Easy Life

Bernard Thomas drifts into a life of crime, because the money is good and the work isn't hard. He soon finds himself hiding out in a fleabag with a bunch of hard men because CRIME DOES NOT PAY.

This isn't one of the better entries in the long-running MGM series. The characters are mere sketches, of course. There a sense of dreary monotony about the second half; it's deliberate, but when you're making a movie, ten minutes of boredom in a 20-minute movie is an awful lot. There's also an awful lot of litter for MGM. This indicates poverty. I suppose litter does not pay either.

It's a short from the MGM "Crime Does Not Pay" series. A government official recounts the tragic case of Frank Davies to a group of reporters. Frank was a young man eager to get the bling and falls into petty crime to get it. He slowly descend in with hardened criminals.

It's standard. It's slow. The police barges into an apartment guns blazing. It would be bad police work today. All in all, it's a rather flat story until the interesting reveal at the end. It's a great little gimmick and morbid fun. That pushes this into passable territories.

Starting with the previous short, "Patrolling the Ether", the usual format of the Crime Does Not Pay films was abandoned. Instead of having an introduction by the MGM crime reporter and some fake government official, there is no introduction at all.

All of the films in the series tried to teach a lesson, though it was usually couched so well in entertainment that it didn't come off as preachy. But, in the case of "Easy Life", the entertainment is minimal and the picture just comes off as preachy.

The story is about a young guy named Frank Davis (Bernard Thomas) and it's meant, clearly, to a morality tale about hard work and good 'ol Americanism. He thinks that a life of crime will lead to an easy life--not realizing that instead, it ends in DEATH!!! It's all about as subtle as a stripper at a Baptist picnic! And, not particularly enjoyable--representing a low point in the series. Clearly, they could only get better!

Easy Life (1944)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Lesser entry in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series has 17-year-old Frank Davis (Bernard Thomas) dropping out of school after learning that stealing can lead to quick cash. Soon he's picked up by a mob boss and they pull off a big heist but Frank soon learns that it's not an easy or fun life. This series is perhaps my favorite of any classic short series but this here might just be the weakest one I've seen. I really enjoyed the straight punch in regards to the ending but outside of this the short is pretty bland. It's certainly not a bad one but when it comes to this series I expect a lot more. I really wasn't impressed with Thomas because I found him to be a tad bit too simple in his role. I also wasn't impressed with any of the supporting players as they really didn't add anything to the film. The director and production crew handled the material very seriously as they clearly wanted to get a message across but the story itself just wasn't strong enough to make it entertaining.