I Lived with You (1933) User Reviews (12)

What a real surprise - it's actually a very funny comedy

[1930s_Time_Machine · 7/10 · 6 January 2024]

Ivor Novello was a composer, musician, playwright, screenwriter, theatre actor/producer ....and... as this shows, a genuinely funny comedy actor too. He wrote this as well confirming what a talented, witty and insightful writer he was.

First of all, as a few others have said - what a surprise to find how funny he is. This is not what you'd expect from Ivor Novello. His very Welsh Russian accent is hilarious. His style is campy fabulosa - like a 1930s Kenneth Williams. Were he around today he'd have a weekly prime time tv slot. Like the best writers, he shares out to all of his cast equal funny lines and equal opportunities to shine. It's very democratic inasmuch that all the main cast have about the same amount of screen time and all have properly developed characters.

Another surprise is what a well made film this is. It's produced, directed and acted much better than a lot of films from 1933. The reason for its high quality is due to a guy called Julius Hagen, an incredibly ambitious German emigre who for a short time ran his own British film studio, Twickenham Studios. Two things now happened at the same time. 1. The Depression in America resulted in the American studios cutting production so they needed to outsource films to fill their cinemas. 2. Noticing that Korda at London Films made a fortune with his big budget HENRY VIII, Hagen thought he'd do the same. So in 1933 when UA needed product for the cinemas he abandoned churning out cheap 'quota quickies' and invested heavily into making a few high quality films like this. There weren't too many English films in 1933 made this well so this is something quite special which is what makes it still so entertaining today.

It's instantly engaging, intelligent and great fun. It's not the typical silly slapstick nonsense that was popular at the time but neither is it a high-brow, pretentious bore. In fact , it's got as many one-liners and subtle innuendos as you'd find in any Carry On film thirty years later. And one last observation - Ida Lupino sure was pretty!

Shaking up the Russian dressing provides a jewel in the crown.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 4 January 2018]

There is no word to describe the charm of Ivor Novello in this film, playing a handsome young man found in a maze garden by two sisters (Ursula Jeans and Ida Lupino) who turns out to be a surviving member of the Romanov family. A cousin of the late czar, having in his possession some valuable jewels, Novello's presence in their household (and spoiled by their obviously social climbing mother, Minnie Severn) turns their world upside down. As members of the local society drop in to view Novello like a zoo animals, it becomes very apparent that they are exploiting his presence, causing a rift to grow between the two sisters and creating a ton of gossip among the screeching society biddies who may have money but lack in any amount of class and breeding.

A funny society party hosted by the more than obvious Severn has the true nature of these women being revealed as the consumption of vodka takes over and brings out their common traits. This is Novello's film all the way, a combination of easy going charm and imperious duty that is slowly revealed as the great difference in Russian and British culture's are revealed. Also deserving merit is the portly Severn who may play common believably but underlines it with a wink at the audience indicating that she knows what the character she's playing is a fool. Fans of Lupino will barely recognize her here, having not yet been Americanized and given a cynical and tough persona. Jeans is perhaps closest in nature to Novello's direct nature, and their spark shines through. Truly a way above average social comedy about the difference between social class and upbringing, wonderful in detail and ironic in many ways. Rare in many ways, this shines in mid 30's British cinema and deserves to be rediscovered.

one of novellas few sound films

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 9 October 2016]

I for Novello was principally a stage actor and he only made a handful of film appearances in the sound era.In fact it has to be said watching this film that he looks every bit the stage star.Every time he appears on screen the focus is really on him.He plays a Russian Prince who has found his way to London with a cache of priceless jewels.He is discovered at the maze at Hampton Court by Ursula Jeans who decides to take him home to her parents home where he is invited to stay.This disrupts everyone including young her boyfriend,an impossibly young Jack Hawkinns and her younger sister,Ida Lupino.He is used by the film as a sort of device to solve all of the characters problems,not the least being that of Elliott Markeham who has becomec romanticallybinvolved with his secretary,who is determined to take him for all that he has.

dodgy accents and vanishing characters!

[didi-5 · 16 August 2000]

Despite the reservations one has to have when a Russian prince has a Welsh accent barely disguised and a character disappears after a couple of scenes (young Albert the son takes 10 shillings to place a deposit on a wireless and is never seen again), this film is really sweet and extremely funny. To those of us who are familiar with Novello as a composer of luscious melodies of the likes of We'll Gather Lilacs it shows a new side to his genius. Great fun, especially the ladies' tea party and the early scenes in Hampton Court Maze.

The Comedy Does Not Mesh With The Drama, Despite A Great Novello Role

[boblipton · 6/10 · 5 November 2019]

Ursula Jeans meets a very elegant, very Russian Ivor Novello. He's broke, so she takes him home to her family's middle-class house, until he gets back on his feet. That will be a problem, because he's a Russian prince, and so not fitted for anything. All he has is a few sets of jewels worth thousands of quids. Since they were gift from the late Tsar, he can't spend them on himself. He can spend them on his new family, whose settled, decent lives he turns topsy-turvy.

