User Reviews

"Come Live with Me" was being made as World War II was underway in Europe. Hedy Lamarr (nee Hedwig Eva Kiesler), had left her native Austria (and first husband) for Paris in 1937. She was hired by MGM and moved to America where she made her first American film, "Algiers," in 1938. The U.S. was not yet in the war, yet war headlines filled the newspapers in January 1941 when "Come Live with Me" appeared in theaters. But with no mention of the war at all in the film, it's probably set in the late 1930s, before Germany started its offensives. No doubt many moviegoers were intrigued by the film's theme as well as enjoying seeing James Stewart and Lamarr, who had fast become a star.

Lamarr is Johnny Jones, a foreign citizen with money who wants to stay in the U.S. after her visa has expired. She is the love interest of a married wealthy American publisher, Barton Kendrick (played by Ian Hunter). She wants to find a husband as a way to become a citizen. She runs into Bill Smith (played by Stewart) who is an out-of-work, down on his luck writer. So, she proposes a marriage of convenience between Smith and Jones. She provides funds for his bare necessities -- $17.80 per week if he will marry her, and that will keep him while he resumes his writing. Of course, he plans to pay every penny of that back when he strikes it rich. The two don't live together.

A love triangle is part of the story, because Jones has been the love interest of a married man for the past year. Barton Kendrick (played by Ian Hunter) is a wealthy publisher. His wife, Diana (played by Verree Teasdale) reads the manuscript of a story Smith has written and sent to Kendrick publishing. It's a story about an out of work American who meets an Austrian immigrant who wants to stay in America…

One can guess where the story goes from there, and the best funny stuff in the film happens toward the end. It's an OK film that's mostly a light comedy romance. The plot is skimpy and the dialog has just occasional lines of humor here and there. A better screenplay could have made this a very good comedy. And, the way the characters play their roles – especially Lamarr, it's hard to believe the romance. It just comes on at the last minutes in the film.

This film is far down on the list of Stewart movies, but it's about in the middle of Lamarr's. Even though she was for some time labeled the most beautiful woman in the world, and she had some talent, Lamarr's films mostly were forgettable. Her two best films with memorable roles were "Algiers" of 1938 and "Comrade X" of 1940. She was offered better stuff in her early career but turned down the female leads in two films that are classics – "Gaslight" (1940 English production) and "Casablanca" of 1942. Still, this is a film that most people should enjoy,

Lamarr quit acting after 1958. She was just 44 years old and on her fifth marriage. It was her longest that she thought might last. She was unlucky in love and married and divorced one more time. Her last marriage ended in 1964. She had two children with second husband John Loder (1943-47) and she had one adopted daughter. She died alone in her home in Casselberry, Florida, at age 85 in 2000.

Lamarr may be the only screen actor to be in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. She was inducted in 2014 along with former Hollywood composer George Antheil. At the start of World War II, the two invented a frequency hopping technique that could be used by the Allies to prevent jamming of torpedo guidance systems. Apparently, it wasn't used by the U.S. until 1962, but later became an important aspect for wireless communications. The inventors received no compensation for their discovery. The original 1942 patent expired and the technique became part of the public domain.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the film. For a few more comedy lines, see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the movie. Jimmy Stewart recites the first and last stanzas of Christopher Marlowe's poem, "Come live with me and be my love."

Bill, "My name's Smith." Johnny, "My name's Jones." Taxi driver, "Let's see – Smith and Jones, and I'm Snow White."

Johnny, "Mr. Smith, it's such a wonderful thing." Bill, "Why?" Johnny, "That you haven't any money." Taxi driver, "And I thought I'd heard everything."

Bill, as he and Johnny enter his apartment, "It's just a little place, but its dreary." Pointing out his empty book case, "If you want to browse among my books, the pawnshop's just around the corner."

Bill, "Would you like to have some music? I could open the window and get the radio from across the street."

Johnny, "I came here to ask you to marry me." Bill, "Why?" Johnny, "Because you have no money." Bill, looking befuddled, "Well, this is so sudden." Johnny, "I was afraid you wouldn't understand." Bill, "Yeah, yeah, well, I see your point."

