''Living on Love'' (1937) is an 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 released by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

. Directed by

Lew Landers Lew Landers (born Louis Friedlander, January 2, 1901 – December 16, 1962) was an American independent film and television director. Biography Born as Louis Friedlander in New York City, Lew Landers began his movie career as an actor. In 1914, ...

, it stars James Dunn,

Whitney Bourne Whitney Bourne (May 6, 1914 – December 24, 1988) was an American stage and film actress. She was a leading lady in several B films of the 1930s, with occasional appearances in more prestigious films such as the British musical '' Head over Heel ...

, and

Joan Woodbury Joan Elmer Woodbury (December 17, 1915 – February 22, 1989) was an American actress beginning in the 1930s and continuing well into the 1960s. Early life Woodbury was born in Los Angeles, California on December 17, 1915. Her father was Elmer ...

. The film is a remake of the RKO film ''

Rafter Romance ''Rafter Romance'' is an American 1933 pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film, which was based on the 1932 novel of the same name by John Wells, stars Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster ...

'' (1933). It is one of the "lost RKO films" owned by

Merian C. Cooper Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893 – April 21, 1973) was an American filmmaker and Academy Award winner, as well as a former aviator who served as an officer in the United States Air Force and Polish Air Force. In film, he is credited a ...

and only re-released in April 2007 when

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

acquired the rights and aired all six films on its channel.

Plot

Gary Martin is a struggling artist living in the Venus de Milo Arms, a shabby apartment building in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. Another tenant, Mary Wilson, is also having trouble keeping up with her rent. The two do not know one another, but building manager Eli West arranges for them to live in the same basement apartment, him by day and her by night, at a reduced rate so he can re-rent Mary's apartment to the paying Ghonoff brothers, a Russian acrobatic team. Though they never see one another, Gary and Mary find plenty of traces of one another in the room, and begin leaving each other nasty notes asking the other to be more considerate. Their hostility for their unseen roommate escalates to the point that Mary fills Gary's tube of toothpaste with white paint, Gary sets alarm clocks all over the room to wake her up repeatedly at 3 a.m., and Mary puts Gary's paintings out for sale on the sidewalk, including a portrait he drew of her but did not allow her to see. The wind blows many of the paintings away before Gary can retrieve them. Meanwhile, Gary has met Mary in a local diner and the two become interested in one another. Using assumed names, they get along wonderfully on their dates, while back in the apartment they plan more and more sinister ways to get back at their unseen roommate. Eventually, their identities are revealed after Gary's ex-girlfriend Edith Crumwell and Mary's new boss Ogilvie O. Oglethorpe show up at the apartment building to see them and end up falling in love. Unable to enter the same building with the other watching, Mary and Gary end their date by going to another café, where Mary sees the portrait Gary made of her in a window display for Crumwell's Sausages. Seeing her rage, Mary's friend Pete Ryan punches Gary, and Mary has him taken back to her room to recover. Gary wakes up in his own room and puts two and two together. When Mary realizes they have been each other's roommate all along she is at first angry, but then agrees to marry Gary.

Cast

* James Dunn - Gary Martin *

- Mary Wilson *

- Edith Crumwell *

Solly Ward Solly Ward (October 11, 1890 – May 17, 1942) was an American actor and comedian. He appeared in the films '' Flight from Glory'', ''Living on Love'', '' Danger Patrol'', '' She's Got Everything'', '' Everybody's Doing It'', '' Maid's Night Out ...

- Eli West *

Tom Kennedy Thomas or Tom Kennedy may refer to: Politics *Thomas Kennedy (Scottish judge) (1673–1754), joint Solicitor General for Scotland 1709–14, Lord Advocate 1714, Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs 1720–21 * Thomas Kennedy, 9th Earl of Cassilis ...

- Pete Ryan *

Franklin Pangborn Franklin Pangborn (January 23, 1889 – July 20, 1958) was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W. C. Fields films '' Interna ...

- Ogilvie O. Oglethorpe *

Ken Terrell Kenneth Jones Terrell (April 29, 1904 – March 8, 1966) was an American western and action film actor and stuntman best known for playing Joe Marcelli in the 1956 film ''Indestructible Man ''Indestructible Man'' is a 1956 American cri ...

