''Let's Live a Little'' is a 1948 American
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film directed by
Richard Wallace and starring
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actress ...
and
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990) was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as '' The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941) and ''Princess O'Rourke'' (1943), and in ...
. Written by
Howard Irving Young
Howard Irving Young (April 24, 1893 – February 24, 1952) was an American screenwriter and playwright.Marshall p.297 During the 1930s and 1940s he worked on a number of British films.
Selected filmography
* '' A Million A Minute'' (1916)
* '' Mi ...
, Edmund L. Hartmann, Albert J. Cohen, and Jack Harvey, the film is about an overworked advertising executive who is being pursued romantically by his former fiancée, a successful perfume magnate, who is also the ad agency's largest client. While visiting a new client—a psychiatrist and author—to discuss a proposed ad campaign, his life becomes further complicated when the new client turns out to be a beautiful woman, who decides to treat his nervous condition.
Plot
At Montgomery Advertising in New York City, Duke Crawford (
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990) was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as '' The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941) and ''Princess O'Rourke'' (1943), and in ...
) is having trouble handling the account of cosmetics manufacturer Michele Bennett (
Anna Sten), one of the company's most important clients—and his former fiancée. Still determined to win him back, Michele refuses to sign a contract until Duke reciprocates her affection. When Duke threatens to quit Michele's account, his boss James Montgomery (Harry Antrim) assigns him to do the book promotion for a new client, a nerve psychologist named J.O. Loring.
While taking a taxi to the psychologist's office, Duke shaves with an electric razor he invented, but his nervousness and stress result in leaving half his mustache intact. When he arrives at the client's office, Duke discovers that J.O. Loring is in fact an attractive woman named Jo (
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actress ...
). Staring at the half a mustache, Jo mistakes him for one of her mentally disturbed patients. Determines to prove to himself that he is anesthetized from women, he kisses the doctor. Jo reacts by recommending that he read her book on stress relief titled ''Let's Live a Little''. Later that night, Duke is unable to fall asleep.
The next morning, after Duke makes an appointment to see Jo as her patient, Jo advises him that if he wants his former fiancée to sign the contract, he must wine and dine her. Following her advice, Duke arranges a date with Michele at a nightclub. Wanting to observe the encounter for scientific reasons, Jo arrives at the nightclub with her stuffy surgeon boyfriend, Dr. Richard Field (Robert Shayne). When Michele notices that Duke and Jo are falling in love, and when she is served a cake with an advertising contract inside instead of a marriage license, she throws his drink at him and storms out of the nightclub. Duke is reduced to a nerve-wracked state—repeating ad slogans over and over.
Feeling responsible for Duke's psychological condition, Jo takes him to a lakeside lodge for a rest cure. One moonlit night, while the two are on the lake in a canoe, Duke kisses Jo passionately, proving to himself that he is cured of his
misogyny
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practice ...
. Duke soon returns to New York, rejuvenated by his love for Jo, and organizes a successful radio ad campaign for her book. During one radio interview, Jo discusses one of her recent patients who suffered from a nervous breakdown brought on by a failed relationship. She describes how she helped him recover by pretending to fall in love with him to help him in a transference of his affections. When Duke hears the interview, he becomes angry at being depicted as a guinea pig in a love experiment. Duke resolves to forget Jo and pursue Michele.
Soon after, Jo reads the newspaper announcement of Duke's engagement to Michele. Unable to think about anything but Duke, Jo begins to have a nervous breakdown of her own. As Michele and Duke's wedding day approaches, Jo's colleague Dr. Field takes her to the lakeside lodge in an effort to cure her of her obsession with Duke. Even after he proposes to her, however, she can see only Duke's face, and rejects him. Meanwhile, as Michele tastelessly redecorates Duke's apartment, he gets a telephone call from Field, who defiantly announces that Jo is now in his care. Duke leaves Michele and drives to the lakeside lodge, where he finds Jo, embraces her, and convinces her that his kisses are real.
Cast
*
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actress ...
as Dr. J.O. Loring
*
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990) was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as '' The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941) and ''Princess O'Rourke'' (1943), and in ...
as Duke Crawford
*
Anna Sten as Michele Bennett
*
Robert Shayne
Robert Shayne (born Robert Shaen Dawe, October 4, 1900 – November 29, 1992) was an American actor whose career lasted for over 60 years. He was best known for portraying Inspector Bill Henderson in the American television series '' Adven ...
as Dr. Richard Field
*
Mary Treen
Mary Treen (born Mary Louise Summers, March 27, 1907 – July 20, 1989) was an American film and television actress. A minor actress for much of her career, she managed to secure a plain, unassuming niche for herself in the Hollywood of the 1 ...
as Miss Adams
*
Harry Antrim
Harry Antrim (August 27, 1884 – January 18, 1967) was an American stage, film and television actor.
Biography
Antrim was born on August 27, 1884, in Chicago, Illinois. By 1906, he was working in vaudeville. During the early 1930s, he moved to ...
as James Montgomery
*
Norma Varden
Norma Varden Shackleton (20 January 1898 – 19 January 1989), known professionally as Norma Varden, was an English-American actress with a long film career.
Life and career Early life
Born in London, the daughter of a retired sea captain ...
as Nurse Brady
Production
''Let's Live a Little'' was the first film produced by Robert Cummings and Eugene Frenke and their company, United California Productions (UCP).
Hedy Lamarr signed in December 1947.
UCP originally arranged for the film to be financed and released through
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...
but this was eventually terminated and they made a deal instead with a new company,
Eagle-Lion
Eagle-Lion Films was a British-American film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to distribute British productions in the United States.
In 1947, it acquired Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures, a small American production company, ...
.
UCP had
Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for ...
under contract as director but because he was busy on another film they hired Richard Wallace to direct ''Let's Live a Little''.
Anna Sten was married to Eugene Frenke.
Filming took place in March 1948. According to an article, the film cost $1,100,000 to produce.
Stanley Cortez was meant to be cinematographer but left the film during filming. It was reported in the trade press this was because Lamarr objected to the focus being given to Anna Sten over her. Hedy Lamarr said it was because she was unhappy with his work. Frencke said it was because Cortez was sick.
Cummings announced a slate of independent productions to follow but was unable to obtain finance.
Radio Version
A radio version of the film was broadcast on Screen Directors' Playhouse on January 16, 1949 and starred Robert Cummings and Betty Lou Gerson.
The film was later reissued in the United States with the title ''Hell Breaks Loose''.
Reception
''Let's Live a Little'' received mixed reviews, with most critics reserving their positive responses for Lamarr. Following the previews on October 21, 1948, the reviewer in ''Daily Variety'' wrote, "Lamarr is a knockout!"
[Shearer 2010, p. 241.] In his review for the ''Los Angeles Times'', Philip K. Scheuer wrote, "Miss Lamarr is her customary self—vague, cool, and bewitching."
Despite earning some money, ''Let's Live a Little'' turned out to be the only film ever produced by United California Productions.
[Shearer 2010, p. 242.] For the film itself, most of the positive responses were far more reserved. The reviewer for the ''Hollywood Reporter'' wrote, "The not too discriminating filmgoer might reasonably find it much to his liking."
[Barton 2010, p. 167.] In
New South Wales
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, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Australia, the film was double billed with ''
Tokyo File 212''.
References
;Citations
;Bibliography
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External links
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{{Richard Wallace, state=collapsed
1948 films
American romantic comedy films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Richard Wallace
1948 romantic comedy films
1940s English-language films
1940s American films