Movie no. 40: trying to get through the films that I watched the past couple of days for #365classicmoviechallenge : the night before I watched the 1937 screwball comedy “Easy Living” starring Jean Arthur, Ray Milland, Edward Arnold, Mary Nash & Luis Alberni alongside a slew of popular character actors including Franklin Pangborn & William Demarest 😊 Jean Arthur’s career started in the silent era in the 20s but never really garnered success until she transitioned to the talkies her first big breakout hit was with William Powell in “The Canary Murder Case” In 1929 but her popularity would begin to rise when she joined Columbia in 1934 and before this film already hit films with The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (her 4th and final film with Powell) and her first big success in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town with Gary Cooper 😊 she would later go on to star in more successful films like You Can’t Take It With You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington & Only Angels Have Wings 😊 This is one of Preston Sturges first big successes as a screenwriter in fact this was his first assignment when he signed to Paramount in 1936. When he wrote the script and brought it to a studio executive it was instantly rejected as the exec said that “1936 was not the time for comedies” after that he sent the script to director Mitchell Leisen and he said “going to a director over the head of my producer was not a sagacious move” 😂 Adolphe Menjou was supposed to Star in this film (in what I’m guessing is the J.B. Ball role) but had to back out due to illness All the jewels and fur that were used in this film were real and guards were posted during shooting to ensure that none of them disappeared The song of the same name became a popular jazz standard as years went on and was famously sung/performed by jazz artists such as Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Miles Davis among others 😊 The film was an okay hit among critics and the box office but it has since become a screwball comedy classic and one of the first that helped define the genre 😊 #jeanarthur #raymilland #edwardarnold #easyliving #prestonsturges #screwballcomedy #classicmovienight #classicmovies #oldhollywood #classichollywood