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There are two stories here. The stronger one deals with a quarterback for the New York Chiefs pushed toward retirement by a heart murmur. This story offers interesting glimpses at the state of professional football, circa 1949. The team takes the train to "away" games, for instance, and it seems to have only one black player. And get this --making the Championship Playoffs means at least an extra $1000 for every man on the team! (But this was in an era of nickel pay-phone calls, when college football coaches made $3200 a year.)

The other story centers on the quarterback's troubled relationship with his ambitious, social-climbing wife who's not above using her seductive charm to make a success of her interior decorating business. Here again there are intriguing insights into the world of 1949, where "uppity" women had to be taken down a notch or two lest they forget their proper roles as wives and mothers.

These two stories don't merge particularly well, resulting in an awkward blend of "locker room" and "Park Avenue," and the ending seems forced and unconvincing. (This may have been due to the Production Code's dim view of divorce.) However, the cast still makes the movie worth a look, with solid work from Lucille Ball, Lloyd Nolan, Jim Backus, Art Baker, Jack Paar, etc. Lizabeth Scott -- she of the spectacular eyebrows -- seems a tad "overheated" as the self-centered wife but the script probably forced this kind of performance. Victor Mature has the better part and he acquits himself in adequate fashion. In his locker room scene he gets to strip off his shirt and thus reveal one of the great torsos in the movies. (And how gloriously it was soon to be whipped and otherwise tortured in such films as "Samson and Delilah," "The Robe," "Zarak," and "Timbuktu.") Too bad the movie as a whole isn't equal to its star's chest measurement.

Pete Wilson, also known as King Football, faces a dual crisis. Diagnosed with a serious heart ailment, he learns his career is over. Wilson also must break the news to his star-struck wife, who enjoys the spotlight even more than he does.

"Easy Living" is of course an ironic title. Wilson's life, as a quarterback and as a husband, is anything but easy. As the story evolves, he must come to terms with both the loss of his livelihood and the possible end of his marriage. Victor Mature, who played gladiators both ancient and modern, does his best but he isn't quite up to the emotional demands of the role. And Lizabeth Scott, ever the ice princess, never comes across as Wilson's wife. The supporting cast, featuring Lloyd Nolan as the head coach and Lucille Ball as his son's widow, is generally stronger. Jack Paar, in one of his rare film roles, pops up as the team's PR man.

The film's climax, in which Wilson slaps his wife in desperation, could never be made today but still was acceptable in 1949. Frankly though, you can't help share Wilson's frustration with this frivolous woman and you have to wonder what you would do in his place.

Highly recommended, both as a study of mid-century social attitudes and for an early Hollywood view of the NFL

Victor Mature, dour as always, is a pro football player. He ought to have hung it up long ago, and he knows it. He is married to Lizabeth Scott. Scott is very ambitious. Of course, today her ambition would seem quite logical. In 1949, it was still a little unusual for a woman not to be content with hubby's income and prestige.

These two are an odd pair. That's an aside, having little to do with whether or not the movie works -- and I do think it does.

Lloyd Nolan is excellent as the coach. Lucille Ball gives a subdued performance as his secretary.

Almost no one in this movie has what or who he or she wants. A gloom hangs over it.

Jacques Tourneur was an excellent director. This isn't his best. But I have a feeling it was a bit of a challenge for him -- a very all-American setting and plot. And he brings it off beautifully.

How interesting to see the difference in our society then versus now! When Liza receives her two slaps at the end of the movie, one more or less as punishment for things done and one to sort of set her straight, I wonder what the reactions were in audiences at the theaters. Today I suppose there would be an uproar over this for many reasons. On the other hand, we all need a "slap in the face" sometimes - male or female. Whenever we cross over that line, the one that separates my "rights" from the way we should treat others, we're elevating ourselves above everyone else. When we act like spoiled little children maybe it's okay to be treated like them? As most parents recognize (or should), their are times when the correct amount of corporal punishment administered with love is the best treatment for the lives they are shaping. Everyone should note the circumstances under which Victor's character slapped his wife, and that he did it because he loved her and wanted to save their marriage.

It is difficult to determine where this story is set -- period. The sports team in "Easy Living" is the Chiefs, the helmets worn by this teams are those of the Rams, but yet this team (and ultimately, this story) is based in New York City.

Well, the Kansas City Chiefs began as the Dallas Texans and never existed as a franchise in New York City. The St. Louis Rams, and their iconic ram horn helmet design, has only been seen in three markets, Cleveland, Los Angeles and St. Louis. Again, a club that was never in New York City.

It is also more than odd that the main character, a quarterback, wears number 66, not a customary number for a quarterback to wear. But, it is this lack of accurate detailing that reveals a project mired in vagaries.

