Plus on est de fous

The first half-hour is a triumph of comedic architecture. The screen fairly crackles with madcap antics as Jean Arthur tries to keep an over-crowded national capital from crowding into her bedroom. Coburn may look unthreatening but he's expert at maneuvering. Just listen to him fast-talk his way into her kitchen, her bathroom, and "full speed ahead", where will it stop. Then there's McCrea—an eligible man in a city full of lonely women. He's a definite threat, and if things weren't crowded enough, Coburn has shoe-horned him into what's left. What's a girl to do, living with two men, and engaged to a third. Oh well, it is Washington DC and it is wartime, so stick to the house schedule, and things will work out. Maybe.

Of course, they do, but not the way Arthur thinks. No wonder an unheralded 66-year old actor gets an Oscar for his performance. Coburn steals the show with his amusing and crafty Benjamin Dingle. It seems he's always one step ahead of everyone else, whether arranging housing plans or tearing down romantic walls. It's also an Arthur showcase, proving again what an expert comedic actress she was, while McCrea blends in nicely as the handsome straight man. However, once the romantic phase takes over and Coburn fades, the crackle stretches out into the merely cute.

Sure, some of the material has lost some of the edge to changing mores. Do single, working women still worry about reputation. For that matter, do men. Nonetheless, that first half-hour remains a gem of timing, scripting and staging, unaffected by passing years. If there was a brighter comedic exercise during those terrible war years, I haven't seen it.

I truly love this wonderful,endearing romantic comedy from Hollywood's golden age. It has a unique setting - Washington D.C. during the housing shortage caused by World War II, and gets great comic mileage out of the various problems caused by the situation. George Stevens handles it all superbly, but what you remember most are the three charming leads. Charles Coburn justifiedly won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his scene-stealing panache as the elderly Cupid who helps steer Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea towards love. McCrea was an unsung but marvelously effective leading man in the 30's and 40's - rather like Jeff Bridges has been in his career. He's very fine here, and also in the movies he made for Preston Sturges. And Jean Arthur is at her very best - another great who doesn't get enough respect nowadays. Its difficult not to fall in love with her in this film - even if you were blind, her voice alone would knock you off your feet! Its ridiculous that this was her only oscar nomination-but then she, along with Carole Lombard and Irene Dunne were Hollywood's screwball comedy queens, and Hollywood was too busy rewarding the likes of Greer Garson and Luise Rainer.

What otherworldly power decides what films survive in the public mind decade after decade? And what films don't? 'The More the Merrier' is completely forgotten, although in its time, during WWII, it was a huge hit and was nominated for several of the most prestigious Academy Awards, Best Picture, Director, Leading Actress, Script etc. And deserved every one of those nominations. It is, simply a great film, that time forgot, and one that is finally out on DVD. And it remains a mystery how a sexy, sassy, down-to-earth and abundantly funny film such as this could ever be forgotten.

In the Washington of 1943, with the housing crisis brought on by the war, single working girl Jean Arthur feels compelled to do her bit and let out half of her apartment. Well-to do businessman Charles Coburn, who has arrived in town too early for a conference and cannot find a vacant hotel room, moves in with her, and, wanting to play Cupid, he sublets, unbeknownst to her, his half of half her apartment to a young soldier, Joel McCrea, on town on a mysterious purpose.

Rumour has it that Garson Kanin, of later 'Adam's Rib' fame, wrote the script for 'The More the Merrier', but never took credit. Whoever did it, the premise and even more so the execution of the plot is wonderfully crisp and superbly done. There is not one moment in this film that doesn't work on an extremely advanced level, and as sheer exuberant fun! And the replay value of the DVD is infinite.

George Stevens, one of the truly great American directors, has titles such as 'Gunga Din', 'Penny Serenade', 'Woman of the Year', 'A Place in the Sun', 'Shane' and 'The Diary of Anne Frank' to his credit, and 'The More the Merrier' has won a place in that exalted category of masterpieces in all genres. It is obvious that Stevens got a kick out of directing his actors in this movie, creating a many-colored carpet with all this apparently improvised dialogue, so magnificently stylish and at the same time with a looseness, a naturalness in structure that makes the movie feel like a slice of real life.

But of course real life was never as wonderful as this! Just imagine having known characters like the ones played by Miss Arthur and Mr McCrea, in one respect they are so typical and easily recognizable, and in another they are so immensely attractive, and not just in a physical sense, that you would want them for your best friends. In a strict Hollywood sense, try and imagine two more gorgeous people in the scene near the end when they, almost but not quite, make out on a the quiet street where they share the apartment! The film is great, no two ways about it.

Easily the best film that I've ever seen from George Stevens (and I really like several of his other films). Jean Arthur stars as a woman renting out half of her apartment because of a housing shortage in Washington D.C. Charles Coburn, who is in Washington to help solve the crisis, weasles his way into the apartment even though Arthur didn't want a male roommate. The morning after, Joel McCrea arrives with yesterday's newspaper, not knowing that the vacancy exists no more. No matter, though. Coburn rents half of his half of the apartment to McCrea, unbeknownst to Arthur. God knows this premise could have made one hell of a sitcom, but it also makes a damn funny movie. There isn't an unfunny scene in the entire film, and several scenes vie for the title of Best Romantic Comedy of all times with Preston Sturges' contemporaneous films. The three performers are remarkable. They have great chemistry as a comic trio, and McCrea and Arthur throw sparks off the screen with their surprisingly erotic romance. I failed to mention that Arthur is engaged to an older man, adding to the dilemma. Richard Gaines is also excellent as that fiancé. I love the way his mouth moves. Grady Sutton has a very funny cameo near the end of the film as a waiter. Stevens' direction is exceptional. It's shocking how believably he pulls off the scene in which McCrea and Arthur wander around the apartment without bumping into each other. This is reminiscent of a famous scene from Buster Keaton's The Navigator, and it's even funnier. Or that intimate scene where McCrea gives a carrying case to Jean Arthur. Their acting is so subtly romantic in that scene. I love the way Stevens films it. 10/10.

This movie, set in Washington, DC during the early years of the US' involvement in WWII, when DC was still a relatively small city, is sociologically fascinating: the back story is the housing shortage that occurred when everyone descended on the nation's capital in order to organize the country in preparation for war. But the real story is the incredible script, directing (George Stevens) and, most of all comedic acting by Joel McCrea (always the tall, handsome, slightly cynical straight man (whose straightness itself can be hilarious)), Jean Arthur (whose voice I could listen to forever), and, WOW, Charles Coburn as a flustered wealthy tycoon who plays cupid while trying to help solve the country's pressing problems. The comedy is relentless, absolute hilaritas, and it gets zanier by the minute. Very few weak spots in this relatively unknown comedy. Seeing this recently, and a couple of other McCrea comedies directed by Preston Sturges, you have to wonder why Cooper got all the glory while McCrea was frequently relegated to the second tier (despite major box office draws for more serious wartime work).