One reviewer on IMDb described this film as "blah", and I think that sums it up very well. This is a movie that could've been really good, even great, but was hampered by a lame script and, in my opinion, poor direction and heavy-handed acting. Victor Mature and Lizabeth Scott are not two of my favorites, anyway, but I do think they were well-cast as the aging football player, Pete Wilson, and his selfish, social-climbing wife, Liza. Even reliable veteran actors Lloyd Nolan and Paul Stewart couldn't do much with their roles. Everybody seemed to be overacting, maybe to compensate for the lackluster script. It's really a shame, because it was an unusual and interesting storyline and should have had more depth than it did. I also thought the Lucille Ball character was corny and clichéd: the "nice girl", albeit cynical and disillusioned, who loves Pete from afar -- sort of a poor man's Eve Arden.
There was one scene that was a little gem, though, in my book. "Pete" has just come out of the dressing room after a game and is sitting in his car with "Liza". One of his teammates has just been cut from the team, and is very depressed. He stops to say goodbye to Pete, who's very sympathetic and tries to cheer the guy up. Liza sits in the car putting on lipstick, pointedly ignoring the downcast man. Then when he gets ready to leave, he tells her it was nice meeting her, or some such thing, and she replies in a flippant, dismissive tone, "Goodbye", and looks away, as if to say, You don't matter, and I have no time for you. Then she tells Pete that the guy "isn't a real man" because he can't play ball anymore. This, of course, is a blow to Pete, who is hiding the fact that his own career is coming to an end because of a heart problem that he hasn't even told her about. It's a nice snapshot of Liza's character.
All in all, watching Easy Living is like being served vanilla sherbet for dessert when what you really wanted was Rocky Road ice cream.
There was one scene that was a little gem, though, in my book. "Pete" has just come out of the dressing room after a game and is sitting in his car with "Liza". One of his teammates has just been cut from the team, and is very depressed. He stops to say goodbye to Pete, who's very sympathetic and tries to cheer the guy up. Liza sits in the car putting on lipstick, pointedly ignoring the downcast man. Then when he gets ready to leave, he tells her it was nice meeting her, or some such thing, and she replies in a flippant, dismissive tone, "Goodbye", and looks away, as if to say, You don't matter, and I have no time for you. Then she tells Pete that the guy "isn't a real man" because he can't play ball anymore. This, of course, is a blow to Pete, who is hiding the fact that his own career is coming to an end because of a heart problem that he hasn't even told her about. It's a nice snapshot of Liza's character.
All in all, watching Easy Living is like being served vanilla sherbet for dessert when what you really wanted was Rocky Road ice cream.