Come Live with Me Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Come Live with Me Blu-ray Movie Review

Hedy Lamarr AND $18/week? Yowza!

Reviewed by Randy Miller III August 14, 2026

Directed by Clarence Brown and adapted from a story by Vrginia Van Upp (better known as the producer of Gilda), Come Live With Me is a deceptively light romantic comedy with great lead performances from Jimmy Stewart and Hedy Lamarr. Star-crossed lovers? Not exactly... but by the end, things may be different. Newly restored by Warner Archive, this welcome new Blu-ray edition easily replaces the boutique label's 2010 DVD with energy to spare.

Johnny Jones (Hedy Lamarr) is a beautiful Viennese refugee living in New York. Her life may be comfortable, but her legal status is not: she's romantically involved with Barton Kendrick (Ian Hunter), a wealthy and influential publisher who's married to Diana (Verree Teasdale). Barton cares for Johnny, but his marriage and social position make it tough for him to provide her with the security she desperately needs. When an immigration official, Barney Grogan (Barton MacLane), informs Johnny that her temporary passport has expired, she faces deportation unless she can find a way to remain in the United States -- like get married, for example -- but she only has a week to do it. Johnny initially hopes that Barton will solve her problem, but it's soon made clear that she can't depend on him.

Her luck brightens one day during a thunderstorm when Johnny bumps into Bill Smith (James Stewart), a struggling young writer whose financial circumstances are almost as bad as her legal situation. Quite simply, Bill is broke and lives from one small opportunity to another, and he's looking for a way to support himself while pursuing his love of writing. (I feel you, Bill.) Johnny proposes an unconventional bargain: they'll marry so she can remain living in America, while she will provide him with a regular payment of approximately $18 per week; that's the amount he needs to live on, and it translates to a little over $420 today if you're curious. Since neither party expects romance from the arrangement, both regard their deal as a nothing more than a straightforward business transaction.

That would make for a really boring movie, but luckily Come Live With Me has a few tricks up its sleeve. While Bill first treats the arrangement as just another means of getting by, he's eventually intrigued by the setup which has given him material for his writing... and soon enough, Bill begins turning the circumstances of his unusual marriage into his next story. But as Bill spends more time thinking about Johnny, the boundary between the practical arrangement and actual personal interest begins to blur; what first began as a mutually beneficial bargain has become something much more. This sets the stage for complications as the film gradually builds layered interest, and it's made even more complex because Barton, waiting in the wings, is still confident that Johnny's the right person for him too.

Come Live With Me offers a pleasing blend of charming comedy, lightweight melodrama, and a few clever twists that help it to easily stay afloat during 85 breezy minutes, which is more or less the perfect time for any rom-com to avoid wearing out its welcome. Nearly all of the film's fundamentals are rock-solid -- cinematography, music, etc. -- and this applies to the performances too, as both leads are perfectly cast in their respective roles. Stewart in particular stands out in one of his final film appearances before departing Hollywood for military service, a five-year absence where the beloved leading man would finally return for It's A Wonderful Life in December 1946. Beloved holiday classics aside, Come Live With Me stands on its own as a crowd-pleaser that still plays well 85 years later. Warner Archive's Blu-ray offers sturdy support with another great A/V restoration and a few era-specific extras to enjoy too.

Come Live with Me Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Come Live With Me is one of the small number of classic MGM titles whose original nitrate camera negative remains intact, so you can bet that Warner Archive's new 4K scan has made it shine like never before. As usual, their careful manual cleanup process has yielded exceptionally clean results that nonetheless preserve its natural grain structure, which likewise positively impacts fine detail and textures. Black levels and contrast are excellent too, with no traces of black crush or other compression-related issues due to excellent encoding on this dual-layered (50GB) disc. In all respects, it's yet another flawless effort from the beloved boutique label and another easy five-star rating.

Come Live with Me Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio gracefully preserves its original mono audio in an two-channel container for wider playback and the results are uniformly excellent. Dialogue is always a high priority and it's clean and intelligible throughout, with a few stray location-related events (the nighttime thunderstorm, a pleasant car ride into the country) offer a pleasing amount of contrast along the way. There's also plenty of room left over for the agreeable original score by highly prolific composer Herbert Stothart, who was nominated for ten total Best Music Oscars during his career and won one for some little movie called The Wizard of Oz. Needless to say, this one sounds as great as it looks.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, not the extras listed below.

Come Live with Me Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover art; a few era-specific extras are included.

• America Preferred (7:33) - This 1941 black-and-white short, presented by the U.S Treasury Department, naturally pitches defense bonds and savings stamps to bolster the war effort.

• From the Four Corners (15:40) - A rare case of propaganda actually done kinda right, this black-and-white short was directed by Anthony Havelock-Allan and co-written by Leslie Howard (who also stars as himself) and A.G. Macdonald; in it, Howard buys beers for three soldiers from Australia, Canada, and New Zealand (also playing themselves) and has a heart-to-heart talk with them about the war.

• Officer Pooch (8:12) - This color MGM cartoon, directed by the team of Hanna-Barbera (who were also working on Tom and Jerry at the time), features a helpful police pup called to rescue a stranded kitten.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:21) - This vintage promotional piece doubles as a quiz for men only.

Come Live with Me Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Clarence Brown's Come Live With Me is a fun little romantic comedy that's rarely mentioned alongside similar Jimmy Stewart films like The Philadelphia Story, but it probably should be: from its initial setup to its cheeky conclusion, this film's got a lot of charm and can still please a crowd 85 years after its theatrical debut. Warner Bros.' Blu-ray makes it ripe for (re)discovery with another careful restoration and several era-specific extras too. Firmly Recommended.