My life in luxury

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Movie
German title My life in luxury
Original title Easy living
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1937
length 88 minutes
Rod
Director Mitchell Leisen
script Preston Sturges
production Arthur Hornblow, Jr. for Paramount Pictures
music Friedrich Hollaender ,
Gordon Jenkins ,
Gregory Stone ,
Victor Young
camera Ted Tetzlaff
cut Doane Harrison
occupation

My Life in Luxury is a 1937 American screwball comedy directed by Mitchell Leisen. The film is loosely based on a short story by Vera Caspary and written by Preston Sturges . The main roles are played by Jean Arthur , Edward Arnold and Ray Milland .

action

New York City in the Great Depression : J. B. Ball is one of the most powerful and richest men on Wall Street , but his family frustrates him. Son John Jr. is a good-for-nothing in his eyes, resting only on his father's fortune, and his wife Jenny passes her time by spending the fullest money on luxury items. One morning Ball discovers that his wife had spent $ 58,000 (almost $ 1 million in today's purchasing power) on a sable coat. In an argument with his wife, Ball drops his coat from the roof of his skyscraper, from where it finally falls on the head of Mary Smith, who is sitting in the double-decker bus. Mary wants to return the luxurious coat and only get her hat refunded, which was damaged by the thrown coat. However, Mr. Ball insists that Mary - after making sure that she belongs to the working class - keep the coat. He doesn't reveal its worth to Mary. Ball later buys her a new hat in Mr. Van Buren's boutique , who thinks Mary is the businessman's mistress. Since Van Buren can't keep his mouth shut, New York's rumor mill soon begins to simmer.

After shopping in the hat shop, Mary is late for her poorly paid job as an editor for the boys' magazine “Boy's Constant Companion”. She is fired because her superiors think that she could only have got hold of such an expensive coat in a morally questionable manner, which, in the opinion of the editor-in-chief, would not be compatible with the morale of the magazine. Meanwhile, Mr. Ball has to grapple in his office with his debtor, Mr. Louis Louis, whose huge hotel, which is avoided by guests, is about to go bankrupt. Louis Louis only gets five days to make his hotel profitable, otherwise he loses it to Ball. On the search for the saving idea, Louis meets the hatter Van Buren, who tells him about Ball's alleged mistress Mary. Louis Louis then quarters Mary in the Royal Suite of his hotel. He hopes that she will rave about the hotel to his creditor Ball and that he will reconsider the closure. Mary accepts Louis' offer, as otherwise she would be on the street as an unemployed person, although she cannot figure out his generosity.

With her last penny, Mary goes to a nearby diner where you can get food from vending machines. Mr. Ball's son John has meanwhile taken a job as a temporary worker there to convince his father that he can take responsibility himself. Out of pity he wants to buy Mary a free meal and opens one of the machine doors, which a shop detective notices. In the scramble between John and the detective, all the machine doors are opened, whereupon the crowds rush to the free food. Mary and the naturally fired John escape the scramble and go to Mary's suite at the Hotel Louis. In the meantime, Mr. Ball is also staying at the hotel, as his wife and son are both not coming home and he wants to watch his debtor Louis on the fingers. Since Mary's alleged lover Ball senior has now also stayed at the hotel and she is actually in the room with John Ball - the son - a series of mix-ups arise that strengthen Louis in his belief that Mary and Mr. Ball really are one Have a love affair.

Newspaper columnist Wallace Whistling gets wind of the matter and writes about Ball's alleged affair at the Hotel Louis. The suddenly interesting and trendy hotel cannot save itself from inquiries. Mary is swarmed by persistent and courteous traders who want to make money with her. A stockbroker named Hulgar sneaks into Mary's suite to hear "Mr. Ball ”from the steel market. John Jr., known as "Mr. Ball ”feels addressed, for the fun of it replies that steel prices are going down - the markets change as a result and Father Ball, who invested in steel, is suddenly faced with ruin. When John Jr. notices his mishap, he goes to his father and tells him about it. Now Mr. Ball sends the police to look for Mary so that she can tell him which man asked her about the steel market. Meanwhile, Mrs. Ball returns to New York from her Florida vacation to confront her husband with the alleged affair.

