This is not the greatest comedy of it's period, but it is not one that fails to amuse the audience. In fact parts of it, by their sweetness, remind one of a better film of the future. But more of that later.
COME LIVE WITH ME deals with a man with a "modern" view of marriage. Mr. Barton Kendrick (Ian Hunter) is a wealthy in New York, whose wife is his chief friend and critic and assistant in the firm. The wife Diane(Veree Teasdale), goes out at night with a family friend admirer. But that's okay, as she allows Barton to likewise enjoy himself. Barton girlfriend is Johnnie Jones (Hedy Lamarr), and their relationship is fine, but soon an immigration officer (Barton MacLane, playing a rare nice guy role) comes to inform her that she has to go to the Immigration Office in New York City because her visa has run out - and she is facing deportation. But MacLane learns from Hunter that Lamarr will be killed if deported back to Austria as her father was an opponent of Hitler and the Nazis who was killed for his opposition. MacLane tells Lamarr to go and find someone to marry within one week, and the deportation problem will disappear. Of course, MacLane figures that Hunter will be the one to marry her. After MacLane leaves Hunter explains he can't divorce Teasdale in a week to marry Lamarr. So Hedy goes out for a walk to think things through clearly.
(It is funny to recall that this film was made a year after Mitchell Leisin's film HOLD BACK THE DAWN, about immigrants trying to enter our country from Mexico within our impossible post 1924 immigration quotas. Walter Abel unsuccessfully tries to prevent Olivia De Haviland and Charles Boyer from marrying. Ironically, the marriage accept ion is not as easy anymore - you have to prove it is a marriage of love and affection and not of convenience now. See the modern Gerald Depardieu comedy GREEN CARD to see the change in the rule.)
Lamarr, in walking past Central Park, runs across a man named Bill Smith (Jimmy Steward) that she thinks is a bum. But she ends up rescuing him from a fight, and takes him back to his apartment in lower Manhattan after she hears that he is poor, facing bankruptcy, and not married. She offers him a marriage arrangement wherein she will marry him but it is only for formality - no sex or closeness involved. He accepts the deal, though he insists he will reimburse her when he can sell one of the novels or short stories he writes.
As a result of the odd situation, Steward starts writing a novel based on it. Interestingly he calls the novel WITHOUT LOVE (a title that would one day be that of an MGM film with Tracy and Hepburn having another of convenience). He sends out manuscripts to several publishers, and one ends up with Hunter. Teasdale reads it and finds it damn well written (even if the plot seems odd). When she describes the plot to Hunter, he realizes it is his relationship with Lamarr that is at the basis of the novel. He confronts an unaware Steward at his own office supposedly to discuss publishing the novel. Steward ends up the winner, as Teasdale convinces a reluctant Hunter to pay Steward an advance of $500.00. Teasdale also notices that Hunter's protests of the novel's plot are too deep to be sheer literary criticism, and realizes that it must be about her husband.
Steward uses the money to reimburse Lamarr for her weekly payment of his use as a make-shift husband. Then he forces her (politely) to accompany him to his country home (she wants him to sign the divorce papers, and he won't unless she accompanies him), and slowly wins her over by the beauties of the countryside, and his grandmother's (Adeline De Walt Reynolds) lovable and strong character. We watch Lamarr gradually note Steward's strong points, and even hear him recite Christopher Marlowe's poem "Come Live With Me and Be My Bride...." which is the basis of the film. But Hunter is aware of where they have gone, and is after them. Will Hedy stick with Ian or go with Jimmy.
The film is certainly quite charming, but what I find most interesting at the end is the business of the Grandmother. The visit of Steward with Lamarr to meet the grandmother in the countryside, and her firm but gentle personality resembles that of Catherine Nesbit as Cary Grant's grandmother in the film AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER. One wonders if Leo McCarey had seen this Clarence Brown film and remembered it in 1955. It would not be impossible if that was the case. But if so or not COME LIVE WITH ME is good enough to be liked on it's own merits as an entertaining movie.
