Merian C. Cooper had accused RKO of not paying him all the money contractually due for six RKO films he produced in the 1930s. In 1946, a settlement was reached, giving Cooper complete ownership of the RKO titles: Rafter Romance (1933) with Ginger Rogers, Double Harness (1933) with Ann Harding and William Powell, The Right to Romance (1933) with Ann Harding and Robert Young, One Man's Journey (1933) with Lionel Barrymore, Living on Love (1937) and A Man to Remember (1938).
In 2006, Turner Classic Movies, which had acquired the rights to the six films after extensive legal negotiations, broadcast them on TCM in April 2007, their first full public exhibition in over 70 years. TCM, in association with the Library of Congress and the Brigham Young University Motion Picture Archive, had searched many film archives throughout the world to find copies of the films in order to create new 35mm prints.
In 2006, Turner Classic Movies, which had acquired the rights to the six films after extensive legal negotiations, broadcast them on TCM in April 2007, their first full public exhibition in over 70 years. TCM, in association with the Library of Congress and the Brigham Young University Motion Picture Archive, had searched many film archives throughout the world to find copies of the films in order to create new 35mm prints.
The apartment building in the story is called the De Milo Arms. Of course, the famous Venus De Milo statue has no arms.
Living on Love (1937) is interesting not only as a representation of its time (contemporary period), but also for the many examples of what we would now consider sexual harassment of women both socially and in the work place. Some of these forms of what would now be thought of as harassment were actually considered to be flattering flirtation (e.g., grabbing, uninvited sitting at a table, unwanted following, etc.). One intriguing example of overt sexual harassment occurs in a sales training session for Aladdin Electric Razors. The head of sales (O.O. Oglethorpe) "hits" on the female lead. When she rejects him, there is laughter from the other women in the room. What is interesting is that if you look at the women on screen, none of them are laughing, or even look amused. The laughter was obviously inserted in post-production.
Living on Love (1937) is a remake of the RKO film Rafter Romance (1933).
Taking over the roles played in the original by Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster are Whitney Bourne, whose career as an RKO actress was limited to the mid- to late-1930s; and James Dunn, who enjoyed a 40-year film and TV career and later won an Oscar® for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945).
Other changes include the fact that the apartment is in a basement, not an attic, and the young woman's day job is selling electric shavers rather than refrigerators. The general tone reflects the influence of screwball comedy, which had become dominant in the four years separating the films. And the fact that the film industry began enforcing its self-imposed Production Code in 1934 meant that the later film lacks some of the more free-wheeling qualities of the original. Otherwise, Living on Love is quite faithful as a remake.
This time around the pair's unwelcome suitors are played by Franklin Pangborn as Bourne's amorous supervisor and Joan Woodbury as the domineering sausage heiress who is Dunn's would-be protector. Solly Ward plays the landlord of the "Venus de Milo Arms," and ethnic humor is provided by Ken Terrell and James Fawcett as Russian acrobats known as the Ghonoff Brothers. The landlord's maid is Etta McDaniel, Hattie McDaniel's lesser-known sister, who acted in films from 1933 to 1946. Appearing in an uncredited bit is Frances Gifford ("Bus Passenger"), who would marry Dunn a year later (They divorced in 1942). Director Lew Landers, who enjoyed a long career in "B" movies, later turned to series television.
Taking over the roles played in the original by Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster are Whitney Bourne, whose career as an RKO actress was limited to the mid- to late-1930s; and James Dunn, who enjoyed a 40-year film and TV career and later won an Oscar® for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945).
Other changes include the fact that the apartment is in a basement, not an attic, and the young woman's day job is selling electric shavers rather than refrigerators. The general tone reflects the influence of screwball comedy, which had become dominant in the four years separating the films. And the fact that the film industry began enforcing its self-imposed Production Code in 1934 meant that the later film lacks some of the more free-wheeling qualities of the original. Otherwise, Living on Love is quite faithful as a remake.
This time around the pair's unwelcome suitors are played by Franklin Pangborn as Bourne's amorous supervisor and Joan Woodbury as the domineering sausage heiress who is Dunn's would-be protector. Solly Ward plays the landlord of the "Venus de Milo Arms," and ethnic humor is provided by Ken Terrell and James Fawcett as Russian acrobats known as the Ghonoff Brothers. The landlord's maid is Etta McDaniel, Hattie McDaniel's lesser-known sister, who acted in films from 1933 to 1946. Appearing in an uncredited bit is Frances Gifford ("Bus Passenger"), who would marry Dunn a year later (They divorced in 1942). Director Lew Landers, who enjoyed a long career in "B" movies, later turned to series television.
Living on Love (1937) recorded a loss of $28,000 in its original release. It eventually grossed $135,000.