User Reviews

I'm sure someone can research and find earlier films on the subject, but Easy Living is the one that is the earliest I've come across having professional football as a background. Victor Mature plays a football player whose game has gone bad because he's developed a heart murmur, but like a dope he doesn't tell anyone.

Not that he couldn't live a nice normal life, but rough contact sports are definitely out. But Mature is married to former campus queen Lizabeth Scott who is an interior designer of limited talent, but has a few admirers in high society for her other attributes. She's got a business established being financed by a rich sugar daddy in the person of Art Baker. She needs Baker's money and location in New York, not to mention the status of being a celebrity wife. Professional football was starting to come into its own post World War II and Mature has been given the nickname of 'King Football' by the press stimulated by his team's publicity agent, Jack Paar.

Lizabeth Scott is one evil vixen and Mature has the widowed daughter-in- law of his coach Lloyd Nolan, Lucille Ball who would be a more suitable mate. Why in the end he just delivers a couple of well placed slaps to Scott and takes her back is one bizarre ending. And today it would never be put in any film lest the National Organization for Women picket it.

To its credit Easy Living has some good performances from Gordon Jones as another washed up teammate of Mature, Sonny Tufts as Mature's best friend, and Richard Erdman as the clubhouse man for the team. One of the earliest black football players in the National Football League, Kenny Washington is in the film as well. He and teammate Woody Strode were the first to integrate pro football and both of course had successful acting careers, Strode a bit more so.

Best performance to watch is that of Art Baker as the rich old goat who likes to collect beautiful women as trophies whether they have a ring or not. He's one studied piece of work.

You have to laugh when Lloyd Nolan says his team is busy fighting for the league playoffs and championship which will be worth $100,000.00 and a $1000.00 to every member of the team. Have times ever changed, for comparison run this film back to back with Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday and see what they're playing for.

***SPOILERS*** 1940's and 50's Hollywood hunk Victor Mature plays star football quarterback Peter Wilson of the New York Cheifs, who are actually played by the Los Anegles Rams, who at the height of his professional football career finds out from cardiologist Dr.Franklin, Jim Backes,that his ticker or heart is in danger of conking out at any given moment! Especially when he's on the gridiron pitching passes to his Chief teammates! It seems Dr.Franklin tells him that Pete suffered from a bout rheumatic fever as a child that damaged his heart and it's now finally catching up with him! Keeping all this secret Pete continues to play football but his performance is anything then what it used to be with him avoiding physical contact at all costs.

It's the Chief's coach Lenahan,Llyod Noland, who finally benches Pete due to his poor performance but it's his daughter and personal secretary Anne Lehahan Lucille Ball, who finds out what Pete's real problem is and tries to get him to quit football. That's before he ends up dead of a heart attack like her former good for nothing alcoholic husband did. Anne has taken a strong liking to Pete and would like nothing better for him to tie the knot with her but there's one's big problem in all that! Pete's social climbing wife the sexy husky voiced Liza, Lizabeth Scott, who's self absorbed in her career as a interior designer. Liza has secretly, behind Pete's back, hooked up with multi millionaire as well as dirty old man Art Baker, Howard Vollmer. It's looking for action Baker who's just stinging Liza along in helping her career in interior design until he uses her up and finds someone younger & better to replace Liza with!

Victor Mature who's not really known for his acting, he once told a reporter that he can't act and stared in over 60 films to prove it, is really good as the fatalistic Pete Wilson who's literally playing his heart out on the football field knowing that any moment it would give out on him. Pete also has to deal with his wife Liza whom he knows would drop him as soon as she finds out that his heart condition would end up making him a has been and put him as well as her out of the spotlight that she craves so much!

***SPOILERS**** Very unconventional ending for a Hollywood movie with Pete finally letting the truth out about his serious heart condition to his both shocked coach and teammates and skipping the big championship game as well as ending his career as a professional football player. We never get know how the game ended but we do know how Pete & his estranged wife Liza got back together again. With Pete or Victor Mature in reviving his "Cave Man" role in "One Million B.C" knocking or slapping some sense into Liza's pretty head in having her drop her big ideas of becoming rich & famous by using him to get her there and just being his wife instead. The wife of a washed up football player and now assistance coach for a non ivy league collage team and for better or for worse genuinely loving him!

Jacques Tourneur directed this surprisingly effective tale of Victor Mature, a major league football player who is King of the Gridiron, until he finds he has a heart murmur that requires his retirement from active playing. It would turn team owner Lloyd Nolan into a figure of frustration and disappointment because he's out to win the championship for the team this year.

Mature is desperately in love with his wife, the ambitious Lizabeth Scott, whose boutique is supported by Mature's salary but who, herself, has little talent. She appears to love him too. She's very demonstrative. But her love is conditional. She would like to see both of them as clones of Donald Trump.