- Ghonoff Brother (as Kenneth Terrell) * James Fawcett - Ghonoff Brother *

Chester Clute Chester Lamont Clute (February 18, 1891 – April 2, 1956) was an American actor familiar in scores of Hollywood films from his debut in 1930. Diminutive, bald-pated with a bristling moustache, he appeared in mostly unbilled roles, consi ...

- Jessup * Evelyn Carter Carrington - Madame La Valley (as Evelyn Carrington) *

Etta McDaniel Etta McDaniel (December 1, 1890January 13, 1946) was an American actress who appeared in over 60 films between 1933 and 1946. She was the sister of actor Sam McDaniel and actress and Academy Award winner Hattie McDaniel. Early life McDaniel ...

- Lizbeth (as Etta McDaniels)

Production

''Living on Love'' was based on the 1932 novel ''Rafter Romance'' by John Wells. It was a remake of RKO's

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

1933 film ''

''. The present film's working titles were ''Love in a Basement'' and ''The Sky's the Limit''. The film was one of the first assignments for costume designer

Renié Renié Conley (July 31, 1901 − June 12, 1992) was a prominent Hollywood costume designer. Biography Born in Republic, Washington and studied at Chouinard Art Institute and University of California in Los Angeles. For over three decades, Renié w ...

. Filming took place in August 1937.

Release

The film was released on November 12, 1937. It recorded a loss of $28,000 in its original release. It eventually grossed $135,000.

Critical reception

The Cedar Rapids ''Gazette'' called the film "easy to watch and amusing". However, it did not see it as a vehicle to help James Dunn "regain that carefree, happy screen personality which hit its highest peaks when teamed with

Sally Eilers Dorothea Sally Eilers (December 11, 1908 – January 5, 1978) was an American actress. Early life Eilers was born in New York City to a Jewish-American mother, Paula (or Pauline) Schoenberger, and a German-American father, Hio Peter Eilers ( ...

". The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' praised the acting by Dunn and Bourne, but found little else to recommend the film. It called the dialogue "fast and unfunny". A modern review by ''

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

'' felt the earlier film, ''

'', had more charm and better character development, but said this film "treats the same material in a more broadly comedic manner, sometimes moving into downright screwy territory". This review also noted the unusual casting of

, who usually played effeminate characters, as Mary's lascivious boss.

Preservation status

''Living in Love'' is one of six "lost RKO films" owned by producer

and only re-released in April 2007 when

acquired the rights and aired all six films on its channel. Cooper had accused RKO of not paying him all the money contractually due for the films he produced in the 1930s. A settlement was reached in 1946, giving Cooper complete ownership of six RKO titles: * ''

'' (1933) with

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

* ''

Double Harness ''Double Harness'' (1933) is an American pre-Code film starring Ann Harding and William Powell. It was based on the play of the same name by Edward Poor Montgomery. A young woman maneuvers a lazy playboy into marrying her. This was one of sever ...

'' (1933) with

Ann Harding Ann Harding (born Dorothy Walton Gatley; August 7, 1902 – September 1, 1981) was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress. A regular player on Broadway and in regional theater in the 1920s, in the 1930s Harding was ...

and

William Powell William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...

* ''

The Right to Romance ''The Right to Romance'' is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film starring Ann Harding and Robert Young and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Premise Ann Harding plays a successful plastic surgeon who meets a local playboy, played by Robert Young ...

'' (1933) with Ann Harding and Robert Young * '' One Man's Journey'' (1933) with

Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''A Free Soul'' (1931) ...

* ''Living on Love'' (1937) * ''

A Man to Remember ''A Man to Remember'' is a 1938 American drama film directed by Garson Kanin, his first film credit as a director. The picture was based on the short story ''Failure'', written by Katharine Haviland-Taylor, and the screenplay was penned by Dalt ...

'' (1938) According to an interview with a retired RKO executive, shown as a promo on TCM, Cooper withdrew the films, only allowing them to be shown on television in 1955–1956 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 2006,

, which had acquired the rights to the six films after extensive legal negotiations, broadcast them on TCM in April 2007, their first full public exhibition in over 70 years. TCM, in association with the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and the

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

Motion Picture Archive, had searched many film archives throughout the world to find copies of the films in order to create new 35mm prints.Eder, Bruc
"Rafter Romance" (AMG review)
/ref>

References

External links

* * * * {{tcmdb title, 81643, Living on Love 1937 films Remakes of American films Films directed by Lew Landers American black-and-white films American romantic comedy films 1937 romantic comedy films 1930s American films