It's based on Novello's stage hit, and director Maurice Elvey does a fine job of opening it up, with a camera that moves, quick cuts, and close-ups. there are some wonderfully silly scenes, like the one where Novello gets the local snobs drunk on vodka-laced tea. Yet the serious segments are curiously at odds with the crazy-comic ones; they are two sets of stage conventions that do not mix well.

It's a bit odd to see this out of Twickenham. That production company had been built on a series of quota quickies, subsidized by American companies who needed British production to play alongside their imported movies to comply with British law. the larger British integrated studios found the small studio useful for providing cheap second features to run in their big houses. the problem was that owner Julius Hagen had grown weary of the thin profit margins, and aware of the immense profits from A productions. So he cut back on the bread-and-butter productions and tried for prestige... and found himself shut out by the big, integrated companies, in Britain and the U.S.

Unusual for Novello

[robrobinson-06829 · 6/10 · 31 August 2023]

I've never seen Ivor Novello like this before. Everything I've seen him in always seemed hammy, melodramatic, and over the top but here he is in a comic role and throwing out lines like Paul O'Grady - he even looks a bit like him. Quite a revelation. Mr Novello was gay at a time when you couldn't be out in the open about it apart from in theatrical circles and, even though this isn't a gay character he's playing, his performance is quite camp. I don't know how well this film did at the box office but I know this was quite a successful play on stage in London's West End. It's a shame he didn't do more films like this.

Love every moment - superlative Ivor Novello......

[Rozinda · 8/10 · 21 March 2012]

What fun this movie is! And splendidly restored. Ivor Novello is such a charmer, and the story very entertaining. To anyone interested in 30's movies or especially the great Ivor Novello, this surely is a must.

Yes, it's strange that the son of the family vanishes early on, as though the radio spirited him away to another continent! I wonder if it was the same in the original stage play - perhaps the young actor had to leave early to get to bed at a sensible hour! Why would no-one notice the youngster was missing when this film was edited? Perhaps there was to be some vital broadcast on the radio that we've now missed?

Well, I didn't even notice the youngster went missing, I was so enjoying the rest of the movie.

Very funny Novello comedy with Ivor's best sound performance

[bbmtwist · 10/10 · 17 July 2016]

I approached I LIVED WITH YOU with trepidation. While Novello had appeared in 16 silent films, where his beauty and ability to act with good direction stood him in good stead, from his RAT trilogy to his two films with the budding Alfred Hitchcock. Talkies, however, were a different ball game. He made only six. His second, THE PHANTOM FIEND, was a remake of his silent Hitchcock film, THE LODGER, and he was just awful, as was the film, over-acting and emoting all over the studio sets. His next, a turgid melodrama with Ruth Chatterton, ONCE A LADY, gave him only a brief supporting role in twelve scenes.

I LIVED WITH YOU is an adaptation of his own play, in which he starred on stage, and it is a revelation. Very funny, very well crafted, with great lines and astute observations of character and mood. Ursula Jeans is perfect as the good daughter, Gladys. Ida Lupino in her fifth film is unrecognizable, she is so fresh, minor her later mannerisms in voice and posture.

The whole cast is full of great character acting and in the middle is Novello, totally charming and totally believable as a romantic Russian prince whose involvement in the lives of a poor but happy British family, upsets their lives in many ways. Later films to use this idea of a stranger entering family lives and changing them for ever were mainly comic (MY MAN GODFREY, MERRILY WE LIVE), but often moving and thought-provoking (BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING).

Novello has lost all of his theatrical mannerisms and theatrical emoting. He is fresh, funny and ultimately very moving. Facial and vocal expressions are fit and apt to the sound film. I've never seen a better performance of his and the film is absolutely wonderful.

Seek it out!

Hilarious! I laughed like a hyena!

[jpb58 · 28 March 2009]

Oh, this movie was funny, funny, funny! My family was asleep as I watched it late at night and I tried so hard not to laugh out loud so as not to wake them but all my efforts were in vain.

I Lived With You is utterly hilarious. In fact it is the best Ivor Novello film I've seen, silent or sound, or at least the one I enjoyed the most. Like a Noel Coward play, but if anything even more daring; zingers and risqué moments galore! Novello plays the illegitimate son of a Russian woman who had an affair with Czar Nicholas before he and his family were executed (or at least that's his story). His mother is no longer living either and he has to fend for himself in exile in England, penniless and starving, hanging out in parks like Hampton Court Park in London.

