Watch Let's Live a Little For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This movie features some amazing Actors. All three of the principle Actors are about ten to fifteen years past their "glory days".They are mired in a terrible plot that no amount of technical skills, or personal charisma can overcome.This is basically a second rate B movie with an A level cast.Hedy Lamarr plays a female Doctor. In order for a woman to become a Doctor in the 1940s, she had to be far more that just intelligent. She had to have an incredible focus and a commitment to her career. The horribly patronizing script expects us to believe that Larmarr's character would be willing to throw it all away because a moment with Robert Cummings could turn her into a quivering pile of jelly.Robert Cumming's character is written as one of the strangest "Leading Man" types I have ever seen in any classic movie. He is fussy, prissy, highly emotional, and totally lacking in testosterone. The script calls for Cummings to act like a "confirmed bachelor" type of character. He is asked to pull off the type of performance Franklin Pangborn did so much more successfully.Worst of all is how the script treats Anna Sten. This is one of the last movies Sten ever made. Sten was one of the most beautiful women to ever appear in a Classic Movie. The lighting and camera angles are deliberately unsympathetic to an older woman. Despite what you might read, this is not a comedy. There is a lot of fussing and a lot of busy work, but don't confuse this with humor.

It's very disappointing to find super-lovely Hedy Lamarr so atrociously miscast in this tired and tiresome farce produced by her garrulously witless co-star, Robert Cummings (in association with Eugene Frenke) and released through J. Arthur Rank's Eagle-Lion Pictures. Director Richard Wallace found himself in an unenviable position. Not only was he forced to march to Cummings' beat, but the actor would not take direction. His gaudily over-acted performance makes the trite script seem even more witless and heavy-handed. Even splendid efforts by Hedy Lamarr and Anna Sten cannot compensate for witless writing and turgid direction. Admittedly, the movie is well produced and boasts a fine line-up of some of our favorite character actors including Byron Foulger, Paul Maxey, Frank Sully, Robert Shayne, Mary Treen, John Dehner, Billy Bevan, Hal K. Dawson, Oliver Blake...

Even after three viewings, I still think this movie is terrible. Its a comedy, but I haven't laughed yet. Robert Cummings is miscast, and I keep wanting to slap this character as I wonder why in the world the casting director chose him (wouldn't Jimmy Stewart be much better?). Hedy as a psychiatrist is intriguing as a concept, but this script falls very short. As a consequence, she looks mostly flat, absurd and misplaced. Unlike a number of her other films, her beauty can't save this movie. Nevermind the fact that Hollywood was slack with boundaries in its portrayal of psychiatrists. I hope future viewers find enjoyable qualities in this movie.

The situation has potential. A stressed-out ad man meets a beautiful shrink. Object: psychiatric humour. And maybe a little romance.Unfortunately, the result could best be described as innocuous, like some sort of benign medical condition.Bob Cummings plays his usual amiable self. But the real reason anyone would watch this film is, of course, Hedy Lamarr. She looks the way one would expect Hedy Lamarr to look in 1948. Fantastic. She is forced to wear an off-the-shoulder gown at one point to better show off her ... scintillating jewellery. The real conundrum is how Hedy avoided being the top pin-up of World War II. Maybe it was the saltpetre they put in the army chow.Hedy's real-life role as a torpedo guidance system designer -- apparently that story about her is absolutely on the level -- is easier to accept now after seeing her as a no-nonsense, supercilious psychiatrist, sort of an early prototype for Dr. Lilith Sternin Crane.The two Roberts -- Cummings and Shayne -- compete for the attention of Hedy. This gets a little childish with Shayne trying to pump himself up physically at one point. Also, characters often gaze at one another, then see the other person transformed inside a shimmering aura into the object of their true desire. Funny, but both these plot elements -- childish male competitiveness, and idealized shimmering figures -- appeared in a far superior film, "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer", the previous year, 1947. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.The film has some silly "psychological" dream sequences which are played for laughs, and which for contemporary audiences may have been a mild spoof on Hitchcock's "Spellbound" from 1945.Anyway, it's too bad that all this seems to add up to so little in the end. Bob Cummings co-produced this film. It's a pity he couldn't have hired a script doctor.