This tepid remake of RAFTER ROMANCE and its predecessors stars James Dunn and Whitney Bourne in the oft-told tale of a man and woman who fall behind on their rent and are forced by their landlord to share a roombut never occupy it at the same time. He sleeps there by day, she by night, and they communicate by leaving each other sarcastic notes complaining about one thing or another. Their contempt quickly escalates into a series of mean-spirited practical jokes: she substitutes paint thinner for his mouthwash, he plants a lobster in her bed, etc.
In the meantime, the two meet in a restaurant and, unaware that they're each other's despised roommate, they fall in love. Further complications ensue when the couple's other romantic interestsbossy sausage heiress Joan Woodbury for him and on-the-make supervisor Franklin Pangborn for herdecide to drop by the boarding house. Rounding out the cast is Solly Ward as the landlord of the "Venus de Milo Arms," Tom Kennedy as Bourne's protective upstairs neighbor, and Ken Terrell and James Fawcett as the Russian-acrobat Ghonoff Brothers. (Like RAFTER ROMANCE, LIVING ON LOVE has Yiddish/Jewish jokes aplenty.) An interesting piece of casting is Etta McDaniel, Hattie's sister, as the landlord's maid, Lizbeth.
Large chunks of the film are copied directly from RAFTER ROMANCE, and the parts that have been changed are for the most part not an improvement. The tricks that Dunn and Bourne play on each other seem more nasty than funny, not to mention hard to believe; if they're so broke they have to share a room, where does she get the money to have an entire menagerie of exotic animals delivered to him, and how does he afford all those alarm clocks he sets to go off when she's trying to sleep?
LIVING ON LOVE neglects the little details that would help establish characters and setting and create a believable world for the audience. We never really get a sense of the poverty of the two leading characters and the shabbiness of their surroundings. We don't see much of their outside relationships and ambitions. And the love that develops between them seems to come out of nowhere.
The film also suffers from zero chemistry between Bourne and Dunn. She's pretty much a cipher, especially in comparison to Ginger Rogers, who really sparkles in RAFTER ROMANCE. Dunn tries hard, but he doesn't have much to work with here. Speaking of poor casting, it's hard to buy Franklin Pangborn, doing his usual prissy routine, as the lecherous womanizer played much more credibly by Robert Benchley in the earlier film.
This tedious B-comedy is of interest only as a long-unseen relic of RKO studios.
In the meantime, the two meet in a restaurant and, unaware that they're each other's despised roommate, they fall in love. Further complications ensue when the couple's other romantic interestsbossy sausage heiress Joan Woodbury for him and on-the-make supervisor Franklin Pangborn for herdecide to drop by the boarding house. Rounding out the cast is Solly Ward as the landlord of the "Venus de Milo Arms," Tom Kennedy as Bourne's protective upstairs neighbor, and Ken Terrell and James Fawcett as the Russian-acrobat Ghonoff Brothers. (Like RAFTER ROMANCE, LIVING ON LOVE has Yiddish/Jewish jokes aplenty.) An interesting piece of casting is Etta McDaniel, Hattie's sister, as the landlord's maid, Lizbeth.
Large chunks of the film are copied directly from RAFTER ROMANCE, and the parts that have been changed are for the most part not an improvement. The tricks that Dunn and Bourne play on each other seem more nasty than funny, not to mention hard to believe; if they're so broke they have to share a room, where does she get the money to have an entire menagerie of exotic animals delivered to him, and how does he afford all those alarm clocks he sets to go off when she's trying to sleep?
LIVING ON LOVE neglects the little details that would help establish characters and setting and create a believable world for the audience. We never really get a sense of the poverty of the two leading characters and the shabbiness of their surroundings. We don't see much of their outside relationships and ambitions. And the love that develops between them seems to come out of nowhere.
The film also suffers from zero chemistry between Bourne and Dunn. She's pretty much a cipher, especially in comparison to Ginger Rogers, who really sparkles in RAFTER ROMANCE. Dunn tries hard, but he doesn't have much to work with here. Speaking of poor casting, it's hard to buy Franklin Pangborn, doing his usual prissy routine, as the lecherous womanizer played much more credibly by Robert Benchley in the earlier film.
This tedious B-comedy is of interest only as a long-unseen relic of RKO studios.