Mary appears in Ball's office herself after being shocked to find out that her coat is really made of sable. Mrs. Ball has a fit of jealousy and Mr. Ball makes it clear that Mary is not his mistress. Finally, Mary calls the stock market gamer Hulgar to tell him that steel prices are going to rise again. As a result, the market turns again and Ball can save his fortune. John is finally employed by his father in the company and wants to marry Mary. In the meantime, however, she is almost arrested by the police on the instructions of Mr. Louis Louis, who now sees Mary as a fraudster. But this misunderstanding is also finally put out of the way. When Mrs. Ball tries to get her sable coat again, Mr. Ball throws it out the window again - where it lands again on the head of a young woman.

background

My Luxury Life was the first script Preston Sturges wrote on his studio contract with Paramount Pictures. However, the responsible producer showed little interest and replied: "1936 is not the time for comedies." It was only when Sturges personally approached director Mitchell Leisen who was convinced of the script that production of the film could begin. The short story Easy Living by Vera Caspary served as a template, but Sturges changed or added essential points. In the end, practically only the title and the idea that a woman's coat would fall on her head remained. When Sturges began making films himself from 1940 because he was dissatisfied with the way other directors had processed his scripts, several of the supporting actors appearing in Mein Leben in Luxus became permanent staff in Sturges' films - including William Demarest , Franklin Pangborn , Robert Greig , Olaf Hytten and Arthur Hoyt .

Sturges had the Hotel Louis based on the Waldorf Astoria in New York, which was a long financial failure after it opened in 1931 in the middle of the Great Depression. The gossip reporter Wallace Whistling played by William Demarest is a reference to Walter Winchell , then a famous reporter for meditative entertainment stories. A possible annoyance for the Hays Code censors was the love scene between Jean Arthur and Ray Milland on the sofa, which is why director Leisen used a trick: “We had to play the love scene with both of them lying on this long couch so that they were in different directions and their heads met in the middle because that was the only way we could get it through the censorship. There was no physical contact except a kiss. ”In addition, Leisen allowed a lot of slapstick scenes, which he explained:

"I was getting bored with the polite drawing room comedies I had been doing, and I decided to cut loose."

"I got a little bored with the polite society comedies I'd done so far, and I decided to get it out of hand."

- Mitchell Leisen

Mitchell Leisen, who worked as a costume designer for a long time before his directorial career, was somewhat discredited by scriptwriters like Sturges or Billy Wilder , because they saw an "aesthetic stylist for whom the image was more important than the word". In the case of My Life in Luxury , however, Leisen's abilities were an asset. He takes the ironic portrayal of wealth to extremes by making the sets designed by Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté always appear lavish and luxurious. The Royal Suite of the Hotel Louis has five reception rooms, a main hall, several bedrooms and bathrooms, a training room and, to top it off, a shell-shaped bathtub. Ironically, however, the suite's refrigerator is empty, which is why the poor Mary has to eat with her last pennies in a cheap restaurant next door.

Movie song Easy Living

The song Easy Living , composed for the film by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin , became a jazz standard that has since been picked up by famous artists such as Chet Baker , Miles Davis , Art Garfunkel , Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday .

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created in 1981 for broadcast on ARD by Bavaria Atelier GmbH, Munich.

role actor German Dubbing voice
Mary Smith Jean Arthur Viktoria Brams
John B. Ball senior Edward Arnold Alf Marholm
Editor-in-chief of the "Boy's Constant Companion" Harlan Briggs Erich Ebert

Reviews

Easy Living is now considered a smaller classic of the screwball comedy and continues to receive positive reviews, while Rotten Tomatoes has - based on eight reviews - a positive rating of 100%. Dave Kehr wrote that the twisting of the Cinderella story in the time of the Great Depression acquired an "airy dignity" from Leisen's direction. The TV Guide was also positive: "Preston Sturges' imaginative script is one of his best, in which he neatly mixes his usual satire on capitalism and class systems with some mind-boggling dialogue and hilarious slapstick." The lexicon of international film was extremely positive: " Turbulent comedy, malicious in its social criticism; Quickly staged, sparkling with original gags and carried by good actors. Timeless film pleasure. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Trivia of the Internet Movie Database on Easy Living
  2. a b c Easy Living at Turner Classic Movies
  3. Manfred Hobsch, Franz Stadler: The Art of Film Comedy Volume 1: Comedians, gags and directors . Mühlbeyer Verlag, 2015, Google Books
  4. Karola Richter: Screwball comedies as a product of their time: "Don't make them sexual - make them crazy instead". Master's thesis , 1997. Diplomica , Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8366-7453-9 . Publisher website for the book , see Google Books
  5. ( “Don't make it sexual - instead make it crazy”. Quotation from Ed Sikov ), on the website ( memento of the original from April 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the author of this thesis (Karola Richter) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.karola-richter.de
  6. My life in luxury with the German dubbing index
  7. rottentomatoes.com
  8. ^ Review by Dave Kehr at Chicago Reader
  9. Easy Living at the TV Guide
  10. My life in luxury. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 27, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used