Surprisingly incoherent and boring

This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Blistering performances.

Mitchell Liesen was clearly frightened as a child by Cinderella; shortly after this outing in which Jean Arthur goes from rags to riches in nothing flat Claudette Colbert, another great actress who peaked in the 1930s/40s gets the same treatment courtesy of Jack Barrymore via Billy Wilder in Liesen's Midnight - and like Sturges Wilder would soon become writer-director. Inexplicbly Paramount contract songwriter Ralph Rainger, who composed the title song which is heard throughout is omitted from the credits though the song (with lyrics by Rainger's regular lyricist Leo Robin) went on to become a standard and is featured in the 1949 entry Easy Living featuring Victor Mature and Lucille Ball, with a screenplay by Irwin Shaw that has absolutely no connection to this prime example of the 'screwball' genre. With the likes of Franklin Pngbourne and James Gleason in support Sturges was already recruiting his repertory and leads Arthur, Arnold and Milland excel in this brilliant time-capsule of Hollywood's heyday.

"Easy Living" is one of several outstanding film comedies that had a perfect combination of screenplay, direction and actors. This is an early brilliant and witty script by Preston Sturges. It has numerous scenes with running dialogs of witty and funny lines. And, when the dialog dies down, it's punctuated by slapstick, mayhem or sight gags that leave viewers roaring with laughter. What a marvelous film with multiple scenes of repartee and malapropisms.Jean Arthur shows once again why she was considered one of the finest comediennes who ever lived. Her Mary Smith is a likable, somewhat naïve character who is just right for the exchanges with a host of opportunists. She never really knows what all the fuss is about, or what others are talking about. None of the main characters know what all the opportunists think they know, so this bounces along from one hilarious situation to another. The supporting cast includes some of the best comedy characters in Hollywood at the time. Luis Alberni as Mr. Louis Louis utters some riotous malapropisms. "Oh, Mr. B, what a sight for an eye sore." Ray Milland, as John Ball Jr. is hilarious in his exchanges, especially with his father. But I think Edward Arnold as J.B. Ball, tops every scene he is in. How the man could keep a straight face, and maintain his grumpy posture throughout the film, is beyond me. It must have required many takes to put this comedy on film. I think this movie, like most very clever comedies, has a subtle message of satire. Here it clearly is high society, the spoiled nature of the rich, and the opportunists who pander to such society. They are a part of it, in that they live on the fringes and are welcomed in only because they are the willing servants and caterers to the society – by choice. Franklin Pangborn as Van Buren is the epitome of such people. And he plays the part perfectly. Watch for a long scene in the food automat after Ray Milland (Johnny) meets Jean Arthur (Mary Smith). The pandemonium and mayhem that break out make this one of the longest slapstick scenes I can remember. What a riot. Here are a few funny lines from the movie to whet your appetite. J.B. Ball says to son, John: "Oh, pooh! I was a banker's son, and up until I was 26 yeas old, I was just as dumb as you are." Graves, the butler, has been standing by and chimes in: "Yes, indeed, sir." Ball continues: "But after a while, all the fat fell off my brains and I… Say, how old are you?" Later in the conversation, John says to his dad: "I'm gonna make you eat those words." Ball: "That's all you'll be eating." John: "Possibly!" Ball: "Probably!" John: "Right! Yeah!" Ball: "Right! Yeah" John: "Yeah!" The butler, Graves: "Yes sir!"Mary Nash as Jenny Ball: "Well, you want me to look nice, don't you? After all, the wife of the fourth biggest banker..." Ball: "I beg your pardon. The third biggest banker. Well, I guess you've got me, Jenny." Jenny: "You're not as smart as people think you are."Ball has thrown a $58,000 sable coat his wife had just bought out the window of their high-rise apartment. On the street, he sees Mary Smith trying to find the owner and he tells her to keep it. Smith: "Now, wait a minute, Santa Claus." Ball: "Huh?" Smith: "What's the matter with it? Is it hot?" Ball: "Well, I don't know. I've never worn one." Smith: "What kind of fur is it anyway?" Ball: "Zebra. Anything else you want to know?"Louis Louis: "Miss Smith, I am a man like this. I don't beat around the bush to come in the back door." Smith blindfolds her piggy bank before she smashes it with the heel of her shoe. "Sorry, Wafford," she says. Johnny and Mary are at the breakfast table looking at the want ads in the newspaper. John: "Well, there must be something for somebody that can't do anything."

Jean Arthur, poor girl, is given a gift by blustery Edward Arnold, rich man. The two are strangers who have met by accident and don't even bother to learn each others' names but certain people misunderstand. Why would "the bull of Wall Street" give a pretty blond a $58,000 mink coat unless they were playing doctor? The movie is sometimes very funny and sometimes plain silly but it moves with the momentum of a tsunami and it's hard to resist. It was written by Preston Sturges who was about to make a couple of comic masterpieces and they're adumbrated in some of these scenes. I don't know if you're familiar with the scene in "Sullivan's Travels" in which a huge recreational vehicle speeds over rutted rural roads but the slapstick there is echoed in the slapstick here, in a scene that takes place in an automat and had me laughing out loud.There's nothing subtle about the comedy. Mistaken identities, rich and poor, slightly risqué, and everybody talks at full volume and rushes around in a frenzy. It may be Eugene Pallet elsewhere but it's Edward Arnold here, who looks like the manager of a German pork store in Yorkville who is about to pop a gut with anger and frustration.Ray Milland has had better roles. He's no Cary Grant. But Jean Arthur and her tangential prettiness is perfect. Franklin Pangborn has always played an effete wimp, but here he's at his most flamboyantly gay. Luis Alberni as the Italian owner of a ritzy hotel isn't as amusing as the script seems to think he is, and he overacts like everyone else. Yet in its own unquiet way it's a successful screwball comedy. The director, Mitchell Leisen, does a craftsmanlike job but one can't help wondering what Howard Hawks would have done with material like this.Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin don't get any screen credit for writing the title tune which is heard briefly as a jaunty instrumental with wide intervals. It was turned into a light and charming ballad and became a minor standard in vernacular culture. You can hear a snatch of it in "Chinatown."

This is an amusing, entertaining Hollywood antique featuring a number of actors who became Hollywood icons such as Jean Arthur, Ray Milland, and Edward Arnold. Before Ed Asner there was Edward Arnold. Mr. Arnold was one of the greatest actors in Hollywood history. His performances were consistently great and through him a weak script became good and good script great. He was one of those actors who dominated the screen and could play a wide range of roles opposite some of the most famous Hollywood players. As for Jean Arthur, she specialized in a style of acting that established a precedent for Lucille Ball, except that Ms. Arthur did not have to act goofy. Movies from the 1930s were made in a certain style that was unique to that period. Black-and-white, simple, engaging, upbeat stories, lots of action, and optimistic about life - all this during the Great Depression. This is another Preston Sturges gem and definitely is worth watching.