COME LIVE WITH ME deals with a man with a "modern" view of marriage. Mr. Barton Kendrick (Ian Hunter) is a wealthy in New York, whose wife is his chief friend and critic and assistant in the firm. The wife Diane(Veree Teasdale), goes out at night with a family friend admirer. But that's okay, as she allows Barton to likewise enjoy himself. Barton girlfriend is Johnnie Jones (Hedy Lamarr), and their relationship is fine, but soon an immigration officer (Barton MacLane, playing a rare nice guy role) comes to inform her that she has to go to the Immigration Office in New York City because her visa has run out - and she is facing deportation. But MacLane learns from Hunter that Lamarr will be killed if deported back to Austria as her father was an opponent of Hitler and the Nazis who was killed for his opposition. MacLane tells Lamarr to go and find someone to marry within one week, and the deportation problem will disappear. Of course, MacLane figures that Hunter will be the one to marry her. After MacLane leaves Hunter explains he can't divorce Teasdale in a week to marry Lamarr. So Hedy goes out for a walk to think things through clearly.
(It is funny to recall that this film was made a year after Mitchell Leisin's film HOLD BACK THE DAWN, about immigrants trying to enter our country from Mexico within our impossible post 1924 immigration quotas. Walter Abel unsuccessfully tries to prevent Olivia De Haviland and Charles Boyer from marrying. Ironically, the marriage accept ion is not as easy anymore - you have to prove it is a marriage of love and affection and not of convenience now. See the modern Gerald Depardieu comedy GREEN CARD to see the change in the rule.)
Lamarr, in walking past Central Park, runs across a man named Bill Smith (Jimmy Steward) that she thinks is a bum. But she ends up rescuing him from a fight, and takes him back to his apartment in lower Manhattan after she hears that he is poor, facing bankruptcy, and not married. She offers him a marriage arrangement wherein she will marry him but it is only for formality - no sex or closeness involved. He accepts the deal, though he insists he will reimburse her when he can sell one of the novels or short stories he writes.
As a result of the odd situation, Steward starts writing a novel based on it. Interestingly he calls the novel WITHOUT LOVE (a title that would one day be that of an MGM film with Tracy and Hepburn having another of convenience). He sends out manuscripts to several publishers, and one ends up with Hunter. Teasdale reads it and finds it damn well written (even if the plot seems odd). When she describes the plot to Hunter, he realizes it is his relationship with Lamarr that is at the basis of the novel. He confronts an unaware Steward at his own office supposedly to discuss publishing the novel. Steward ends up the winner, as Teasdale convinces a reluctant Hunter to pay Steward an advance of $500.00. Teasdale also notices that Hunter's protests of the novel's plot are too deep to be sheer literary criticism, and realizes that it must be about her husband.
Steward uses the money to reimburse Lamarr for her weekly payment of his use as a make-shift husband. Then he forces her (politely) to accompany him to his country home (she wants him to sign the divorce papers, and he won't unless she accompanies him), and slowly wins her over by the beauties of the countryside, and his grandmother's (Adeline De Walt Reynolds) lovable and strong character. We watch Lamarr gradually note Steward's strong points, and even hear him recite Christopher Marlowe's poem "Come Live With Me and Be My Bride...." which is the basis of the film. But Hunter is aware of where they have gone, and is after them. Will Hedy stick with Ian or go with Jimmy.
The film is certainly quite charming, but what I find most interesting at the end is the business of the Grandmother. The visit of Steward with Lamarr to meet the grandmother in the countryside, and her firm but gentle personality resembles that of Catherine Nesbit as Cary Grant's grandmother in the film AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER. One wonders if Leo McCarey had seen this Clarence Brown film and remembered it in 1955. It would not be impossible if that was the case. But if so or not COME LIVE WITH ME is good enough to be liked on it's own merits as an entertaining movie.