Mature's adoration of his wife precludes his spilling the beans about his heart condition. The best he could hope for after retirement would be an assistant coach at a lowly state university of the kind I was graduated from, and at a much lesser salary. None of this would sit well with Scott, who is indifferent to losers.

However, word gets around and it leads to a public argument and the estrangement of the erstwhile happy couple.

Here's where it gets inventive. For one thing, Lizabeth Scott's character could have been made into Lady MacBeth. Instead, she's given more than one dimension. She's mistaken in many ways but she really DOES love Mature. She gets drunk and sobs when a friend of hers, a model, commits suicide after being disowned by some kind of industrial magnate. The magnate is Art Baker, who may give the most nuanced performance in the film, and the most carefully rendered of his modest career. The guy is unflappable. He seduces Scott and is brutally honest with her from beginning to end of the affair.

There's another figure, and a woman too, who is in love with Mature. Lucille Ball is the wisecracking secretary whom Mature dislike but who takes care of him when he needs caring for.

With that kind of set up -- a man of moral principle, a wife who is a paragon of terpitude, and another upright woman who loves him from afar, the expectable outcome is expectable. Man of principle kicks undeserving wife out on her arse and marries the devoted secretary.

But, no. Mature does decide to not play the last vital game and perhaps die, but he slaps Scott in the face twice and their affection is strong enough that she is now willing to accompany him to that lowly position in the lowly university at the lowly salary. (You may have to gulp down that hurried ending.) That affair with Baker has taught her something. You should never become too attached to anything, especially success, because sooner or later you lose it. OR -- she might have become a closet Buddhist during her estrangement.

The director, Tourneur, did some startling work in Val Lewton's production unit at RKO. This isn't among his best work, but he does bring some subtlety to the project. He sometimes uses dramatic lighting, that doesn't always work. The musical score features a performance of a marvelous jazz standard, "Easy Living," written by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin for a 1937 film of the same name. The lazy and improbable melody was ironic for having been written during the Great Depression, and it's appropriate here in a story about people who are ready to sacrifice their lives to achieve stardom.

Summing it up, one of the better movies about aging or otherwise-failing football players. Worth watching.

Football fans might enjoy this minor drama about a troubled professional player (Victor Mature) facing performance issues and a health crisis as he deals with new wife Lizabeth Scott's rise in the world of fashion. However, the lack of a spark and little else outside of these plot points makes this fairly dull. Scott is glamorous and gets to wear some beautiful outfits, and along with Mature does her best to add some interesting dimensions to her character. However, fans of Lucille Ball will be disappointed to see her wasted in a rather pathetically small role as the secretary to coach Lloyd Nolan, obviously in love with Mature but other than a few vivacious moments really has nothing substantial to do. She has a rather unflattering hairstyle too that doesn't flatter her in any way.

The film is also a bit cruel towards injured or disabled players, showing one player being basically waved away with a pathetic dismissal. Fellow players place crutches in Mature's train berth as a way of reminding him that he's obsolete. The film starts oddly with a scene between fellow player Sonny Tufts and his wife (Jeff Donnell) that does absolutely nothing to develop the plot or get it off the ground. The presence of some familiar faces (Jim Backus, billed as James) and the Los Angeles Rams will add curiosity, but unfortunately, this is a movie about a popular sport that somewhere along the way completely fumbled. Under the direction of the usually excellent Jacques Tourneur, this is a major disappointment.

I liked this film, but it definitely had some flaws.

First of all, the title -- which really has nothing to do with the film -- comes from a popular song featured in ONE scene.

Also, the script is problematic. There's several arguing scenes between Mature & Scott that are way too quickly resolved or brushed off, and what's up with Tufts' wife's strangely overt appreciation of his pal, Mature? I got the impression that she'd drop her husband in a heartbeat for a chance with the best buddy.

Also peculiar is the fact that Mature & Tufts play for the "Chiefs," when the team sports "Rams" helmets. And finally, I was quite startled by the film's ending. Now, I realize that divorce was fairly uncommon and actually frowned upon during this period, but it was preposterous to keep Mature & Scott together INSTEAD of Mature leaving his rude and self-absorbed wife for Ball. The happier and more realistic finale would've have seen Mature & Ball get together after all that chemistry they displayed for each other. Maybe the production code said "NO WAY," which lead to the current wrap up.

Although I focused on the films defects, there's plenty to like here too, such as dimensional characters, likeable stars and a glimpse into what pro football was like back then.

Fast paced film with some good dialogue. An early foray into sports with a somewhat serious take on the subject....but....at this point it's quite dated. If you can get past that, it's impossible to excuse the absolutely unbelievable "Hollywood" ending.

SPOILER ALERT!!! What's worse is that I'm certain the majority of viewers are not actually rooting for Victor Mature and Liz Scott to stick together in their marriage. She's comes off as an awful person. Everyone wants Lucille Ball to come ut on top.....

When I saw Lucille Ball's name in the cast, I thought I would be in for a bit of comedy but how wrong I was!

