Il gigante di New York

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.