Classic Film Guide

Come Live With Me (1941)

A beautiful foreigner (Hedy Lamarr), who's also an illegal alien, is being "kept" by a rich married publisher (Ian Hunter), who can't or won't get a divorce from his wife (Verree Teasdale) in order to marry her and keep her in the country. So, when she meets a struggling author (James Stewart) who'll do just about anything to survive, they agree upon a platonic relationship & marriage in which Lamarr satisfies only Stewart's financial needs. An arrangement he, of course, later comes to regret and then hopes to alter. Stewart's character writes a story about his arrangement which he markets to publishers and, naturally, the publisher's wife reads it, loves it, and recommends it to her husband. Even though Stewart's character tells Hunter's that his story is fiction, the race is now on - can Hunter dump his wife before Stewart can win Lamarr? This charming Clarence Brown produced & directed romantic comedy (story by Virginia Van Upp, screenplay by Patterson McNutt) ends at the farm of "Stewart's" Grandma (Adeline De Walt Reynolds) with a scene reminiscent of the "Walls of Jericho" from It Happened One Night (1934). Barton MacLane plays the immigration official who threatens Lamarr with deportation. Donald Meek also appears.