These type of historical inaccuracies reveal a more deep-seated lack of focus from this film. Despite its promise, Easy Living just lacks any type of focus. The plot slides around seemingly unsure of where it wants to go or needs to go. primarily, the essential points in the plot development are buried behind a lot of pointless distractions...and characters.

This perpetually 'out-of-focus' plot is enhanced by dialog which is trite, and contrived. It seems the writers of this screenplay were hellbent on being melodramatic and vague.

The movie seems to starts somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, Easy Living runs like a stage play that is missing too many essential scenes, not just the beginning!

Easy Living is based on a story Education of the Heart by Irving Shaw, who was previously in 1942 nominated for the Academy Awards for co-writing the screen play of George Stevens' The Talk of the Town, and directed by Jacques Tourneur best remembered for his Horror and Film-Noir classics such as Cat People and Out of the Past.

Easy Living is basically a story of a struggle in life of Pete Wilson (played by Victor Mature). He is the highest paid professional football player in the league, who knows nothing in life except to play football. His life is apparently settled, he is married to a beautiful woman Liza (Lizabeth Scott), owns a nice home etc., his future looks bright till the day when a serious heart ailment is discovered after a medical test which may result in fatal consequences in case Pete continues to play football. All his world falls apart beginning with his marriage to Liza who now shows her real interests in marriage to Pete being the easy living provided with the money he earns as a football player, an occupation he is unable to continue anymore by obvious reasons.

Overall it's a weak drama in all of its aspects: the story, the acting and even directing from otherwise brilliant Jacques Tourneur.

A very boring, though not very long (the duration of film being 77 minutes) viewing experience. 5/10

One reviewer on IMDb described this film as "blah", and I think that sums it up very well. This is a movie that could've been really good, even great, but was hampered by a lame script and, in my opinion, poor direction and heavy-handed acting. Victor Mature and Lizabeth Scott are not two of my favorites, anyway, but I do think they were well-cast as the aging football player, Pete Wilson, and his selfish, social-climbing wife, Liza. Even reliable veteran actors Lloyd Nolan and Paul Stewart couldn't do much with their roles. Everybody seemed to be overacting, maybe to compensate for the lackluster script. It's really a shame, because it was an unusual and interesting storyline and should have had more depth than it did. I also thought the Lucille Ball character was corny and clichéd: the "nice girl", albeit cynical and disillusioned, who loves Pete from afar -- sort of a poor man's Eve Arden.

There was one scene that was a little gem, though, in my book. "Pete" has just come out of the dressing room after a game and is sitting in his car with "Liza". One of his teammates has just been cut from the team, and is very depressed. He stops to say goodbye to Pete, who's very sympathetic and tries to cheer the guy up. Liza sits in the car putting on lipstick, pointedly ignoring the downcast man. Then when he gets ready to leave, he tells her it was nice meeting her, or some such thing, and she replies in a flippant, dismissive tone, "Goodbye", and looks away, as if to say, You don't matter, and I have no time for you. Then she tells Pete that the guy "isn't a real man" because he can't play ball anymore. This, of course, is a blow to Pete, who is hiding the fact that his own career is coming to an end because of a heart problem that he hasn't even told her about. It's a nice snapshot of Liza's character.

All in all, watching Easy Living is like being served vanilla sherbet for dessert when what you really wanted was Rocky Road ice cream.

This is a short story about a football quarterback who finds he has heart trouble and will not be able to play again without great risk.

To be honest, it's a very forgettable movie despite the decent cast of Victor Mature, Lucille Ball, Lizabeth Scott, Lloyd Nolan and Paul Stewart. The film was just kind of blah: it was watchable but not interesting enough for me to see it again, although maybe I would enjoy this more today knowing the actors better. When I first looked at this, I was pretty new to classic films. Then again, the throaty Scott playing a social-climbing wife is not worth seeing again. Scott was better suited for film noirs.

Personally, I wouldn't waste your time on this. The film just doesn't have any spark to it. As I said, it's too blah, or "gloomy" as one critic here put it.

Easy Living is not a light comedy, despite the presence of Lucille Ball, Jim Backus and Jack Paar. Neither is it really a sports movie, though it's set in the world of professional football. Irwin Shaw wrote the novel on which it's based – the story of a man who's approaching midlife knowing nothing but how to play ball. The movie version proves surprisingly textured and involving, which ought not to be surprising, as the director is the ever resourceful Jacques Tourneur.

Victor Mature is a New York gridiron hero whose game is starting to slow down; in fact, he finds out he has a heart ailment which spells early death if he keeps on playing. But his quest for a cushy coaching job is handicapped by his ambitious wife (Lizabeth Scott). She's not cut out for the den-mother duties a coach's wife must shoulder, as she's trying to make a success of her interior design business despite her own handicap of commanding neither taste nor talent – a handicap she overcomes by luring monied clients romantically. So in addition to his health and career crises, Mature faces a marital one as well.

