In the Depression-era comedy “Easy Living,” one of the nation’s richest bankers, J. B. Ball (Edward Arnold), is outraged after his wife, Jenny (Mary Nash), buys a sable coat without his knowledge. Rummaging through her closet, he picks out one of her many fur coats and throws it off his penthouse roof. It lands on Mary Smith (Jean Arthur) who is riding on a Fifth Avenue double-decker bus. That’s just the beginning of this riotous satire of inequality and insider trading.
This 1937 movie, directed by Mitchell Leisen, is to be screened Thursday through next Sunday, as part of the weekend series “Screwball Romance,” at the IFC Center. Other coming selections include the ’30s and ’40s classics “Bringing Up Baby,” “His Girl Friday,” “The Awful Truth,” “The Palm Beach Story,” “My Man Godfrey” and the final selection (Feb. 20 through 22), “It Happened One Night.” What do you suppose that coat, valued at $58,000 in 1937, would cost today? (323 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village, 212-924-7771, ifccenter.com.)