Come Live with Me (1941)

Just perfect...

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This Clarence Brown (producer/ director) movie opens very promisingly and in a most lively manner. Herbert Stothart's use of the Lone Ranger Theme as Kendrick's leitmotif is a stroke of genius (thanks to Rossini), the photography (George Folsey) is glorious, the art direction (Randall Duell) impeccable and the film editing (Frank E. Hull) brisk. Everything seems to be going well, but then the movie suddenly grinds to a halt. The story is all used up. So the screenwriter attempts to bolster up Van Upp's thin, original story by introducing some cameo characters. The most successful of these inserts are Donald Meek's professional bum and Miss Adeline de Walt Reynolds' crusty but philosophical grandma. Despite these praiseworthy attempts to give customers a run for their admittance money, however, the movie is never ever more than moderately entertaining. But I think the worst ploy of all, however, are the sexless outfits that costume designer Adrian dreamed up for Hedy Lamarr. Didn't Hedy say in an interview once that Adrian was jealous of her "in" with studio boss, Louis B. Mayer, and deliberately set out to scuttle her career?

Austrian refugee (Hedy Lamarr) asks a penniless writer (James Stewart) to marry her so she won't be deported. Needing money badly, he agrees. Soon he finds himself in love with her (who can blame him?) and wants the marriage to be real. The problem is she's already in a relationship -- with a married man (Ian Hunter).This was a pleasant surprise. A sweet, likable romantic movie. This would be called a chick flick today. What's perhaps most surprising about it is that it's pretty non-judgmental for a movie made under the Hays Code involving things like skirting immigration laws and committing adultery. It's all handled with tact and understanding. The only 'bad' character in the movie is Ian Hunter's and even he's played mostly for laughs. Jimmy and Hedy do a fantastic job and have a real, believable chemistry. Adeline de Walt Reynolds steals the show as Jimmy's dear old grandmother. A lovely, heart-warming type of film that will surely leave a smile on your face.

I was a little bored with the first half hour of this film, but a well-written turn of events sends this movie in the right direction. It mixes a few classic themes (marry vs. deportation, country comes to town, wealth vs poverty, town goes to country, etc...) that could have made this movie completely formulaic. However, formula goes out the door with Jimmy Stewart's charm and Hedy Lamarr's stunning beauty. Once both characters spend screen time together, consistently, the energy of this slightly screwball romantic comedy picks up quickly. The grandmother is all wisdom, wit, and heart. Her common sense needlework samplers are artfully placed and still hold true today. The grandmother's calm voice, the sound of crickets chirping, and the other country nuances slow down the pace to a level that seems so foreign to an actress like Hedy Lamarr. She seems so out of place, but that is what makes her so enjoyable to watch. She melts slowly from the WWII city girl ice queen fugitive until she's relaxed and calm as if she can go home again, but this time to a slice of Americana rather than Austria and with a moral upstanding young man if that's the choice she's willing to make. This has just been made available for purchase on DVD. It's now on my "to buy" list and certainly worth a watch on TCM if you enjoy this genre and these wonderfully magnetic actors.

Hedy Lamarr is a foreign born showgirl and kept mistress of publisher Ian Hunter. Immigration has gotten on her case and before Hunter can get his influence peddling machine in gear, Hedy's having some anxious moments.But as Hollywood fate must have it she meets up with aspiring writer James Stewart and they agree to a marriage of convenience to keep her in the country. And to seal the bargain Lamarr actually agrees to pay Stewart a "salary" so that romance won't creep into things.Well wouldn't you know it, Stewart writes about the arrangement in a prospective new novel that he takes to publisher Hunter. The rest of this film is rather obvious.What I find curious about this film is that the plot I described could easily be the basis for some sophisticated screwball comedy or a tender romance, given the writers, director, and players. But the combination in Come Live With Me opted for the tender romance. Stewart and Lamarr are just fine in their roles as is Hunter. MGM and director Clarence Brown gave them a nice supporting cast. Please note the performances of Verree Teasdale as Hunter's wife, Adeline DeWalt Reynolds as Stewart's grandmother and the whimsical Donald Meek, just being Donald Meek in a Donald Meek part.The title Come Live With Me is the first line of a Christopher Marlowe sonnet, a romantic piece that fits the tone of the whole film. But it does end on a Shakespearean note.