Ève éternelle

The film Easy To Wed had an impossible task to follow the film and stars of one of the best screen comedies ever made Libeled Lady. I would take nothing away from Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball, and Keenan Wynn. But frankly they're all not a patch on the quartet of William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, and Spencer Tracy.

Music and MGM technicolor is what distinguishes this film and the music primarily Latin in origin is pretty good and comes from a variety of sources. Colombian singer Carlos Ramirez contributes a native song and Ethel Smith plays her famous Tico Tico on the organ. Part of the film is set in Mexico so these acts are brought in without any strain on the plot. When the stars do their numbers, the results are pretty tepid.

Esther Williams stays fairly dry in Easy To Wed. Only a dip on a water slide and a brief swim in the family pool where she unplugs a rubber raft and sends Van Johnson into the water are all you see of her. No classic water ballets in Easy To Wed which must have disappointed her fans tremendously.

In Libeled Lady the character Loy/Williams's father is played by Walter Connolly and he's an avid fisherman. Here he's a hunter and Van Johnson has to take a crash course in duck hunting to make an impression on father Cecil Kellaway. Van's best moments like William Powell's in the first film are in the hunting scenes.

The basic outline of the story remains the same. A false story about heiress Esther Williams's romantic escapades has caused a lawsuit to be filed by Cecil Kellaway. Editor Keenan Wynn postpones for the umpteenth time his wedding to Lucille Ball to meet the crisis at the paper.

Wynn's plan, to hire back his ace reporter Van Johnson and marry his girl friend Ball to Johnson and then have Johnson strike something up with Williams. Just as Jean Harlow did, Lucille Ball amazingly enough goes along with this madcap scheme.

Everybody performs well, but after you've seen Libeled Lady you will think of Easy To Wed as a road company version of that classic.

The "Morning Star" is desperately collecting their papers in fear of the powerful J. B. Allenbury. He promises to sue the paper for $2 million for defaming his daughter Connie Allenbury Chandler (Esther Williams). It's an open and shut case. The paper has been a thorn in the side of Allenbury and this is his chance to shut it down. Warren Haggerty (Keenan Wynn) leaves his wedding to performer Gladys Benton (Lucille Ball) to fix the problem. He has to rehire philandering reporter Bill Chandler (Van Johnson) to go on a mission to sully Connie's reputation. They come up with a scheme involving Gladys.

It gets a bit boring after the wedding. I've never seen Esther Williams as a particularly good actress. I hoped that reintroducing Lucille Ball would add some more screwball comedy. She does what she could but her role is somewhat limited. Van Johnson does the bulk of the comedic heavy lifting with mixed results. I like his solo duck hunting effort more so for its audacity. He is alone with the dog for a long time. As a trio, they are mostly bland like a 50's white toast sandwich with mayo. The movie picks up whenever Lucy gets to play. She's a fun drunk.

This film has its plusses -- Esthers swimming, her swimming, and her swimming. It's also in technicolor, which is always a treat to the eye. It really surprised me that a socco screenplay that made 1936's Libled Lady such a rip-roaring funny film could go so flat 10 years later. Of course Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, William Powell, and Spencer Tracy were more highly skilled performers than this cast. Williams has some to the stoic, amused calm that Loy had and she does okay as Connie, but Lucille Ball is almost unfunny in this, which really surprised me. She lacks Harlows warmth and vulnerability and timing. Harlow really carried Libled Lady and one always looks forward to her scenes. Ball is too arch and steely here. It puts a damper on the films success.

This is one of the few times at MGM Lucy was given a chance to exploit her full comedic range, and she goes at it with gusto. From the moment she makes her whirlwind entrance looking absolutely gorgeous in a white wedding gown, she commands the screen whenever the camera is on her. In fact, though the movie ostensibly "stars" Van Johnson and Esther Williams, the bland leads take a back seat to the lively pairing of Lucy and Keenan Wynn, as her somewhat morally corrupt boyfriend. Forget comparisons to "Libeled Lady"; "Easy to Wed" is of a different era, and much more slapsticky, and, as noted, Lucy is a gem whether getting drunk and playing the piano or evincing true pathos as a wronged woman. She has rarely been photographed more appealingly, either.

Lucy obviously had her talents (though I'm not much of a fan of her television stuff) and she has a few good scenes here. But watching her do the big blow up speech at the end word for word the same as Jean Harlow, we see she had nowhere near the talent as Harlow. Harlow did that scene with such humanity and timing. This had none of that.

I almost never see the reason for remakes, very few are anywhere near as good as the original and this is a great example. Watch the original, much better.