I Live My Life (1935)

While vacationing in Greece, a wealthy Manhattan socialite (Joan Crawford) meets an archaeologist (Brian Aherne) excavating for artifacts. There is an immediate attraction between the two but to the girl, it's just a lark and she returns home. For the archaeologist, it's much more serious and he follows her to New York. Based on the short story CLAUSTROPHOBIA by A. Carter Goodloe and directed by W.S. Van Dyke (THE THIN MAN). I've always preferred the MGM Crawford of the 1930s to the Warners Crawford of the 1940s. She's sassy and vibrant here and holds the screen like a true star. Unfortunately, screwball comedy isn't her forte and after a promising start, the movie doesn't take off but circles the runway till it comes to its abrupt finish. The characters have nothing in common and much is made of their different lifestyles and how they wouldn't fit into each others lives. Instead, we get a tacked on happy ending anyway but we'll never see the sequel where they split up after a year. But the public liked it enough to put it into the profit column. With Frank Morgan, Aline MacMahon, Eric Blore, Jessie Ralph, Arthur Treacher, Esther Howard and Hedda Hopper.