave men like William Powell, Clark Gable, Melvyn Douglas, and Robert Montgomery a chance to be romantic leads, and also made Cary Grant "Cary Grant" (in the hilarious The Awful Truth).

As you can tell, I can on and on about this beloved movie genre. So join me for more!

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Author of romantic historical fiction -- Edwardian, WWI, 1920s, Harlem Renaissance, 1960s, and Civil War/Restoration England.