Here he meets working girl Ursula Jeans who is lost in the maze of the park and can't find her way out. She takes pity on the handsome "prince" and invites the homeless fellow to stay overnight in her parents' home. He immediately warms to the family and they to him. He gives the father of the house, a jewel merchant, a locket studded with diamonds, with an engraving by the Czar to his mother. It is examined by the incredulous father and the diamonds are determined to be real. To show how much he loves his new family the prince gives them diamonds one by one out of the locket so they can sell them and live a more plush life and put on airs to the neighbors. The family members all start to get swell heads. Herein lies the comedy, as the family seeks to impress outsiders although the fabric of their lives begins to rip apart. The father of the house starts to have an affair with a prostitute, the son disappears, another sister (an early role for Ida Lupino) displeases her mother and runs away, the older sister loses her job because she oversleeps and goes in too late. The Prince at first doesn't realize how his poor influence is hurting the family. All he wants to do all day is lay on the settee eating chocolates, not taking a bath, and flirting with the ladies in the household.

Then the Prince begins to reform when he realizes he has fallen in love with the older daughter. He does what he can to heal the family in his own unique way, such as handily getting rid of the blackmailing prostitute so the father can be reunited with the mother, and then he is persuaded by the cook to leave so the family can be happy again. But the oldest daughter runs after him and says she will happily starve if they can only be together.

My review doesn't remotely cover all the funny bits and pieces, the laugh out loud dialog such as "I smell fish. If I don't have fish now I will start to throw up in many inconvenient places!" and "I'm not angry! I'm just gay!" (coming from Novello that has a not so hidden meaning). ;)

So, see if you can track down this delightful film. If you love witty British humor this is your romantic comedy. Ivor Novello was a great entertainer.

Ivor can now be heard

[cynthiahost · 10/10 · 6 September 2013]

This isn't that extraordinary,but,when you see s silent actor all of a sudden talk it becomes a surprise as if he did not know how to talk.Silents gave that impression since their was more facial expressions.The actor also had to memorize their lines still too.I found his voice to be strange.He was British and sounded like he had an accent ,but then I learned he was a welsh and obviously could not get rid of the accent entirely ,like Richard Burton did.Of course, he was playing a Russian too. So he too advantage of his welsh accent ad made it sound Russian.He plays a homeless Russian in England who is discovered By Ursula Jeans,who works a perfume counter and he falls for her family.Her sister Ada,played by a young Ida Lupino,who works at a fashion shop.Her Young Brother Albert,played by Douglas Beaumont,who wants a radio so bad,that when His Father give him the money for down payment and disappears never to be seen again.The father ,who's runs a business, M.r. Wallis,played by Eliot Makham.The mother ,played by Minnie Rayner.The Aunt,who's cooks for the family and is the only one has common sense,played by Flossie Williams.They were all normal ,but imperfect family.Then Prince Felix show up,when Ursula offers him a place to sleep.He decide to give his mother medallion that she got from the czar, to the family to sell the jewel in it so they can buy stuff for themselves.The father start having an affair with Miss violet played by Beryl Harrison.The mother start acting snobbish and get drunk .Ada decides to move in with some man,but regrets it when she thinks she has fallen in love with the prince.Ursula stays normal ,but she end up getting fired from her job.A young lean Jack Hawkins plays Mort Ursula boy friend ,that she's not crazy for.When Mrs Wallis has a tea party to introduce the prince ,this is when disaster happens after the prince gets her friend a little drunk with vodka .Mr Walls girl friend show up at the house to make trouble ,but Ivor takes care of that by threatening her with the cops .That problem solved. Now Mrs Wallis is kicking Mr Wallis out. The cook confront Ivan what he has done with this family .The only solution he realizes is to leave them,but when Ursula finds out she really in love with the prince she chases to the station.This was a warm heartening film. 09/06/13

An Eagle Among Sparrows

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 13 December 2019]

An early feather in the cap of Julius Hagen's nascent Twickenham Films is this precious screen record of Ivor Novello's 1932 West End hit, smoothly directed by Maurice Elvey and attractively shot by cameramen Sydney Blythe & Ernest Palmer.

There's been a bit of unobtrusive opening out (notably the scene shot in Hampton Court maze where hero and heroine first meet), but the play's the thing; complete with dialogue and situations that would not have got past the Hays Office the following year, and are now a bit gamy for 21st Century sensibilities.

The predominantly female cast includes the young Ursula Jeans and Ida Lupino ("She's charming! Is she still a good girl?") and preserves for posterity the extraordinary Cicely Oates (who died the year my father was born aged only 45 not long after featuring in a much smaller role in Hitchcock's original version of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much') as "Little Mrs Sunshine".

Surprisingly good

[mmca-2 · 9/10 · 11 January 2022]

At first glance when this came on TV I thought 'Ivor Novello, meh, probably some cheesy songs and dated, creaky humour'. But how wrong I was. The fast-paced dialogue and frenetic plotting are imbued with a casual but knowing wit that gives the piece an amazingly modern feel for a film made in 1933. Novello himself is the big surprise, there's real panache in the way he drives it all along from within his character's louche, offhand manner. The rest of the cast are well up for it, conveying the chaos caused by Novello's superficial and fickle (though fatally charismatic) character - an exotic stranger who quietly invades the suburban family home in which he becomes a temporary guest, heedless of the trail of disruption he leaves in his wake.