Also on the road to stardom was Monty Woolley, a Broadway favorite making his feature film debut here (though his second film, Nothing Sacred, would reach theaters first). He would achieve his greatest success as acerbic columnist Sheridan Whiteside in the stage and screen versions of The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942).
Although Nothing Sacred, in which Woolley also appeared in late 1937, began production several weeks prior to the production of Live, Love and Learn, the former film was not released until several weeks after the latter. It has not been determined if Woolley began work on Nothing Sacred before or after he worked on Live, Love and Learn.
Although Nothing Sacred, in which Woolley also appeared in late 1937, began production several weeks prior to the production of Live, Love and Learn, the former film was not released until several weeks after the latter. It has not been determined if Woolley began work on Nothing Sacred before or after he worked on Live, Love and Learn.
After teaming Rosalind Russell and Robert Montgomery in the artistically ambitious Night Must Fall (1937), MGM hedged its bets by putting them into the more traditional 1937 screwball comedy, Live, Love and Learn. Though less noteworthy than their earlier film that year, however, it offered Russell a fascinating chance to show what she could do with the role of a madcap heiress. Montgomery had already earned a reputation as a light comedian in films such as Private Lives (1931) and When Ladies Meet (1933), but this was Russell's first brush with screwball comedy after a series of more patrician roles. The stars would re-team in 1939 for Fast and Loose, an attempt to create another husband-and-wife detective series like The Thin Man (1934), ironic since Russell had been brought to MGM as back-up in case that series' star, Myrna Loy, grew difficult. Also ironic is Russell's casting just a year after Live, Love and Learn, once again playing a wife trying to keep her husband from selling out, in the award-winning medical drama The Citadel (1938).
Mickey Rooney's small role was one of seven he played that year, but it would be one of his last supporting performances. Live, Love and Learn was made only a few months after A Family Affair (1937), the first of the Hardy family films. Before the year's end, he would shoot to stardom with a larger role in the first real Andy Hardy film, You're Only Young Once.
The film's story was a busy mess, it may be because of the number of hands involved in the writing process. The original plot was an adaptation of an original story by Helen Grace Carlisle and eventually had three credited screenwriters.
The $2,000 check from Uncle Albert would equate to about $35,800 in 2018.