This is an amusing, entertaining Hollywood antique featuring a number of actors who became Hollywood icons such as Jean Arthur, Ray Milland, and Edward Arnold. Before Ed Asner there was Edward Arnold. Mr. Arnold was one of the greatest actors in Hollywood history. His performances were consistently great and through him a weak script became good and good script great. He was one of those actors who dominated the screen and could play a wide range of roles opposite some of the most famous Hollywood players. As for Jean Arthur, she specialized in a style of acting that established a precedent for Lucille Ball, except that Ms. Arthur did not have to act goofy. Movies from the 1930s were made in a certain style that was unique to that period. Black-and-white, simple, engaging, upbeat stories, lots of action, and optimistic about life - all this during the Great Depression. This is another Preston Sturges gem and definitely is worth watching.

Although it has become part of a legendary case of sour grapes, EASY LIVING is one of the best "screwball" comedies of the 1930s. The plot is very easy - Jean Arthur is a working woman - the youngest editor at a boy's magazine - who is walking along Wall Street when she is hit by a falling object - a mink coat. It has been thrown off the balcony of a large office building, which is the headquarters of one J. B. Ball, "the bull of Wall Street". This is Edward Arnold, here doing a great spoof of all his tycoon parts. Arnold's wife (Mary Nash) bought the expensive coat without getting his permission (he's rich, but he does not want his family to get soft, and considers the mink a needless luxury). Arnold does not realize what happened when he threw out the mink. Besides angering Nash (who packs up and goes away threatening to divorce him),his blundering to try to get back the coat (to return it, of course) publicizes his connection to Arthur, so that soon people think Arnold gave the coat to Arthur (i.e., she's his mistress).

Arnold's son (Ray Milland) is actually trying to prove himself without any aid from Dad (he doesn't want to be a junior partner in the bank yet). So he is going through all sorts of jobs, with less than middling success. Arnold is not impressed - he can't figure out why his son is such a mediocre worker. Milland meets Arthur accidentally, when he is working in the auto-mat (which will lead to the best known sequence in the film). In the meantime, Arthur is approached by two men, Mr. Louis Louis (Luis Alberni) who is the owner of the Hotel Louis - the most glamorous hotel in the world - and Mr. E.F. Hulgar (Andrew Tombes) who is a leading stock investment adviser. Both men believe that Arthur is Arnold's mistress. Alberni wants Arthur to live in the Hotel for a pittance: he feels her presence may cause other socialites to use the hotel, which is facing bankruptcy. Tombes is willing to pay Arthur a fee if she hears anything (pertaining to rumors concerning Arnold's latest efforts to corner the steel market).

I won't go into the plot more, except that Sturges script has real fun about the unreality of Wall Street. Arnold's brilliant investment banker may plot a steel corner (which nearly backfires),but he has difficulty doing simple mathematics regarding fractions and percentages (the hopelessness in his face counting a percentage differential with his fingers is priceless!). Alberni, who was a hotel chef with grandiose ideas, can't see that building the world's greatest luxury hotel was not a good idea in the Depression (Sturges, by the way, based this idiocy on the building of the second, current, Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the early 1930s - it was a flop initially). That brilliant investment adviser, Mr. Hulgar (whose name is an obvious swipe at E.F.Hutton) pays for tips which are basically gossip, and passes these onto his customers.

Sturges (like Billy Wilder) would later make nasty comments about Leisin, both future directors claiming Leisin ruined their satire and spoofery in the films he directed from their scripts. As I mentioned elsewhere, Leisin was not as cynical as they were, but he certainly had a good sense of humor, and he had a sense of art composition (he had assisted Cecil B. De Mille as an art director in the early 1930s) that far outshone Sturges or Wilder. One looks at the suites of Hotel Louis and they are quite stunning. One can't imagine Sturges or Wilder doing as well with decor (although Sturges might have added some comic defect in it). In EASY LIVING, the best known sequence was added by Leisin - a piece of classic slapstick. In the middle of an argument with his bosses at the auto-mat, Milland causes the doors of all the windows containing food to open at one time without money being used to open them. Suddenly every bum and hobo in New York City runs in to grab free food, and food is being thrown around by fighting hobos covering everyone in sight.

Not a bad moment of comic cinema - and Preston Sturges was not responsible for it at all. Mitchell Leisin should be better known today for his best films. He was not as great as Wilder or Sturges but he was not a hack.

This is a delightful little comedy provided you turn off your brain and just let yourself laugh and enjoy the whole crazy mess, as the plot is very contrived and just about impossible to believe! I could, and as a result, I had a great time!

The film begins with a millionaire financier (Edward Arnold) arguing with his wife about her extravagance. In a fit of anger, Arnold grabs a brand-new sable coat and tosses it off the roof of their luxury high-rise! By chance, it lands on the unsuspecting Jean Arthur--who naturally tries to return it. However, Arnold will hear nothing of it and insists she keeps the coat. This little innocent and strange encounter would drastically change all their lives as the notion of a total stranger receiving such an expensive gift starts people talking--and assuming that the nice Miss Arthur is Arnold's mistress. It's actually very funny that not once is the word 'mistress' used but the audience is sure this is exactly what everyone is assuming.

Since Arnold is so powerful a force on Wall Street, people almost immediately begin kissing up to Jean--assuming she has the inside track on influencing Arnold. Jean, who is just too naive and nice for her own good, just can't understand why everyone is suddenly being so nice to her and giving her lots and lots of free things--including a super-expensive luxury suite, more furs and practically anything else her heart could desire.

In addition to the affair not being the least bit true, there are many other plots and subplots that all are set into motion by this supposed affair--all culminating in a very funny mess. One problem is that Jean has fallen for Arnold's son (who she assumes is just an ordinary working man),another is that Arnold's wife is now suing for divorce and one very innocent statement by Arthur practically destroys the stock market!! It is hilarious and very cute that one tiny little incident kept snowballing into this enormous mess! Given that it's all Hollywood fantasy, you know that by the end everything will somehow magically turn out perfectly. However, despite this predictability, the journey to this happy ending is one that you just have to see to believe--making this one of the better screwball comedies of the 1930s. Any serious fan of the classic years of Hollywood must see this film.