Living on Love

Maybe I just like Whitney Bourne better than Ginger Rogers but I liked this one better than "Rafter Romance". It is 12 minutes shorter so it has no filler. It is short and sweet. It "feels" more like a silent film than the earlier version because it really hops along.

I like Ginger Rogers in "Major & The Minor", otherwise, I cant think of a movie I really like her in. Maybe "Vivacous Lady". She's OK in the Fred Astaire movies but he is so smug I find them barely watchable. Whitney Bourne on the other hand is a super gorgeous woman that I would like to see a lot more of.

IMDb wants a few more lines out of me to print this: I find it interesting that Whitney Bourne was born in 1914 and died in 1988 and her female rival in this movie, Joan Woodbury, was born a year later and died a year later. What are the chances of THAT!

James Dunn has quit his job and gone to work at lower pay on the graveyard shift. Whitney Bourne hasn't worked regularly, and is now selling electric shavers on commission. Neither can afford their rooms, so landlord Solly Ward lets them split a room: Dunn gets it in the day, Miss Bourne at night. They don't know each other and regularly send annoyed notes. When they meet in person, they fall in love, unawares of their living arrangements.

This remake of RAFTER ROMANCE takes the Cox-and-Box story and retreats int simplistic humor to keep it Code-compliant: lots of puns in the names (the apartment building is "The Venus De Milo Arms", two characters are "Ghonoff Brothers"), and 1930s-safe wolves like Franklin Pangborn as Miss Courtney's boss. But despite the plethora of comic talent, including om Kennedy, Chester Clute, and Jimmy Conlin, there's too much grouchiness in the script and performances to keep any but the most sadistic audience smiling. Consistently. The result is another decent timewaster from RKO during a rote era.

B-movie remake of 1933's romantic comedy "Rafter Romance". This version features James Dunn as Gary, a struggling artist who lives in a basement apartment and owes on his rent - Whitney Bourne plays Mary, a woman who lives in the same building and hasn't paid her rent in over six months. So - - the well-meaning landlord (who, by the way, has no problem peeping into tenants rooms via the keyhole) gets this bright idea: the two of them can share the apartment and split the cost. He works the night shift, she works by day - so he gets the apartment in the day, she gets it in the night - they go ahead with this plan, but they have never actually seen each other. She immediately thinks he's disgusting (based on the looks of the room) and he thinks she's a spinster, a "small town hick" in town looking for love. They leave each other a series of nasty notes and play some really mean-spirited pranks on each other (like paint remover in his mouth wash bottle, and alarm clocks set all around the room to ring and wake her up). Well, the two of them finally do meet - at a local restaurant without any idea who the other one is. They actually bond via the fact that they both hate their roommate!

This film is mildly interesting, light fare - but lacks chemistry between the two leading stars. I didn't see them ever in this as much of a couple (he actually pronounces himself in "love" with her after just meeting her, but I sure couldn't see it), and the meanness of the tricks they play on each other just left me completely cold - - if this was meant to be funny - it wasn't. In general, this film is pretty so-so - not nearly as good as the earlier version of this, "Rafter Romance". Franklin Pangborn appears in this adding some much needed humor, playing the boss in charge of Mary's sales job selling electric razors. A weak film - mediocre at best.

Not having seen the original "Rafter Romance" of which this was a remake, I can only compare it with the many other light comedies of the period. Taken for what it is, a "B" movie (or maybe even "C"), it doesn't do badly.

One of the great virtues of the 1930's and early 40's comedies is their fast-paced dialog, seldom heard today. I can imagine the director snapping his fingers to keep the actors racing along. Good pace and timing can cover a multitude of weaknesses in the script, and this movie rattles right along.

I wasn't rolling in the aisle, but this movie was worth a chuckle or three. If you've got nothing better planned, or you want some amusement on the box while you work on something else, curl up and enjoy -- I got lots of knitting done.

TCM's "Lost and Found" series of RKO films continues with yet another remake of RAFTER ROMANCE (with Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster), the story of two people who never meet although they're roommates sharing the same flat. They never meet because they're on different work shifts. It's a story that worked its charm with Ginger but doesn't seem to have the same snap here.

It's familiar ground and this time serves as a vehicle for JAMES DUNN and WHITNEY BOURNE with some comic assistance from FRANKLIN PANGBORN and JOAN WOODBURY. Pangborn has the Robert Benchley role of the lecherous wolf but is slightly less credible with his prissy attitude.

These Depression-era comedies are really hard to relate to today, what with $15 a month rent being a hardship that has to be shared by another. It was a different world in 1937--and clearly, the Depression wasn't quite over. At any rate, this is practically a scene by scene remake of RAFTER ROMANCE with no noticeable improvement in dialog, style or pace. In other words, it's pointless.

Every aspect of the flimsy and familiar plot is badly dated, and the pranks that the two unknown roommates play on each other are more mean spirited than funny. The animal prank scenes (which did not take place in the original) are beyond ridiculous. Nor are any of the other changes an improvement under the feeble direction of Lew Landers.

Summing up: Watch the original and forget this one. It's a real loser.