So for Valentine’s Day 2019 the very sweet and awesome Phyllis Loves Classic Movies is hosting the Meet Cute Blogathon!
There are so many cute “meet cutes” to choose from but I chose to write about the cute meeting of Jean Arthur and Ray Milland in Mitch Leisen’s Easy Living from 1937.
I’m not going to discuss the whole movie (maybe save this for another blogathon!?) but I will write a short sweet post on the scene where Mary (Jean Arthur) meets John Ball Jr (Ray Milland).
In an absolutely classic meeting of two people, they meet in probably the most 20th century setting you can get: The Automat!
When Mary stops by just for a quick meal she gets more than she bargained for when she meets John Ball Jr who just so happens to be the son of JB Ball: the third richest banker in America (who is played by Edward Arnold- Jean and his character meet in the beginning of the film).
What is adorable about the two meeting is Mary just thinking John is a regular ol’ worker, but in reality John is working undercover in an effort to be independent from his father. Mary 100% buys into John’s story and she invites him to stay in her luxurious suite while he looks for a job.
When the two leave the automat its for certain to say they each have fallen for each other! And for the others at the automat, well they just fall down in a hysterical sequence that makes us all wish we had this much fun while eating out.
For the rest of the film: there’s a bunch of cute scenes between them- and personally I wish Jean and Ray made another film together because they have natural chemistry- and for Jean Arthur that’s major, as she was a shy actress who sometimes had trouble playing scenes with her leading men.
What I will say is further hilarity ensures and includes a funny scene of the two trying to turn off multiple shower heads!
If you adored the scene above I hope you tune into the whole movie the next time it pops up on TCM! Its a legitimately under rated screwball comedy from its era and every time I watch it, I wish I could be lucky to meet someone in an automat!
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! and Don’t forget to “meet” the other “cute” entries in the link above!
The Flapper Dame 
Such a great little film! I honestly think the automat scene is one of the funniest moment ever recorded in film. And you are right about Arthur and Milland’s chemistry.
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