Easy Living

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.