To paraphrase: "When you wed, you don't have to know that much about your partner, but when you're getting a divorce, you should learn about them." This is basically what this film is about and it is as foolish as my first sentence.

The plot sounds good. A woman who escapes Nazi controlled Austria must marry an American or face deportation. This is the problem facing Hedy Lamarr but she can't make the most of it due to the inept writing. They certainly could have made her romance James Stewart more during the week she had before facing being removed. Instead, she merely weds Stewart quickly. After they're wed, her lover then decides to divorce his wife so that he can be free to marry her. Why in heaven's name didn't he do this before her marriage to Stewart.

Going up to grandma's house at the end of this film does nothing either. Grandma's house is full of proverbs. One of them should have read "Much Ado About Nothing!"

A nice romantic comedy about a marriage of convenience between Hedy Lamarr and Jimmy Stewart where an illegal Austrian woman is subject to deportation and looks for a US citizen to marry to avoid being deported. A very good supporting cast helps to carry the movie throughout the plot. The weak points in the movie is how a woman would go to a near perfect stranger's apartment to discuss the marriage proposal and how she could have allowed herself to be "forced" to accompany her husband of convenience to his family farm for a visit. I think the film needed a bit of more development between the two characters as they were falling in love. The ending seemed a bit too rushed. The woman's original lover just driving away that quickly after she decided to stay with her husband did not seem plausible given the relationship that the former lovers had at the beginning of the movie. It was still a nice script with fine performances.

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?

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.

The story itself is incredible enough, but how do you wrap your head around managing to survive on about eighteen dollars a week? That's what struggling writer Bill Smith (Jimmy Stewart) got away with in his simple but by no means impoverished apartment. Just goes to show you how life was like in the Forties, and how inflation did away with all of it.

This is one of those stories which you know how it will end; the fun is in seeing how it gets there. For the sake of the script and in order to avoid deportation, Viennese immigrant Johnny Jones (Hedy Lamarr) asks the yet unnamed Bill Smith to marry her on their very first meeting! Taken aback, but seeing the possibilities, Smith agrees when Johnny offers to pay him a weekly stipend that will keep him afloat. But even more than that, the entire situation gives Bill the idea for a story that just might be accepted by a publisher. And not just any publisher, but the married one who's in love with Miss Jones!!

I thought the story was ripe for a few more screwball touches, but in general, the humor was kept nuanced. Donald Meek provided unusual insight into the human condition as a homeless street bum offering Johnny some worldly advice, while Smith's country excursion with Johnny made a brief stop at 'Ye Indian Inne' offering Chinese-American food. Hmm, have to think about that one. In any event, it might have been Grandma's (Adeline De Walt Reynolds) homespun wisdom to set Johnny's mind right, with a little help from Barton Kendrick's (Ian Hunter) wife, who helped get the ball rolling to save her own marriage.

All in all, this is one of those pictures that warrant the old 'they don't make them like they used to' sentiments. A nice vehicle for Stewart and Lamarr with a happy ever after ending that the era was well noted for.

Wow, don't get how this movie is rated so high.

I love a good romcom but this one wasn't believable for a moment. And I don't mean the basic premise, getting married as a business deal. I mean Johnny (Lamarr) spends about 2 hours total over 2 months having any kind of interaction whatsoever with Bill (Steward) and all of it entirely business like. It's clear she hasn't thought romantically one whit about Bill or for that matter even friendship thoughts. It's been entirely a business transaction for her. All the while she's been having a happy fun loving relationship with Barton for months. And then, in one 1/2 day stretch she somehow, through the magic a bad writing, falls for Bill and totally ditches the guy she's been longing to marry for the last several months. Barton is never played as bad. it's not like he ever neglected Johnny or strung her along with false promises or was mean to her or anything else that might lead us to believe she'd dump him so quickly. He's been loving to her the entire time we've seen them together and she to him. All we can gather is that she'll dump Bill just as easily for the next guy.