{"id":5978,"date":"2008-10-29T11:05:19","date_gmt":"2008-10-29T18:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5978"},"modified":"2021-01-20T16:58:59","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T23:58:59","slug":"living-in-a-big-way-1947","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5978","title":{"rendered":"Living in a Big Way (1947)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Why should you want a girl like me? We were never <em>really<\/em> married.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Living-in-a-Big-Way-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Living-in-a-Big-Way-Poster-211x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-64758\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Living-in-a-Big-Way-Poster-211x300.png 211w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Living-in-a-Big-Way-Poster-90x128.png 90w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Living-in-a-Big-Way-Poster-190x270.png 190w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Living-in-a-Big-Way-Poster.png 607w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA soldier (Gene Kelly) on leave during WWII marries a model (Marie McDonald) he&#8217;s known for only nine days &#8212; but when he returns home, he discovers his new wife is actually a spoiled heiress with no intention of honoring her whirlwind vows.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cross-Class Romance<\/li>\n<li>Gene Kelly Films<\/li>\n<li>Heiresses<\/li>\n<li>Marital Problems<\/li>\n<li>Musicals<\/li>\n<li>Romantic Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Veterans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nYou know a cinematic love story is doomed when the female lead you&#8217;re <em>supposed<\/em> to be rooting for &#8212; the one who will undoubtedly Win The Guy in the end &#8212; is far less appealing than her would-be rival; unfortunately, such is the case in this disappointing romantic comedy by writer-director Gregory La Cava, starring Marie &#8220;The Body&#8221; McDonald and Gene Kelly (in his second and last b&#038;w musical) as &#8220;Mr. Gogarty&#8221;. Indeed, La Cava&#8217;s script is severely compromised by the fact that McDonald&#8217;s spoiled heiress (Margo) really isn&#8217;t worth fighting for &#8212; thus leading viewers to question Gogarty&#8217;s underlying motives for refusing to give her a divorce. Gogarty&#8217;s ostensible rationale &#8212; that one shouldn&#8217;t give up on one&#8217;s commitments (after all, he asks, would we have won The War if we&#8217;d given up after the first battle?) &#8212; is never fully convincing; despite the wisdom dispensed by Jean Adair (playing Margo&#8217;s &#8220;wise grandmother&#8221;) that men aren&#8217;t savvy enough to marry for money, we can&#8217;t help but wonder. Meanwhile, Gogarty&#8217;s insistence that he &#8220;can&#8217;t help loving Margo&#8221; simply never rings true, given that their romance rests exclusively on paper-thin wartime memories. <\/p>\n<p>La Cava does manage to slide some nifty sexual innuendos into his Code-era script: a bathing-averse boy naively whines that he &#8220;wants to watch [Margo] take a bath&#8221;; there are repeated references made to the fact that McDonald and Kelly aren&#8217;t &#8220;really&#8221; married since they never had a chance to consummate their vows. Unfortunately, however, La Cava wastes the talents of lovely Phyllis Thaxter as a young widowed mother Gogarty meets about halfway through the film; while we want her to emerge as a viable rival for Gogarty&#8217;s affections (they&#8217;re infinitely better suited for one another!), instead she simply serves as convenient bait to make McDonald jealous. <em>Living in a Big Way<\/em> is redeemed in part by several energetic dance sequences (choreographed by Kelly and his longtime creative partner, Stanley Donen), which any true Kelly fan won&#8217;t want to miss; but the film as a whole isn&#8217;t must-see viewing. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> Kelly&#8217;s character appears to be slapped with such a ridiculous-sounding last name simply because he&#8217;s in a screwball comedy; it&#8217;s repeated ad nauseum throughout the film, presumably due to its inherent giggle-value (?). <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kelly&#8217;s &#8220;backyard dance&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/living-big-way-statue.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/living-big-way-statue.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5980\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Kelly&#8217;s &#8220;housebuilding dance&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/living-big-way-house.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/living-big-way-house.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5981\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>A realistic glimpse of post-WWII reality for American G.I.s (here, Kelly and his buddy are scrounging to purchase even badly-fitting suits, given a shortage of available fabric)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/living-big-way-post-war.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/living-big-way-post-war.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5982\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Phyllis Thaxter as a war widow with a crush on Kelly (c.f. her similar &#8220;kind mother&#8221; role in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=4475\">1964&#8217;s <em>The World of Henry Orient<\/em><\/a>)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/living-big-way-thaxter.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/living-big-way-thaxter.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5983\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but Gene Kelly fans will certainly be curious to check it out. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0039574\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/280\/living-in-a-big-way\/#articles-reviews?articleId=151103\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Why should you want a girl like me? We were never really married.&#8221; Synopsis: A soldier (Gene Kelly) on leave during WWII marries a model (Marie McDonald) he&#8217;s known for only nine days &#8212; but when he returns home, he discovers his new wife is actually a spoiled heiress with no intention of honoring her whirlwind vows. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Cross-Class Romance Gene Kelly Films Heiresses Marital Problems Musicals Romantic Comedy Veterans Review: You know a cinematic love&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5978\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64759,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5978\/revisions\/64759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}