LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jean Arthur: Easy Living
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As with Arthur, fate was as cruel as it was kind to Sturges. The comedic boons of both paid off in precipitous Hollywood arcs. Fittingly, the intersection of Arthur and Sturges left happy accidents in each garage. Easy Living dropped second at the automat of screenwriter and co-stars Arthur and Arnold, barely in the same Capras (You Can't Take It With You and Mr. Smith) for all their nonexistent banter. Their chemistry distinguishes Sturges' Diamond Jim (1935). A second banana in this loosely based biopic of foodie Diamond Jim Brady, Arthur's romantic catalyst – both of them – derails the tale more than once.
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Arthur made other non-Capra classics. In Easy Living (1937), directed by Mitchell Leisen, Arthur plays Mary Smith, a blue-collar girl who, on her way to work one day, has a fur coat drop out of the sky and land on her head. With a script by the irrepressible Preston Sturges, Arthur exhibits her skills as the queen of timing. Mistaken for the mistress of J. B. Ball, the “Bull of Broad Street” (Edward Arnold), the clueless Smith finds herself falling for Ball’s son, Johnny (Ray Milland). In one scene, the two lie, head to head, on a sofa in her suite. After Johnny kisses her, she sighs and turns over.
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Only The Benda Mask isn't among the 89 films stamped with Jean Arthur (1900-1991), beginning in 1923. Neither is it mentioned in the scattered descriptions of her work, approximately 35 titles of which one might, if resourceful, lay eyes on – half that many for the average renter in the above-average video/DVD market. (That's you, Austin.) Columbia, the studio that finally broke Arthur in the mid-Thirties, loaned her out to Paramount for 1937's luminous screwball Easy Living. But the majority of the actress' filmography after 1934 softie Whirlpool (a pre-Mr. Deeds Goes to Town reporter role) is viewable, and the facade on demand is the comedienne's 1,000-watt smile.
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Easy Living