The large cast includes Lloyd Nolan as the club's owner and Lucille Ball as his widowed daughter-in-law, who works for the team and nurtures a crush on Mature. Tourneur shows his craft in coaxing a subdued and touching performance from her; he surpasses that by drawing from Scott, especially in a self-pitying drunk scene, the only piece of real acting she ever committed to film.

Easy living ends too abruptly (it clocks in at only 78 minutes) but there's nary a false note or a slack stretch in it. Made near the peak of the noir cycle, which accounts for its minor-key tonality (the score, by the way, is by Roy Webb), it springs yet another surprise in being one of the first films to find a dark side in that American institution, professional football.

When Sonny Tufts is the standout in a film, you know there's a problem.

A caveat - I've never been crazy about Victor Mature. Here at the age of 36 he plays Pete Wilson, a football player at the top of his game - MVP the previous year, the highest paid professional, and his future (at age 36, mind you) is unlimited.

His wife Liza is portrayed by Lizabeth Scott. She seems to be in it for the success, and she doesn't care for the guys on their way out.

Pete's good friend Tim is retiring and going to be coaching at State. Then Pete finds out that he has a heart condition and may not be able to play any longer. What is that going to mean for his marriage and the rest of his life?

One really doesn't know and sadly, one really doesn't care. This film sort of limps along. Lizabeth Scott is wasted in her role, though she is lovely.

As I say, Sonny is a standout, relaxed and looking very handsome.

There needed to be a little more drama in this, I think, to make it poignant. It's already out of my head, and I just saw it.

1949 sleeper from RKO. At that early date pro football was still in its infancy. Thus a movie dealing with the subject must have seemed like a piece of exotica and I doubt the production made any money. Sixty years later, however, the Charles Schnee script and Jaques Tourneur direction stand as a perceptive glimpse into pro-sports at the high end, as valid now as then and definitely ahead of its time.

Star quarterback Victor Mature is a regular guy, but is drawn into the fast lane by ambitious wife Liz Scott. She's all glamor and ego, eager to hang on to her headline husband. The scenes of urban highlife and sophistication are particularly well done-- the penthouses and sleekly groomed sharks swimming around eyeing new prey. Vic's uncomfortable and senses glamorous snares, but Liz sees only social climbing opportunity, while souless, silver fox Art Baker is only too happy to oblige. In a word she strays.

On the other hand, good guy Sonny Tufts (in a tailor made part) and salt-of-the-earth wife Jeff Donnell represent the other side of Mature-- his down-to-earth side. He's drawn in both directions, and it's this conflict that sets the dramatic stage. Will he hang on to Liz and the easy life or settle for a meagre coaching job with pal Tufts. He'll have to decide because the old ticker has become a problem. In short, he's facing a crisis of values.

One scene really worth noting. The team has cut journeyman lineman Gordon Jones. He's the kind of player who eats dirt every week so the quarterback can look good. Behind him are a thousand more grunts waiting to take his place. Now he wants a piece of a tavern and a place to hang his jersey and maybe a little dignity for all the pain. Watch his quick, knowing reactions to the snobbish Liz as she ignores this "loser". What a great line when he refuses the ride next to her, saying, "The subway's good enough for me". It's a whole little morality play summed up in a few seconds.

Unfortunately the film shows its period with an unsatisfactory Hollywood ending consistent with the conventions of the day, and enough to make modern-day feminists apoplectic. Then too, the Lucille Ball role seems overdrawn and unnecessary. Nonetheless, the supporting cast is outstanding, blending easily into a smoothly executed production that again demonstrates the industry's polished level of professionalism. Definitely deserves a second look.

Starts out ok with some interesting observations about a star quarterback being forced into early retirement due to health concerns. Fairly sure this was the first time Hollywood had tackled this subject (no pun intended) since, prior to the 50s, all but the top athletes were more glorified working stiffs than the minor gods and goddesses they are today. However, around the start of the second act, the temptations of soap opera (i.e. The team secretary, who has a yen for the QB, was married to the team owner's son blah blah) and sexism prove too much for director Jacques Tourneur and scenarist Charles Schnee so that by the end things get pretty offensively idiotic with Liz Scott being repeatedly slapped by hubby Vic (Im) Mature, to the point where blood is drawn, for the reliably heinous sin in 1949 America of being an ambitious career woman. And instead of reaching into her purse (to mention nothing of her usual femme fatale persona) to pull out a .45 and blow away (Im) Mature's abusive ass she meekly submits to being the meekly submissive wife of an ASSISTANT football coach at some podunk college. And audiences, especially female ones, would have to wait 42 years for Thelma and Louise to finally right the wrong. Give it a C. PS...Sure is weird seeing Jack Paar stripped of wit and personality.

