The More the Merrier (1943)

Director:

George Stevens

Writers:

Robert Russell (story) and
Frank Ross (story) ...

Release Date:

23 October 1943 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Home is where you hang your guests!

Plot:

During the WW2 housing shortage in Washington, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two.

Plot Keywords:

Apartment | Housing Shortage | Washington D.C. | Elderly | Schedule

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Jean Arthur	...	Constance 'Connie' Milligan
Joel McCrea	...	Joe Carter
Charles Coburn	...	Benjamin Dingle
Richard Gaines	...	Charles J. Pendergast
Bruce Bennett	...	FBI Agent Evans
Frank Sully	...	FBI Agent Pike
Clyde Fillmore	...	Sen. Noonan
Stanley Clements	...	Morton Rodakiewicz
Jean Stevens	...	Dancer (as Peggy Carroll)

Also Known As:

Merry-Go-Round (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Final film of Helen Holmes.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Connie explains to Benjamin in great detail the morning schedule for the apartment, which she has written down for him and from which she is reading to him. When it comes time to go through the routine for the first time, Connie chastises him for not bringing in the newspaper. This task is on his written instructions, but she did not mention it in her detailed verbal instruction when she was reading off the copy.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: Our vagabond camera takes us to beautiful Washington, D.C., the national capital of our United States, situated on the broad banks of the Potomac River. Living is pleasant and leisurely... for it is a city of formality and custom. Manners and courtesy are responsible for the well-ordered conduct of its daily affairs...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

What Is This Thing Called Love?

The romance is stronger than the comedy

This starts unpromisingly (or was I just in the wrong mood?) with slapstick banana-skin-style gags which, however well done, show their age. Jean Arthur looks unassuming compared with her strong-girl tomboyish appearances in the Capra classics. But come Joel McCrea and the burgeoning love (at first resisted) between him and Arthur, and she shows a vulnerability and a range of expression that round out our knowledge of an already well-loved artist.

Charles Coburn, too, after the comic-strip cackhandedness of the first scenes, grows into an enjoyably human old rascal and Joel McCrea, blasé and hardbitten to begin with, develops into a fine romantic hero. The ending (will they, won't they?)recalls the end of the Cary Grant/Irene Dunne classic "The Awful Truth", and if I say that McCrea and Arthur do not pale by comparison, then I could hardly give higher praise than that.