Easy to Wed *** (1946, Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn) – Classic Movie Review 9893

You must remember this? Socialite brings libel case against a newspaper editor who can’t marry until he gets a reporter buddy to compromise her.

Director Edward Buzzell’s 1946 Easy to Wed is MGM’s glossy, popular Technicolor remake of the Thirties classic comedy Libeled Lady (1936), with Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn cast in the old Myrna Loy, William Powell, Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy roles.

In this version, Cecil Kellaway plays rich J B Allenbury, who sues The Morning Star for $2 million over an article that claimed his daughter Connie (Esther Williams) is chasing after married men. Van Johnson plays so far unmarried reporter Bill Chandler, sent after Connie to prove the story is true.

The old material dusts off and polishes up well, even of the film is not the classic of the original. Lucy has a ball with the comedy and finds it east to steal the picture from an otherwise second eleven team, though her co-stars Williams, Johnson and Wynn do have their moments.

The pacy handling by Buzzell, an air of joie-de-vivre in the performances and a light-as-a-feather script make it painless as a remake, though comparisons with the original do not favour Easy to Wed.

Carlos Ramirez had a hit with ‘Acercate más (Come Closer to Me)’, written by Osvaldo Farrés and Al Stewart, and also sung by Esther Williams.

Lucille Ball is dubbed by Virginia Rees.

The screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley and Buster Keaton (uncredited) is based on the 1936 screenplay Libeled Lady by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers, and George Oppenheimer.

Also in the cast are Cecil Kellaway, Carlos Ramirez, June Lockhart, Ben Blue, Ethel Smith, Grant Mitchell, Josephine Whittell, Paul Harvey, Jonathan Hale, James Flavin, Celia Travers, Sybil Merritt, Sondra Rogers, Monte Blue, Tom Dugan, Sarah Edwards, Frank Hagney, Milton Kibbee, Robert Emmett O’Connor and Jack Shea.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9893

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