Victor Mature plays the star quarterback of the Rams and he's on top of the world. Unfortunately, after feeling some twinges, his doctor discovers Vic has a heart defect and might easily die if he continues playing. Well, at first it's a no-brainer, as he plans on retiring and taking up coaching. Unfortunately, these plans are put on hold when he tries to tell his selfish shrew of a wife (Lizabeth Scott) about this. She makes it VERY clear that she loves him because of all the money and glory he gets from football AND if he were to quit, she might just walk! Nice lady, huh?! Lucille Ball plays a supporting role as a nice lady who deeply cares for Vic and is just waiting in case the marriage fizzles. However, how all this marital discord is finally solved is amazing and could NEVER be done in films today, as Vic finally gets sick of Lizabeth's petulant ways and slaps her silly--saying to either shut up and stay or walk!!! This is a small picture with a modest cast and budget, but I have really enjoyed watching it repeatedly. Part of it is because there are few films about pro football (especially when this one was made) and because as I watch the big climax scene between Victor Mature and Lizabeth Scott, I love to imagine the horror on many viewers faces as they see Vic slap his awful wife right in the face! Believe me, most viewers will probably LIKE seeing this, as she's one of the most selfish and awful wives in film history. Now I am NOT recommending men slug their wives, but in this age of extreme political correctness, I occasionally like to see a film that is sure to offend a lot of high-strung viewers! If you take out this possibly offensive scene, it's still a dandy movie--well worth a look. An interesting story and one of Mature's better films.

Football star Pete Wilson (Victor Mature) has his loving socialite wife Liza Wilson (Lizabeth Scott). Everything is easy. He gets some bad medical news that threatens to end it all. Anne (Lucille Ball) is the team secretary.

Boy! I was slow on uptake. I missed all the clues until the insurance rejection. I keep missing stuff in this movie. I missed the love connection until she admits to it. The movie keeps throwing the ball and I keep dropping it. I'm not sure if it's all my fault or if the movie is not doing it right. As for his medical issue, it doesn't generate the right kind of tension. He looks perfectly fine. The issue is basically a random bomb that could explode at any time. It doesn't raise the tension. If the audience can see his deterioration, it becomes more like a ticking time bomb and it could raise the tension as normal. I get the premise, but it's not getting me.

A profesional football player is confronted with terrible medical diagnosis. He is only a fottball player ; too late to become someone else. It is high paid, preocuped by the happiness of his wife ( preocuped, herself, by only her succes ) , losing the opportunity to be the new couch of team and feeling his life empty, decided to hide his health problems and accepting be mocked by his team mates for not brilliant succeses in games.

Victor Mature proposes a fair portrait of Pete Wilson and he was the main motif for see this film in my case. But the revelation remain Lucille Ball as Anne and, no surprises , Sonny Tuffts.

In short, a good, in some measure, maybe, useful film.

EASY LIVING takes you back to major league football circa 1949 and focuses on a star performer just before and after his career tops out. The direction is first rate and all the actors deliver top performances --- particularly Victor Mature, Lizabeth Scott, Lloyd Nolan and Lucille Ball. Lucy didn't always play comedy; no comedy in this one. On location filming --- a common asset to RKO Radio pictures --- adds a lot to this one. This Irwin Shaw drama doesn't have much football in it, but instead focuses on the lives of the people involved in sports.

First seen in 1949 at age 11, I looked for it again at Video Vault. It was issued in VHS so you can buy it or rent it if you look. Incidentally, RKO pictures weren't usually big hits 50 years ago but are sought after these days for their grit and on location filming. Savvy sellers in eBay include RKO in their headline.

Final comment: Unlike 2007's major hits like Pirates #3 and Potter #5, this film has an actual story, beginning, middle, end ---not relying on an overpowering musical score to sugarcoat junk. It's apt to appeal to grown-ups --- actually 11 and up.

"Pete Wilson" (Victor Mature) is a famous professional football player who is the star of his team and married to an attractive woman named "Liza Wilson" (Lizabeth Scott). But although he is on the top of the world, things haven't been looking too good for him lately. For starters, his wife seems more interested in spending money and being seen at lavish parties than in pleasing him. Even worse is the fact that he has been having bouts of dizziness lately which is affecting his play. So, to find out what is wrong, he goes to a doctor who informs him that he has a heart condition which could turn deadly if he continues to play professional sports. The problem, however, is that football is not only everything he knows, but he fears that Liza would leave him if he ever stopped making enough money to suit her expensive lifestyle. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay movie which could have been better if it had a bit more passion or drama. But then, films of this type often tiptoed around the edges and weren't that explicit for fear of offending family audiences. That's good in some respects but it also makes things seem rather dull to mature audiences these days. Be that as it may, while certainly not a great drama by any means, I suppose it passed the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.