The More the Merrier
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Movie Reviews of The More the Merrier
Movie Review: I thought it wasn't possible for me to enjoy a romantic comedy...
Summary: 5 Stars
...but this has to be one of the best films I've seen in ages. It sounds so cliche, but truly, I laughed out loud the whole time, and I shed tears at the climactic romantic scene. Even a complete cynic like myself can get swept up in this clever work.Movie Review: The More the Merrier
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent, well made comedy of 1943, and a feel good movie. You'll enjoy it as it was clearly made to entertain.Movie Review: The More the Merrier
Summary: 5 Stars
the dvd came to me promptly and brand new. i would definitely order from this person againMovie Review: This classy romantic comedy stars Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea...and a triumphantly sly Charles Coburn as cupid
Summary: 4 Stars
Was I ever wrong. For years I looked upon Charles Coburn as a fat, porcine old gentlemen who always had a big, wet-chewed cigar in his mouth. I was so awed by the cheesy melodrama of Kings Row that I barely noticed his startling performance as Dr. Gordon, the cruel, vindictive surgeon who made Drake McHugh cry out, "Where's the rest of me?" Then I saw The Lady Eve, and then The Devil and Miss Jones. And now, The More the Merrier. Not only could Coburn define surgery at its worst, I finally realized that he was one of the most subtle and skilled practitioners of high-class comedy. Coburn won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his work in The More the Merrier. He could just as justifiably won it for Eve and Miss Jones. As good a movie as The More the Merrier is, and as good as Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea are, Charles Coburn as Benjamin Dingle, "a well-to-do retired millionaire," who turns out to be an uncommonly sly cupid, refocuses the movie every time he's on screen.
We're in the middle of WWII in Washington and housing is almost impossible to come by. Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) places an ad for a roommate to share her two-bedroom flat. Benjamin Dingle (Coburn) is in town on business and without a hotel room. He spots the ad, bulls his way past a hoard of eager applicants and simply fast talks his way in. He notices that this attractive young woman seems to have a lonely life. In fact, she's engaged to a Washington bureaucrat as romantic as an officious waiter. It's not long before Dingle spots Joe Carter (Joel McCrea) looking for a room. Joe is tall and good-looking. Within minutes Dingle has subleased half of his subleased room to Joe. It won't be long before the three of them are falling over each other. But will Connie and Joe fall for each other? Dingle, with guile and good-intentions, is going to give it a try.
This could be as conventionally predictable as a Luci-Desi episode. Thanks to director George Stevens, a bright, funny script, and Arthur, McCrea and Coburn, it's anything but. The More the Merrier is a classy and funny romantic comedy that, especially in the first half, comes close at times to a classic Marx Brothers routine. It even helps at times to appreciate many of the situations as comedy routines, so highly polished by first-rate actors that the comedy pile-ups and split-second timing seem spontaneous. Let's see...for starters there's the "explaining the morning action plan with diagram" routine with Arthur and Coburn, the "who gets the bath, who gets the egg" routine with Coburn, Arthur and McCrea, the "where's my pants" routine with Coburn, the "Connie and Joe and the leather traveling bag" routine with Arthur and McCrea, and the "Who did you go with to the beach" routine with Arthur and McCrea. Sure, we have three actors playing cute...but if they ever appear that they're playing cute it won't be either cute or funny. Arthur and Coburn are experts at this kind of straight-faced, split-second community comedy, and McCrea, it turns out, is good at it, too.
As often as Jean Arthur in the Thirties and Forties had some excellent leading men to work with -- McCrea, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Charles Boyer, James Stewart and Ronald Colman among others -- it might just be that her perfect partner in comedy was Charles Coburn. They starred in three pictures together:
The Devil and Miss Jones in 1941, The More the Merrier in 1943 and The Impatient Years in 1944. Arthur was a strong, skilled actress who could be fey, puzzled, endearing, innocently romantic, completely natural, sexy and subtle. Her voice, instantly recognizable, helped define her screen persona. She could come across as vulnerable, but she more than held her own in her movies. I can't think of any movies she made after the mid-Thirties that weren't defined as "Jean Arthur movies." Coburn, old enough to be her grandfather, was so good an actor -- a comic actor when called upon -- that he managed to make a balance with her that is part of the mystery of why some actors click together and others don't. It's to his skill that he was able to make this connection with other actors as well. Just watch him in The Lady Eve share any scene with Barbara Stanwyck.
The More the Merrier is one of Hollywood's proudly sweet-natured romantic comedies, with a lot of fast-paced physical action thrown in. Even the sentimentality is amusing. The movie was remade in 1966 as Walk, Don't Run with Gary Grant, Samantha Egger and Jim Hutton. For lessons in how to turn a bright, clever romantic comedy into a plod, Cary Grant's last film, unfortunately, is the one to see.
Movie Review: Too Close For Comfort?
Summary: 4 Stars
To the disenchantment of members of the George Stevens' fan club, Stevens is not one of my favorite directors. Yes I've seen plenty of his films and I've enjoyed them especially "Penny Serenade", "Vivacious Lady", "Swing Time", and "Woman of the Year" but all of these works while enjoyable are slight. I guess "Giant" had lots of ambition though. But I fear I'm just getting myself in more and more trouble the longer I go on.
"The More the Merrier" is a great 1940s romantic comedy. Jean Arthur stars as Connie Milligan, a young woman trying to do her part during the war by renting out half of her apartment during a housing shortage. One of the many people who answer the ad is Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn), who has come to Washington to address the shortage. Benjamin convinces Connie to her let rent him the room. Connie, being the respectable woman she is originally wanted to rent it out to a woman. Because after all what would people say about a man and woman living together who aren't even married, why it might turn out to be "The Talk of the Town". Joe Carter (Joel McCrea) also answers the ad. Joe is going to Africa and only needs a place for a week. So Benjamin decides to play matchmaker and rents half of his half to Joe without telling Connie.
And there you pretty much have the set-up for this movie. What makes a movie like this so funny to watch is no one is acting it up. We find that so often today in comedies. People like Adam Sandler or Mike Myers constantly winking at us telling us they are funny. It ruins the experience for me. I don't want them to tell me what I'm suppose to think. Don't they know the only way to get real laughs out of a situation is to play it serious. The viewer has to believe in the characters and the situation.
George Stevens understands this. Many people may not think of Stevens as a man who knows comedy but you'll be surprised. He was a cinematographer for Hal Roach and filmed several Laurel & Hardy shorts including "Brats", "Below Zero" and "The Hoose-Gow". And as I briefly mentioned before started his career by directing comedies and musicals. He also directed two Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey comedies; "The Nitwits" and "Kentucky Kernels".
There is only one thing about "The More the Merrier" I don't quite understand. Why does Benjamin want Connie and Joe to get married? Why does he feel its his business? This didn't bother me enough where it spoiled the movie for me but it just kept me thinking.
The movie was nominated for 6 Oscars and won one. Charles Coburn won "Best Supporting Actor" while the movie was up for "Best Picture", "Best Director" and "Best Actress". Of course it lost to "Casablanca". We often think 1939 was the greatest year for Hollywood but 1943 wasn't so bad either. Besides "Casablanca" and "The More the Merrier" also up that year for awards were "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Ernst Lubitsch's "Heaven Can Wait" and Noel Coward's "In Which We Serve".
I think anyone who enjoys comedies from the period or Stevens or any of the talent involved will enjoy this film. It really is an example of the kind of great entertainment coming out of the Hollywood studio systems at the time.
Bottom-line: Maybe the best of George Stevens early comedies. The cast manages to get their parts down and play it serious. I can think of anyone else in these roles. Very funny movie.