Molta brigata vita beata

In her one and only recognition of sorts from the Motion Picture Academy, Jean Arthur got a nomination for Best Actress for The More the Merrier, a screwball comedy based on the housing shortage in Washington, DC. It was a tough field with veteran players like Greer Garson for Madame Curie, Ingrid Bergman for Casablanca, and Joan Fontaine for the Constant Nymph. But a fresh faced newcomer with only two previous film credits under a different and real name of Phyllis Isley copped the big prize. Spiritual and ethereal beat out funny and sentimental that year as Jennifer Jones won for The Song of Bernadette.

Arthur's well known stage fright manifested itself in non-cooperation with those that give out the awards. There are all kinds of Jean Arthur stories about her running and hiding from fans, her getting physically sick before shooting a scene and then giving a great performance, her total non-cooperation with the press that covers the film industry. It didn't redound to her benefit at Oscar time. Still The More the Merrier is one of her great roles.

My mother's older sister was also one of those government girls who went to work for a flock of new agencies that sprung up during World War II. The country and its people were mobilized to a degree never seen before or since. Would that this president could show the leadership now that FDR showed then against a group of people who would destroy our way of life.

My aunt met her husband in Washington who was deferred from military service because of tuberculosis he had suffered. If she were alive she could attest to the things shown in The More the Merrier. Washington, DC simply did not have the housing available for all the folks now working in the capital.

Jean Arthur is one of those women and to show her patriotic spirit she offers to take in a roommate for splitting the rent. She gets quite a roommate in Charles Coburn, a millionaire who's been caught without a reservation at a hotel.

Coburn was the only one who took home an Oscar from The More the Merrier as Best Supporting Actor. He's one roguish grandfatherly type who decides Arthur needs some male involvement even though she has an engagement of sorts to bureaucrat Richard Gaines. If he was 30 years younger he'd do the deed himself.

So when homeless soldier to be Joel McCrea shows up, Coburn gets his matchmaking skills honed to a fine edge. Dolly Levy could have learned from this man.

McCrea was at the high point of his career, he was taking a break from westerns and doing some of the best comedies around with Preston Sturges and this one with George Stevens. This was his third and final film with Jean Arthur. He had done the Silver Horde a Victorian melodrama with Arthur as the other woman and Adventures in Manhattan where he was miscast. This one however was a winner in every way for him.

Best scene in the film is after Coburn as sublets half of his half of Arthur's apartment to McCrea and they haven't broken the news to Arthur yet. He gets into the shower and while some of us sing, McCrea likes to imitate a seal. Arthur's expressions on hearing the seal noises is priceless.

The More the Merrier got a remake in the Sixties with Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar and Cary Grant in his final film in the Charles Coburn part. It was good, but not nearly as good as the original.

Don't believe me, see both and compare.

I watched this movie without seeing the credits and, immediately, I knew it had to have been directed by a master craftsman. Turns out the master craftsman was George Stevens. Every frame, every angle, every line of dialog is made significant, while retaining a sense of freshness and spontaneity. If you love Jacques Tati, or anything by Sidney Lumet, you will appreciate the precision choreography of The More the Merrier (the title of this movie is the only bad thing about it). Never mind the story-- if you are a movie buff you'll want to watch it like you're finding out how a Swiss watch is made. Even the pauses in the dialog, simple glances the actors give each other, are well-timed and even musical. Nothing seems left to chance... and yet, it's all seamless, fresh, and totally engaging. And Joel McCrea will steal your heart.

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.

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).

The scene with Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea on the steps of the apartment is more erotic than anything you will see in an "R" rated film today, or probably even an NC-17 film. The desire that they have for each other, and are barely suppressing, is overwhelming. And the lingerie she wears in the last scene is surprisingly suggestive for 1943. This whole film is an amazing piece of work. Much credit goes to legendary director George Stevens. Charles Coburn was always great, but who knew he had the comic chops he shows here? Jean Arthur's voice alone makes her one of sexiest actresses ever in films. She and Joel McCrea are both terribly underrated. This film deserves to be much better known than it is.