It's a basic story of a guy, a football player, on top along with his aggressive and ambitious wife. Victor Mature and Lizabeth Scott appear as the perfect couple. However, when Mature is diagnosed with a heart problem that would end his career, he cannot bring himself to tell his wife since she is now used to high living and not going to some college town as the wife of a football coach.

As owner of the team, Lloyd Nolan is great here. He wants victory and only at the end of the film does Mature let him know the story. As his daughter-in-law, Lucille Ball comes across as the business-like secretary and is widowed and she has romantic designs on Mature.

To me, a flaw in the film was the rapid southward movement of the Mature-Scott marriage. As is true in many films of this nature, solid good sense shall ultimately win out.

Director: JACQUES TOURNEUR. Based on the story "Education of the Heart" by Irwin Shaw. Screenplay: Charles Schnee. Art directors: Albert S. D'Agostino, Alfred Herman. Set decorators: Darrell Silvera, Harley Miller. Music: Roy Webb. Music director: C. Bakaleinikoff. Assistant directors: James Lane, Joel Freeman, Nate Slott. Make-up: Robert M. Cowan, Lee Greenway. Costumes: Edward Stevenson. Sound: Earl Wolcott. Camera: Harry J. Wild. Film editor: Frederic Knudtson. Make-up supervisor: Gordon Bau. Special photographic effects: Russell A. Cully. Sound mixer: Clem Portman. RCA Sound System. Producer: Robert Sparks. Copyright 24 August 1949 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at Loew's Criterion: 12 October 1949. U.S. release: 8 October 1949. U.K. release: 11 September 1950. Australian release: 1 June 1950. 7,061 feet. 77 minutes. Australian release title: INTERFERENCE.

SYNOPSIS: The domestic and career problems of a star football player.

COMMENT: It's not hard to see parallels between this screenplay and Charles Schnee's later script for "The Bad and the Beautiful". The exposé of professional football has much the same virtues (and vices) as that celebrated probe into Hollywood: hard-hitting, realistic-seeming yet very snappy, brittle dialogue; fascinatingly believable yet slightly off-beat characters enmeshed in fast-moving situations they have difficulty controlling.

The "ordinary" characters are often at the mercy of their own attitudes and vices which enable them to be manipulated by more ruthless self-seekers.

On the down side, Schnee has a liking for melodrama. He disguises this tendency much more skillfully here than in "The Bad and Beautiful".

Aided by a team of really professional technicians, Tourneur has directed this picture with remarkable skill. Only the opening breakfast scene with Jeff Donnell strikes a slightly false note. Once we enter the football stadium, the pace rarely slackens.

Aside from Miss Donnell and Mr Backus — both of these performances seem a little forced — the playing is uniformly excellent. Scott and Mature are both perfectly cast (Tourneur keeps Vic's inclination to over-do the eyebrow-raising and forehead-furrowing under admirably tight control).

Lucille Ball has a pleasing (if subsidiary) role as a cynical secretary, whilst the support, led by the forceful Lloyd Nolan, is full of fascinating cameos — far too many to discuss here. As for Sonny Tufts, himself a former footballer, he handles this role with commendable finesse.

OTHER VIEWS: Schnee and Shaw have brilliantly interwoven a downbeat football story with an equally dark drama of manners. Unforgettable players include June Bright as the suicidal Billy, Art Baker an aged playboy, Don Beddoe a penny-pinching manager, Gordon Jones a major league budget casualty.

Professional football is the anything but easy living of the title. It's based on a fine short story by Irwin Shaw called "Education of the Heart". Screenwriter Charles Schnee has expanded this very ably. There are two strong, interweaving plot lines and some memorable characterizations. We always remember the scenes of Holly's dismissal from the team, Paul Stewart's repulsive news photographer, and Art Baker's steely seducer. Indeed, the playing of the entire cast is excellent. Director Jacques Tourneur has taken good advantage of actual location shooting with some fine camera-work by Harry J. Wild. - JHR writing as Charles Freeman.

I like a lot of things about this movie beginning with Irwin Shaw who wrote the short story (not novel as someone here said mistakenly) on which the screenplay was based, that screenplay itself, the work of Charles Schnee, the direction by Jacques Tourneur, and some, if not all, of the performances. There was no more self-denigrating actor than Victor Mature but occasionally (Kiss of Death and here) he turned out a half-decent performance and here the delight is the people surrounding him, Lloyd Nolan, Paul (yeah, yeah) Stewart, Jim Backus, Art Baker, Jack Paar, it's a feast for minor-player buffs. Lucille Balle pulls off a rare sympathetic role well enough and Lizbeth Scott who is easy to detest is suitably detestable as the ambitious wife of mature. Sonny Tufts was little more than an acting joke but even he makes a decent fist of Mature's nice guy buddy. This is a film I could happily watch again and probably will now that I have it on DVD.