Absolutely brilliant

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

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Another enjoyable screwball comedy from Hollywood's Golden Age, written by soon-to-be writer-director extraordinaire Preston Sturges and starring the always watchable Jean Arthur and the beginnings of Sturges' stock supporting cast. Edward Arnold gives his usual blustering performance as the Warren Buffet-type financier who sets off an unlikely chain of events when in a fit of pique he throws his wife's most recent expensive fur coat purchase out the window of their penthouse apartment right onto the head of ordinary average gal, Arthur, with a suitably every-woman type name of Mary Smith. Coincidence follows coincidence and misunderstanding isn't far behind either as, suspected of being the rich old grandee's young mistress, she sees herself elevated to the executive suite of a swank hotel which needs a favour from Arnold's J B Ball character. At an automat where rather like buffet restaurants today, you pick, pay and collect your meal of choice, she encounter's Ball's son, slumming it in a day-job to prove his independence from his father. Played by a very young Ray Milland, unsurprisingly they become romantically entwined and from there the film rolls along uproariously to a happy ever after conclusion and a cheeky throwback in the final scene to the original catalyst for all the craziness that followed.Likable as it is I wouldn't put in the top-bracket of its type. There are few killer one-liners and much of the humour is of the slapstick variety, fine for the riotous automat scene but less so when it's repeated at the final denouement in Ball's office. Sturges' identifiable traits of overlapping dialogue, outrageous chance events and lots of physical humour are all present and correct but require more finessing than they get here. Arnold and Arthur are fine but Milland mugs and pratfalls too much. Director Mitchell Leisen does so with flair, keeping up with the fast- moving action, although for me there was probably too much of it in this particular movie.

Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, and Ray Milland star in "Easy Living," a 1937 comedy written by Preston Sturges and directed by Mitchell Leisen.It's a funny premise: furious with his wife (Mary Nash) for spending so much money, J.B. Ball, a Wall Street financier, throws his wife's sable coat over their terrace. It lands on Mary Smith (Arthur), who works at a magazine for young boys. As she attempts to return the coat, Arnold rushes outside and insists that she keep it, and then gives her a ride to her office, stopping along the way to get her a hat to match the coat. When her employer disbelieves her story of how she came by the coat, she lies and says she purchased it in a store. He calls the store. She did not buy it there for $152.00. Assuming that her moral code is not up to the magazine's standards, she's fired.Mary has no money for rent and not much for food, but her luck is about to change. The hat merchant spreads the word that J.B. Ball is supporting her, and she's offered a magnificent suite in a struggling hotel, with the hope that J.B. will bring more people to it. She's offered clothing, jewels -- she has no idea why.Meanwhile, Ball's son (Milland) is trying to make good on his own and is working at the automat, when he meets Mary and, thinking she's rich, tries to flirt with her. After a long slapstick scene during which the automat is just about destroyed, he loses his job and she brings him back to her place to get some rest. The situation goes from convoluted to more convoluted.Very funny movie with maybe a little too much slapstick, but the acting is wonderful, especially from Arthur and Arnold, who are great. Ray Milland in his early films was very charming and had a light touch and is very enjoyable.I don't actually consider this Sturges' best effort, but it is a fun movie and well worth seeing. And I loved seeing the automat.

The lives of a rich banker and his son become unwittingly entangled with that of a poor working girl in this enjoyable if unspectacular comedy. Given that comic genius Preston Sturges wrote the screenplay, the talented Mitchell Leisen directed it, and adorable Jean Arthur stars in it, the film falls somewhat short of expectations. Sturges would of course go on to write and direct some of the best comedies of the era, but here the script is not as inspired as his later efforts. It has its moments though, including a slapstick scene in a cafeteria. As the perky young woman, Arthur is fine as usual, as are Arnold as the banker and Milland as his son.

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.