LET'S LIVE A LITTLE

Hedy Lamarr

LET'S LIVE A LITTLE (1948). Director: Richard Wallace.

Advertising man Duke Crawford (Robert Cummings) is fed up with women after dealing with his ex-fiancee Michelle Bennett (Anna Sten), a cosmetics queen. Michelle insists upon acting as if the two were still engaged, and Duke desperately needs her to sign a contract. Hoping for a male client, Duke decides to do publicity for a shrink who's written a book, but Dr. J. O. Loring (Hedy Lamarr) turns out to be a woman -- and what a woman! Finding Duke nervous and excitable, Dr. Loring takes him on as a patient, which does not sit well with her boyfriend, Dr. Field (Robert Shayne). Which woman will Duke ultimately wind up with?

Anna Sten and Hedy Lamarr

If Let's Live a Little works at all it is strictly because of the actors, all of whom give very good performances, but they are certainly let down by a script that strains to be funny. The screenwriter even resorts to using a variation of an old Marx Brothers line, with Duke telling Michelle "If I held you any tighter I'd be in back of you." A scene when the two rivals for Duke's affections sit at the same nightclub table could have been witty and scintillating, but falls flat instead. Most of the very few amusing moments in the picture are provided by Cummings, who is at home in this kind of material, whereas he was always miscast in dramas and suspense films. Lamarr is adept, and along with Sten and Shayne there are nice turns by Mary Treen [Swing Parade of 1946] as Duke's secretary and Norma Varden [Witness for the Prosecution] as Loring's nurse. Ernest Laszlo insures that gorgeous Lamarr looks luminescent throughout. Richard Wallace also directed Kiss and Tell.

Verdict: The actors try mightily to put this over but the material just isn't there. *1/2.