Free and Easy

Many big names in this early shortie from MGM... Robert Cummings would go on to be a pretty big star. Aubrey Smith was always the uncle, the father, the judge, the priest in SO many black & white films. Nigel Bruce played Doctor Watson SO many times. Tom Conway was "the Falcon" in the many chapters of the detective films. and of course, Donald Meek in an uncredited role. R. Cummings is Max, son of Florian (N. Bruce). They are both on the prowl for rich society women, and make no secret of it. What's annoying is how easily Max flits from woman to woman, even going back to the same women, for various reasons. and they put up with it. Max makes no secret of what he's doing (at least some of the time...) and why he's doing it, but it doesn't seem to bother the women. He's like a bee, sniffing around every flower, and when he goes back to the previous flowers for whatever reason, they seem to accept it. Nigel Bruce is just in here for the comedy. Max happens to share a room with his father, but the plot would have been the same if Max lived by himself. they kind of justify having the father live with Max, but the story would have been exactly the same without dad in the storyline. dad cracks some pretty funny jokes here and there. I also thought Cummings has a stilted manner of speech; clearly he is very well educated, but seems to work extra hard to sound like the common man. he spoke like that in so many films. just a little odd. the film is pretty solid if you buy into the storyline. I guess it's a reverse on how so many women of the day were gold-diggers, it was un-usual to see that the men could also be treasure-hunters. probably a rarity back in the day. ony 150 votes on imdb so far. I LOVE Judith Anderson... was Oscar nominated for Rebecca, just the year before! Directed by George Sidney.. had worked with Judy Garland on numerous films. and Elvis.