Themes: Midlife Crises, Crumbling Marriages, Football Players
Main Cast: Victor Mature, Lizabeth Scott, Lucille Ball, Sonny Tufts, Lloyd Nolan
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 77 minutes
Plot
No relation to the 1937 screwball comedy of the same name, Easy Living is a film about the world of professional sports. Victor Mature plays Pete Wilson, star halfback of the New York Chiefs. Well past his prime, Wilson would like to retire to a coaching job, but his rival Tim McCarr (Sonny Tufts) beats him to it. Financially, Wilson is really in no position to retire; unfortunately, he has learned that he suffers from a potentially deadly heart condition. To make matters worse, he's on the outs with his wife Liza (Lizabeth Scott), who has become disillusioned with the status of "team wife." A brief dalliance with team secretary Anne (an excellent performance from Lucille Ball) results in Anne's selfless efforts to help Wilson put his marriage -- and his life -- back together. Though he was ignored by contemporary reviewers, future talk-show host Jack Paar has an amusing supporting role. Most of the football players seen in Easy Living were drawn from the ranks of the real-life L.A. Rams. The film was based on a story by novelist Irwin Shaw. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Easy Living tries so hard to be a really good little drama that one might be tempted to overlook its flaws -- in the end, however, it gets more points for ambition than for achievement. Vera Caspary and Charles Schnee's screenplay has some good things in it, and its focus on a professional athlete undergoing both a personal and professional crisis is fairly rare, but on the whole, the script flirts with this situation without really unearthing the real drama at its core. Victor Mature turns in a good, strong performance, but he doesn't dig as deeply into the character as is demanded, and he has a hard time holding the screen when Lizabeth Scott -- in a wonderfully icy performance -- is playing opposite him. He has an easier time opposite Lucille Ball, whose understated, delicate performance is especially fine and seems to draw forth a deeper performance from Mature. Jacques Tourneur's direction is subtle and balanced, and he makes some nice observations about life in 1949. One watches Easy Living, enjoying it and expecting it to make the leap from average little melodrama to something just a little bit special -- but the film disappoints by never quite doing so. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Paul Stewart - Argus; Jack Paar - Scoop Spooner; Jeff Donnell - Penny McCarr; Art Baker - Howard Vollmer; Gordon Jones - Bill Holloran; Don Beddoe - Jaeger; William "Bill" Phillips - Ozzie; Charles Lang - Whitey; Kenny Washington - Benny; Julia Dean - Mrs. Belle Ryan; Everett Glass - Virgil Ryan; Robert Ellis - Urchin; Alex Sharp - Dan; Russell Thorson - Hunk Edwards; Audrey Young - Singer; Los Angeles Rams - Themselves; Michael St. Angel - Gilbert Vollmer; Jim Backus - Dr. Franklin; Alan Dinehart III - Urchins; Dick Ryan - Bartender; Carl Saxe - Man; Audrey Wilder - Singer; Richard Erdman - Buddy Morgan; Jackie Jackson; William Erwin; W.J. O'Brien; Robert Graham; Albin Robeling - Chef; Erin Selwyn - Nurse
Credit
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Alfred Herman - Art Director, Edward Stevenson - Costume Designer, James Lane - First Assistant Director, Jacques Tourneur - Director, Frederic Knudtson - Editor, Roy Webb - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gordon Bau - Makeup, Harry J. Wild - Cinematographer, Robert Sparks - Producer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Harley Miller - Set Designer, Russell A. Cully - Special Effects, A. Earl Wolcott - Sound/Sound Designer, Clem Portman - Sound/Sound Designer, Vera Caspary - Screenwriter, Charles Schnee - Screenwriter, Irwin Shaw - Short Story Author
The film tells the story of football star Pete Wilson (Victor Mature) who, after discovering he has a potentially fatal heart condition, is faced with the prospect of ending his public life and settling down into suburbia. His wife Liza (Lizabeth Scott) is too busy basking in the spotlight of being a footballer's wife and running her own interior design service to notice her husband becoming closer to another woman, Anne (Lucille Ball). Ultimately, Pete must not only choose the new direction of his public life, but also his private life. In contrast to some other romantic dramas of the period, Easy Living features the interesting conclusion of Pete choosing to search for the love he remembers in his increasingly self-absorbed wife, leaving the more sympathetic character of Anne alone.
Tout Ça ne Vaut pas l'Amour (1931) ·Pour Être Aimé (1933) ·Les Filles de la Concierge (1934) ·Romance of Radium (1937) ·The Man in the Barn (1937) ·They All Come Out (1939) ·Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)
