She's a little bit of heaven right here on this crazy territory called earth. She sails and soars and delights - her glances, her shyness, her awkwardness in love, the voice of a skylark. Perhaps you can tell: I'm a little bit in love with Jean Arthur (and Ingrid Bergman - but she's not here at the moment). For me, in the realm of screwball comedy, no one compares. Loy and Colbert and Russell (when she's not hamming it up) and Lombard (when she doe not over use her importuning screech) are all fine and wonderful and Jim Dandy - but I'm not in love with them. All that romance aside - this is a delightful film of absurdity. Or screwballism, I guess you might say if you wanted to coin a word. From mink coats dropping from rooftops onto the head of a passerby in a double-decker bus (and I remember them from when I was a kid in the very city it takes place) and automat pies (I remember them, too) and luxury hotel rooms for your dreamy pleasure and Edward Arnold bellowing and blustering as only he can (never even nominated for an Academy Award! Him and Ed. G Robinson and Myrna Loy for that matter. Now that's really absurd!) Mitchell Liesen was an under-rated director. And Franklin Pangborn and Mary Nash (not evil for a change) and Ray Milland just beginning his foray into light-weight comedy and good at it, too. These movies don't have to make sense; there is too much of that going on in a world that is totally nonsensical. Laugh out loud and bring out the popcorn and give your favorite squeeze a squeeze. Amen!
Review of Easy Living
