Ève éternelle

'Libeled Lady' is a marvellous and thoroughly enjoyable comedy, a near-classic with three of the four stars on top form (especially Jean Harlow and William Powell, Spencer Tracy's comedic chops became more refined and more at ease in his later films in my opinion).

'Easy to Wed' is a musical remake but is nowhere near as good and one may question its point. It is by no means a bad film though and makes for more than serviceable entertainment. Starting with its faults, Esther Williams has little to do and her role does not play to her strengths while Van Johnson is wooden in a role just as underwritten and looks uninterested.

The musical numbers don't feel necessary (despite Ethel Smith contributing very nicely on the organ), are not that compellingly staged and are also not particularly memorable, while the story is even more contrived than that of 'Libeled Lady' and lacks its zippy energy (the musical numbers do it no favours), some of it badly drags. The ending feels too pat and incomplete.

However, the classy cinematography, beautiful use of colour and elegant wardrobe more than compensates as does a script that is almost as witty and sophisticated as that of 'Libeled Lady'. The duck hunting scene is not as hilarious as the fishing scene in 'Libeled Lady' but still an amusing scene. Edward Buzell does his best to inject some energy and style and does very competently.

Keenan Wynn has very deft comic timing and doesn't come over as heavy-footed. It's Lucille Ball's exuberant and very funny performance that steals the show though, especially when she indulges into a flight of Shakespeare.

On the whole, vastly inferior but serviceable and watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Keenan Wynn's newspaper has been a political opponent of Cecil Kellaway for years. So when they publish an actionable story about his daughter, Esther Williams being a man-stealer, Kellaway wastes no time filing a lawsuit. The solution is to get womanizing Van Johnson to seduce her.... and to marry him to Wynn's fiancee, Lucille Ball, to make the first story retroactively true.

It's a remake of LIBELED LADY, with a few musical numbers and a swimming pool for Esther Williams to potsker around in. It's directed more as a straight farce than the original, and that part works all right; given that the original cast was Spencer Tracy, William Powell, Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow, it's hard for any of these to come up to snuff, although Miss Ball is very good. Johnson gives the impression of a small boy playing dress-up, and Keenan Wynn seems to think the movie is a lot funnier than it is.

"Libeled Lady" is one of the best comedies of the 1930s. Much of was the writing and much was due to the incredibly strong cast. Think about it---Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow and William Powell--ALL in one film! In 1946, MGM brought out a remake. While the basic story is similar, it's not as good. Plus, Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn and Lucille Ball just weren't as good--though they tried.

Like "Libeled Lady", the film is about a rich lady who is suing an irresponsible newspaper for its stories about her. However, oddly, in the original she was suing for $5,000,000 and here, a decade later, it's only $2,000,000--significant deflation, don't you think? To help try to get rid of the suit, the scheming newspaper man, Haggerty (Wynn), hires Bill Chandler (Van Johnson) to seduce the heiress, Connie Allenbury (Williams). Why? Because, in the interim, they'd get Bill a quickie marriage. Then, they'd have the 'jealous wife' storm in on them and threaten a suit of her own--along with photographers from the paper to make her case! But, since Bill isn't married, Haggerty has Chandler marry HIS fiancée (Lucille Ball)! Talk about romantic--getting Chandler to marry Haggerty's girl! There's only one problem with the plan...Bill falls for Connie and just can't get himself to do it. So, he schemes for a way to somehow please Haggerty AND Connie...if it's possible.

The film is decent and offers a few laughs. However it suffers from a few plot problems (Connie's falling in love with Bill seems incredibly fast considering how nasty she'd been towards him up until then), now includes song which got in the way of the plot and the characters aren't particularly likable (Connie is amazingly nasty--and for no reason--when she first meets Bill). Plus, it lacks the originality and fun of the first film. If you like remakes, by all means see this one. But, don't forget to first see "Libeled Lady"--it's just better.

By the way, the plot of "Easy to Wed" is very, very odd considering only about six months later, Keenan Wynn and his real-life wife divorced....so she could marry Van Johnson! To make it even weirder, it now appears that this, like the marriage in the movie, was a sham marriage, as in his later years Johnson admitted to being gay--and I sincerely doubt that this was a sudden late-life 'phase'!

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.

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.