Vivre sa vie

Brian Aherne and Joan Crawford declare "I Live My Life" in this 1935 comedy. No one can butcher a comedy like Joan Crawford. After I saw "Susan and God," I found out that it was supposed to be a comedy. The problem with Crawford is that she was such a hard worker, and when you work hard at comedy, it doesn't come off. She was much more successful in drama. Brian Aherne, an excellent actor who was better than most of his roles, just didn't have a grasp of comedic style.

Crawford plays Kay, an heiress in Greece who meets a handsome archaeologist (Aherne). He falls for her, but she hasn't given him her real name and has told him she's a secretary. When he gets to New York, he can't find her. When he does, he finds out she's engaged to someone else.

This could have been much better with Gable and Lombard, or Gable and Myrna Loy. It is a spirited comedy with a terrific supporting cast that includes Aline MacMahon, Arthur Treacher, Eric Blore, and Jessie Ralph. Jessie Ralph, as Kay's grandmother, is a scream.

This is somewhat fun, but it could have been so much more.

Bored socialite Kay Bentley (Joan Crawford) is on vacation in Greece. On one of the island stops, she falls for archaeologist Terry O'Neill (Brian Aherne). At the last minute, she has second thoughts and gives him the name of her father's secretary. He goes to visit her in New York City and finds that he's been fooled.

The second meeting is the meet-cute or maybe it's counted as the third meeting. It's a funny move to keep pushing her down into the chair. It may be too pushy for today but for its time, it's terribly cute. It's not the most compelling rom-com but it has all the parts. It also has Joan Crawford. I don't mind the chemistry but I do need more comedy. The basic premise is that he has trouble living in her world. It's not that funny and I don't see why she couldn't live in his. The worst thing that could happen is that he goes back to Greece and she could live on the yacht.

Joan Crawford gets a change from being a taxi dancer or a shop girl and is a full fledged heiress in I Live My Life. She's living it pretty good too, far better than most in her Depression era audience were. She's on a nice holiday in Europe and comes upon an archaeological dig in Greece. A rare statue is unearthed, but the debonair Irish archaeologist doing the digging played by Brian Aherne interests Ms. Crawford far more.

Our heiress is quite the flirt, movie heiresses back then always were, but she sure hooks Aherne. The problem is she's already engaged to the wealthy and snooty Fred Keating back in New York. And she may have to marry him. Her dad is Frank Morgan and he's got a few bucks, but the real money is with her tyrannical grandma Jessie Ralph. There's reason personal and financial to marry Keating. And as the popular song of the day went, all Aherne has to give is love. And Keating is such a drip.

Although Crawford is one sly little minx in this film, Aherne's charm and sincerity really get to her. In fact they got to me as he gives the film's best performance. Frank Morgan is always good and he's his usual befuddled self. He actually married into the money, Joan's mother is deceased and he lives to a lesser degree on the largess of his mother-in-law.

I wish Aline McMahon and Sterling Holloway as Aherne's assistants had more to do in I Live My Life. They always add to any film they're in.

I Live My Life is not one of Joan's better films, but entertaining enough. The question is will Aherne live Joan's life or will Joan start living Aherne's? Back then there was only one way to go.

There are three major things wrong with this movie: Joan Crawford, playing a role that should have gone to Carole Lombard; and the script, which they must have been writing as they were shooting, and the direction -- you can almost pinpoint the moments when the director must have been screaming "More energy, I want more energy up there!" Joan and Brian Aherne meet cute at an archaelogical dig in Greece, then fall in love (Joan has to lie about her wealthy background), part, Brian travels from Greece to marry her, and then they go back and forth and back and forth -- we love each other, we don't love each other, we're getting married, we're not getting married. It must have been hard on the screenwriters to keep having to come up with endless boring and unplausible reasons for keeping them apart. Obviously, I didn't enjoy this, but I must say you haven't lived until you've watched the scene here where Joan verbally attacks her wedding gown -- honest, like two pages of dialogue -- before ripping it to shreds.

The worst thing about this film is the title! I often feel the title can make or break a film, and if this was named something a little less clunky and serious, it probably would get more respect and be a classic comedy. This is not a "great" movie, but that doesn't lessen the entertainment factor, which is, often enough, the reason we watch a film more than once. I have no problem with either Joan Crawford or Brian Aherne in the leads. They are both charming and lend the perfect role of sarcastic flirtatiousness called for. If one needs a serious theme to enjoy a film, there is a peripheral theme of class-consciousness. One of the film's highlights is the chemistry between Crawford and Frank Morgan, who plays her father; that's precious stuff. It's easy to praise Arthur Treacher, Jessie Ralph and Eric Blore. But how about Sterling Holloway in a small but memorable role as Aherne's assistant at the archaeological dig? Aline MacMahon, Frank Conroy, all these character actors insure the acting level is high throughout. My only regret is that Granville Bates, the yacht captain, didn't have a more substantial role. From what I've seen of him in My Favorite Wife, I'd say he was brilliant, too. I love these glossy black-and-white early '30s MGM films.