LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

lebaker-36828 The slapstick comedy made certain scenes in the hotel difficult to follow. The premise was weak. Most women who had a fur coat fall on their heads while riding in a vehicle would not have made such an effort to return it by dismounting from the bus and walking the street, especially near the close of the Great Depression. People were still out of work and hungry the coat that was worth $58,000 would be worth nearly one million dollars in today's money.

Tad Pole . . . then the dimmest bulbs must flicker on Wall Street, and EASY LIVING proves that this fact was as well known to Americans in 1937 as it is today. The proverbial one-eyed man may be king in the Land of the Blind, but EASY LIVING illustrates why the possession of even one eye might be a definite handicap for the high rollers of Lower Manhattan. It's better to be completely blind, deaf, and dumb if you want to make your mark there. Jean Arthur plays "Mary Smith" in EASY LIVING, but she might as well be portraying Alice in Wonderland. Mary learns that among the rich, anything goes. The lifestyle props upon which they fritter away their wealth are so impractical and worthless, they constitute grounds for firing if displayed near a normal workplace. That's what happens to Mary when she inadvertently shows up wearing her "gift horse" (a sable fur coat) to work for her real people job. As this year's follow-up to EASY LIVING (THE BLING RING) shows, the forbidden candy most rich celebrities use to fill up their otherwise empty shell of lives can only corrupt NORMAL people (which helps explain why so many lottery winners soon off themselves). Since Mary Smith has a solid working class soul, she is oblivious to some of the temptations thrown her way in EASY LIVING, and triumphs over the rest, settling for live sheep dogs in lieu of murdered mink.

Lawson Perhaps it was because this was before Preston Sturges took over directing his own screenplays but Easy Living feels like one of the lesser in his body of work. It does well as a screwball comedy but it isn't outstanding. As much as I love Jean Arthur, she isn't either, and Ray Milland just isn't suave enough to be a Cary Grant-esquire romantic lead. The cast just seems to be rolling along with the machinations of the plot, unlike say, Bringing Up Baby, in which Katharine Hepburn and Grant bring larger-than-life characters that prance along grandly with its screwball story. Easy Living does have some memorable scenes though, including the one at the automat - a Depression-era fast food place - in which a grand ol' food fight breaks out, though admittedly, I find it more memorable because of how novel I think the concept of the automat is.

bkoganbing According to a recent biography of Jean Arthur, Easy Living only got a so-so reception from the movie-going public of 1937. Today it is rightly regarded as a screwball comedy classic from the era that invented and defined that genre. The miracle was that it got made at all.Jean Arthur was obligated to Columbia Pictures and the dictatorial Harry Cohn and she was allowed to make outside films. But Cohn determined when and where. So Easy Living may have been a great fit for her, but it didn't fit into his plans. Jean had to go to court before the film was made and a settlement was reached.Easy Living also gave an outlet for some unknown comic talents of Edward Arnold who usually played some serious villains in films. Arnold is a Wall Street investment tycoon whose every bit of noise be it wisdom or flatulence is recorded for posterity. One day in fit of pique against his spendthrift wife Mary Nash and wastrel son Ray Milland, Arnold throws a most expensive mink coat from out the townhouse window and on to a passing working woman in Jean Arthur. He tells her to keep the thing and count her good fortune. But folks are in the habit of recording Arnold's every move, including one bestowing an expensive gift on a mystery woman.That starts about 90 minutes of non-stop hilarity in which the very foundations of our financial institutions are rocked due ultimately everyone misconstruing a relationship between Arnold and Arthur. One does get going however with Arthur and Milland when she finds him working at an automat because Arnold's dared him to get a job. That ends in an incredible burst of hilarity, you think Animal House had a great food fight, check the one in Easy Living out.Directed by Mitchell Leisen and written by Preston Sturges, Easy Living has all the earmarks of a Preston Sturges directed movie, in fact Sturges's stock company was somewhat assembled here if you look down the supporting players. My favorite is Luis Alberni whose white elephant of a hotel finally gets going due to some accidental rumors.We're the richer for Easy Living being made even if Jean Arthur had to take Harry Cohn to court to do it.