Living in a Big Way (1947)

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely the worst movie.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The wartime housing shortage for returning veterans gets an amusing and telling look from one of Gene Kelly's lesser known pictures, Living In A Big Way. Kelly plays a GI who marries Marie McDonald on impulse before going overseas. They don't even have time to get down to business. They're not even that well acquainted.This film is directed by Gregory LaCava who gave us two screen comedy classics, Stage Door and My Man Godfrey. This film bares more than a passing resemblance to the latter. Living In A Big Way turned out to be LaCava's last completed film.The big shock that Kelly gets when he returns home to claim his bride with pal Bill Phipps is to discover she's rich. And she's got a stuffy fiancé in John Warburton whom she hasn't bothered to tell about that unconsummated marriage. Being married to 'The Body' that's the part most unbelievable about Living In A Big Way.In fact it is the main weakness of Living In A Big Way. Had someone like Lana Turner or Carole Lombard been cast in the role of the unfulfilled wife some of the comedy aspects in her character would have been handled a lot better. Living In A Big Way might have become a classic. It might not have needed the musical numbers Kelly did which were creative and fun, but kind of forced into the film. The wife's role truly was one made for Carole Lombard who was beyond casting.Charles Winninger and Spring Byington as the parents are carbon copies of Eugene Palette and Alice Brady from My Man Godfrey. There's also a nice performance by Jean Adair as McDonald's grandmother.And one role to note, that of Phyllis Thaxter as a war widow who joins Kelly's and Phipps's community of veterans. She's the kind of girl that every GI would love to have come home to.Living In A Big Way is an amusing enough film, but hardly one of the great films of Gene Kelly or Gregory LaCava.

There's a lot to like in this musical variation on "The Best Years of Our Lives" where a returned G.I.(Gene Kelly, once again in a military uniform) comes back to Los Angeles to find the bride he married before going overseas and ends up believing only married him for his allotment checks. It turns out that she (Marie McDonald, aka "The Body") is actually a wealthy socialite, a beauty contest winner who has no interest in being married to him, at first. Through the advice of her spunky grandma (Jean Adair of "Arsenic and Old Lace"), Kelly decides to move on, taking over her old mansion which he intends to turn into a residence for homeless veterans. The more he looses interest in McDonald, the more she gets interested in him again. The real issue for Kelly is the question, is she really worth the effort? As it turns out, the answer to that is an empathetic "No!" with her selfishness so obvious that it becomes obvious that Kelly is way above her. Everybody in her family likes him and seems to find McDonald only tolerable because she's one of the family. But this is an MGM musical, and in these films, the bad girls usually reform or are more comic relief. McDonald seems more appropriate for film noir where the femme fatal is usually a big-busted, rather masculine female with little or no redeeming values. Then, there's Clinton Sundberg as the prissy butler, a nasty character whose wisecracking makes Monty Woolley in "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and Clifton Webb in "Laura" seem masculine by comparison. His nasty commentary on everything going on becomes tiresome after a while. Usually cast in quietly sardonic roles, this "vicious queen" part is so stereotypically awful that you just wish the boss (Charles Winninger as McDonald's world-weary father) would give him the boot. Spring Byington adds another overly concerned wife role to her repertoire, nagging Winninger about his drinking even though you can understand why he reaches for the bottle in the first place.The musical numbers are all superb and are quite different than anything Kelly had done up to that point. He sings and dances to "I'll See You in My Dreams" with McDonald (set in happier times when they first met), has a cute dance number with McDonald's neglected pooch, and later participates in a bunch of children's games where his acrobatic skills (later perfected in "The Pirate") are shown off to great effect.The scenes where Kelly befriends widow Phyllis Thaxter have you hoping that he'll give McDonald the boot and find happiness with this Donna Reed like young lady, but this is MGM where divorce can't be granted easily. This gives the film a multi-personality, the mix of comedy, music and drama sometimes conflicting, and certainly wrapped up too smoothly.

I thought this movie was quite good. It was on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) at three am one night, and its offbeat humor kept me up til five. Kelly performs beautifully in this role, especially with the Grandma (whose quip almost caused me to laugh out of my seat). The main actress was alright, but the father was able to keep his character isolated from the marriage conflict and kept the humor coming. If you like a good offbeat, older movie, I would recommend it. Unlike the other comment, I do like Gene Kelly. He was the perfect leading actor for many of the early musicals and I think in this role, he oozes his charisma. One drawback is the dance scenes get a little long-winded, but if you can get through those, you're in the clear.

I thought this movie was fun. I have never really watched old movies before and this one was a really great first date film. It had warmth and heart and spirit. Was kind of cheesy but in today's film industry, cheesy is cute. I gave it a ten and I highly suggest renting, buying or seeing the movie anyway you can. Gene Kelly was very dreamy and a little bit sarcastic and you knew the character thought that he was gonna have it all. The female lead was cast perfect because their two personalities had spark and you wanted to hold on and see what would happen. The grandma in the movie was priceless. The perfect addition to a great old movie. I love the fact it was black and white and Gene Kelly is so sweet with all the kids in the movie that you can't help liking him. See It.