EASY LIVING ***
IDEA: A downtrodden female typist is thrust into the world of the elite when she is mistaken for the mistress of a powerful banker.
BLURB: Easy living is not exactly easy in Mitchell Leisen and Preston Sturges’ rambunctious screwball comedy. Already proving himself among the keenest social satirists in early Hollywood, Sturges wryly links the titular term with the vacuous existence afforded by wealth and status. It’s the life of Edward Arnold’s blustery, gormless banker J.B. Ball, and, by convoluted proxy, the life that gets unwittingly foisted upon Jean Arthur’s demure typist Mary Smith. The madcap daisy chain of misunderstandings, assumptions, and hearsay that results in Mary’s sudden prestige - and that threatens both Ball’s fortune and the market at large - is a sardonic sendup of gendered power relations under consumer capitalism, underscoring the degree to which the petty whims of influential people shape the economy and media culture. This toothy social commentary is pure Sturges, as is the knockabout slapstick that memorably erupts from the desperate hunger of diners at an automat. Leisen directs with a fleetness that serves Sturges’ hectic dialogue and tone well, while a coterie of distinguished character actors provide fizzy support to Arthur and Ray Milland’s sweetly fledgling romance. Meanwhile, art director Hans Dreier leaves nothing behind on the film’s most stunning set, a labyrinthine hotel penthouse that’s opulent and outrageous in all the right ways. Easy Living somewhat paints itself into a corner in its final third - after all the zaniness, Sturges doesn’t quite seem to know how to pull everything together - but the film still lands as a tart screwball delight.
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