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Rating: 5 out of 5
I recently checked out The More the Merrier from the library as it was on my Academy Award-winning list of movies to watch. I didn’t know what to expect. From the box cover, it looked like a romantic comedy. I didn’t even read the back of the box cover to get a quick synopsis. You know what? It worked out for me because what I watched was a funny, entertaining film that presented a humorous look at the housing shortage during World War II.
The film’s plot is set in Washington, D.C., during World War II. D.C. is dealing with a major housing shortage. The film hilariously shows this with the narrator describing the benefits of living in Washington, D.C. The first scene is a bunch of women running from a building like they just got out of work. A sailor gets in a car full of women and sits on one woman’s lap. In another scene, we see a taxi with many people entering it like a clown car. Then we get a scene where a bunch of people is in a room with around six men in a bathroom. Some are shaving, and one is taking a bath. Everywhere in D.C. are no vacancy signs.
Retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle (Coburn) has recently arrived in Washington, D.C. as an adviser to one of the senators. He tries to check in to his hotel suite but finds out that he is two days earlier and will not be available for two days while the senator is out for two days. With nowhere to stay, Dingle looks for a room in the paper. He spots an ad where lonely, but engaged Connie Milligan (Arthur) rents an apartment. There is a line of people waiting for Connie to return. In a smooth and OG move, homeboy strolls up, takes the room to rent sign down, and tells everyone the space has been rented. Straight-up gangsta move right there. When Mulligan arrives, she explains she rented the apartment, but Dingle convinces her to stay for the week and rent out half of the apartment. Things are chaotic between Milligan and Dingle. When Milligan runs into Sergeant Joe Carter (McCrea), who has no place to stay for a few days before being shipped overseas, Dingle sees an opportunity to set up Milligan and rents half of his room to Carter. Things become hectic as the three roommates try to figure out how to best handle the situation and not cause a scandal.
As I said earlier, this film is hilarious. I truly enjoyed it, and the film had many great scenes. One of the hilarious scenes is when Milligan writes a schedule for Dingle. She gives one of the most intense and complicated schedules, that is, by the minute or maybe even by the second. She has everything planned out to the T. The next morning, as expected, it was a complete and utter disaster. They both ran into each other and made a ton of mistakes. Dingle even tried to take off his robe while holding a coffee pot and take a shower. Complete disaster.
The one thing that is crazy is how you going to rent your half of a room to someone else when you don’t even live there. That is straight-up hustling right there. What is crazy is the way the film introduces Carter. He walks down the street with a propeller. Who walks down the street with a propeller? Maybe you will see that in New York City, but damn. Dingle tries his best to hide Carter from Milligan, but that becomes a disaster. When Carter takes a shower, he makes a sound like a seal. Things hit the fan when Milligan and Carter run into each other. Her reaction is what you should expect.
The main story is Dingle trying to set Carter and Milligan up. He sees that there is some major chemistry between them. Milligan is engaged to Charles J. Pendergast, who thinks of himself and his image. When Dingle goes to his hotel, Carter and Milligan become closer. They plan to go to dinner, and when Charles takes his finance, somehow Carter and Dingle end up at the same place. Dingle manages to take Charles away, leaving the two with themselves. When Milligan gets a phone call, all these women flock to Carter and try to woo him. It is a funny scene because these women are thirsty.
It works, but the pair let it slip that they are staying in the same place while riding in a car. This is not a big deal in today’s environment, but I guess it is back then. A reporter overhears the conversation and runs right to the paper. Carter and Milligan don’t know what to do, and Dingle suggests that they fly to South Carolina, get married, and then have an annulment to get out of the scandal. The ending is sweet and funny.
The acting is superb. Jean Arthur as Constance Milligan was funny and beautiful, and I enjoyed every minute on the screen. The back-and-forth she has with Coburn and herself during the schedule scene is priceless and entertaining. She is stunning, but her scenes with McCrea are sweet and innocent. I am hoping to watch more films with Arthur in them.
I don’t have many feelings for the performance of Joel McCrea as Joe Carter. He was funny at a moment when he made the seal sounds and walked down the street with a propeller. Besides those points in the film, there weren’t too many funny parts. Did this take away from the whole movie? Nope, not at all.
I want to give the biggest props to Charles Coburn as Benjamin Dingle. He made this film fun, and I didn’t think he would be this funny and entertaining. He deserved his Academy Award. His go-to quote was, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” He would scream this when something happened. Dingle also gave some of the most insightful quotes that I must start using. He stated, “There are two kinds of people – those who don’t do what they want to do, so they write down in a diary about what they haven’t done, and those who are too busy to write about it because they’re out doing it!” Those are such amazing and true words.
The More the Merrier is a fantastic, entertaining, and hilarious film. It takes a situation and puts a comedic twist on it. It is funny to see a housing shortage in the nation’s capital and how the film shows people living on top of each other. The acting is fantastic, with Arthur and Coburn being the highlights. Watch this film and then go out and say, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
