Easy to Love

A racy pre-Code comedy with a superb cast. Adolph Menjou and top-billed Genevieve Tobin are bored with their marriage. Menjou is stepping out with Mary Astor. (And who wouldn't? Tobin is a charming actress. But Astor is divine here. Her comic timing presages her performance in "The Palm beach Story." Less plausibly, Tobin is having a romance with -- ready? -- Edward Everett Horton. He was a delightful comic character actor. But the type to make a husband jealous? It's hard to imagine.

Charming Patricia Ellis is Tobin and Menjou's daughter. Her boyfriend is played by attractive Paul Kaye -- a name I'd never heard before watching this.

Hugh Herbert turns up as a private detective with a Scottish burr. His name is McTavish, and like everyone in this charming but not awfully original movie, he's very good.

Oh, the glories of a pre-Hays Code sex comedy. In this hilarious take on infidelity, Genevieve Tobin and Adolphe Menjou have an unusual marriage. Adolphe is having an affair with Genevieve's best friend, Mary Astor, and Genevieve is relentlessly pursued by Adolphe's best friend, Edward Everett Horton. Their teenaged daughter, Patricia Ellis, is under the impression her parents have the perfect marriage, and when the lid gets lifted off, she's shocked.

With fantastic comic timing from the actors, and beautiful costumes worn by the leading ladies, it's a wonder why Easy to Love isn't one of the most famous comedies to come out of the early '30s. Genevieve reminded me of a combination between Joan Blondell and Ruth Chatterton, and since she spent equal time dressed as undressed, it's a wonder why she didn't rocket to stardom-especially after her nude bathtub scene that flustered both her on-screen husband and I'm sure off-screen audiences.

Check this comic romp out if you like similar movies, like Design for Living and The Palm Beach Story. It's very entertaining, and Mary Astor is absolutely adorable, prancing around in halter tops and cold-shoulder dresses decades before they were popular.

Thanks to Turner Classic Movie Channel, this rare 1934 Warners Comedy survives and turns up occasionally.

Sexual and boudoir situations and dialogue hold up well viewed in 21st century America! Dapper Adolphe Menjou cavorts with gorgeous Mary Astor behind his wife's back. (lovely Genevive Tobin) Supporting role played so well by Everett Edward Horton as a wealthy friend of the family in love with Tobin. The opening scene of a double date swap in the limo must be seen to be believed for this era! What a shame Will Hays prevailed with his "code" and so relatively few movies like this really showed us that they had a lot of fun back in the 30s. Don't miss it when it comes on....it's a joy of an early 30s picture!

Genevieve Tobin is happily married to Adolph Menjou, but is happily carrying on an affair with Edward Everett Horton, who is married to Mary Astor, who enjoys Menjou as her other man. When the menage's daughter, Patricia Ellis, falls in love, everyone is very suspicious.

This was released in January of 1934, so it's still pre-code, but it's all so arch and precious that there's no reason to take any of the underpinnings of the situation seriously. This hurts the arch comedy, and were it not for the topnotch cast, it would be very dull indeed. Fortunately, the cast is that good.

Quite amusing bedroom farce. As one character puts it: the evolution of marriage - first a double bed, then twin beds, then separate rooms. And so it is for wealthy society couple, John and Carol Townsend (played by Adolphe Menjou and Genevieve Tobin) who are involved in a sort of "love quadrangle". John is having an affair with Carol's best friend Charlotte (Mary Astor), John's best friend Eric (Edward Everett Horton), wealthy "Sardine King", is in love with Carol. When Carol can't get her hubby into bed anymore, she concludes he has no energy from "playing too much polo" (his excuse for his daily afternoon tryst) - but finding out he has NOT been playing polo, she hires a detective who quickly gets the dope on the secret love affair. Now Carol uses Eric to "get even" with her hubby, by pretending to have her own affair!

This lively romp is loads of fun with lots of snappy pre-code dialogue, husband hiding in closets, wife trying to win her man back via negligees and the old "dropping the soap on the floor" bathtub trick, plus all-knowing valet and butler, and women in slinky dresses and fur collars. I liked Edward Everett Horton in this, playing pretty much the exact same guy he always plays, plus Guy Kibbee is very amusing in a small, but memorable part, as the Justice of the Peace. Fast-paced and enjoyable film.