February 18

Happy Birthday to Edward Arnold and George Kennedy.

For Edward Arnold's Birthday I watched Easy Living. Edward played a Wall-Street banker whose family spends a great deal of money, the wife buys a fir coat for $58,000 and the son (Ray Milland) a car for $11,000. When Edward sees the bill for the fir he confronts his wife (Mary Nash) and wants to send the coat back. When he opens her wall length closet it is full of furs (and 3 rows of shoes), and he just grabs one, which happens to be the new one. The wife does not what to give it up so she grabs it and runs away from Edward with him chasing her through the house. She ends up on the roof he gets the coat and throws it over the edge. It lands on Jean Arthur who is in an open top bus. She goes back to the area to find who dropped the coat. Edward coming out of his house sees her and tells her the coat is hers. He ends up giving her a ride to work. When the coat fell on her head it damaged the feather on her hat. They stop and Edward gets her a new hat, a sable to match the coat. Edward gives the milliner (Franklin Pangborn) his card to send him the bill. Jean keeps the coat thinking it is faux fur. Jean never learns her benefactors name. She gets to work late and no one believes her story about the coat falling on her head. She gets fired for ethical reasons because of how her boss thinks she got the coat.

The milliner tells Mr. Louis (a hotel owner who is behind in his mortgage payments to Edward) about the morning events. Mr. Louis (Luis Alberni) decides to get Jean in his floundering hotel as a way to keep it afloat. He ends up renting a suite (4101-14) to her for $7 a week (plus an egg for breakfast) and paying her last weeks rent at her old apartment. The tour of the rooms is great. They go from one room to another to another. Every room is beautiful and has a chandelier. The luxurious bath is the size of a pool. She goes to an automat to get dinner (I love films with automats). There she meets a very fresh bus boy, Ray Milland. He decides to help her by giving her food and he will pay for it out of his next check and she can pay him back. He gets caught and fights back. In the struggle the doors to the food open and people start grabbing food. Jean and another man sit calmly at a table while chaos erupts around them. A man goes into the street and tells people there is free food. There is a lot of great slapstick in this scene. Ray gets free, gets Jean and they run out of the automat. Jean thinking that he is living in the park invites him to her suite. As they tour the house they try to figure out the bath and water, like a fountain shoots out and they both get wet. Edward alone in the house (son not returned after their argument and the wife packed her 12 trunks and 17 suitcases to go to Florida) decides to go to the Hotel Louis. There he meets Jean dressed in beautiful clothing given to her by the milliner and buys her dinner. Mr. Louis goes to the newspaper who prints an incriminating social story about a the two in a love nest. That popularizes the hotel and increases business. The next day Jean gets phone calls and people visiting, wanting to giver her things, cars, jewelry, clothing and the works. A man comes to the house wanted advice from the Wall-Street man but got advice from the Wall-Street son mistakenly that steel is going down. This starts a selling spree on steel and causes Edwards to almost go bankrupt because he thinks steel is going up and buys a great deal. Ray seeing in the afternoon paper that his fathers company is struggling goes to his father's office. The wife also finds out about the trouble and comes back. Edward figures out what happened and contacts the police to find Jean. Jean is thrown out of Hotel Louis (after giving him a present of goldfish in a bowl). Jean finally figuring out who Edward is goes to his office with two sheep dogs she just purchased to confront him. They decide to have Jean call her contact to tell him the steel is going up to reverse the action, which actually works. She gives the coat back, takes the two dogs and leaves with Ray chasing after her. The police catch up to her and make her go back to the office building. Ray gives Edward advise and he gets a job. Ray asks Jean to marry him. Edward sees the coat in his wife’s arms and takes the coat and throws it over the balcony where it lands on another woman and ruins the feather in her hat.

The above description doesn't do the film justice. The acting is great, the story is fun and fast paced with great dialog and all the sets are beautiful. The opening credits are of a woman getting ready for an event at her dressing table. She is putting on stockings, jewelry, perfume, orchids and furs, very extravagant. The film was written by Preston Sturges and the “interior decorations” by A.E. Freudeman. That is the first time I have seen such a credit. It is really deserved. The rooms of Edwards house and the hotel are incredibly beautiful. Everything seems to shimmer either with the mirrors or the glass lights and decorations. It is directed by Mitchell Leisen. I don't recognize the name, but I may have to find more of his films.