The More the Merrier (1943)

The More the Merrier

Benjamin Dingle: [singing] In love or war, with people like us, we’ve got to work fast or we’ll miss the bus. If you straddle a fence and you sit and wait, you get too little and you get it too late./ What’ll you say if we see it through, you stick by me and I’ll stick by you. And our 18 children will be glad we said… / “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead./ And our 18 children will be glad we said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Any film in which my heartthrob Joel McCrea either takes off his shirt or is in love is going to get my vote.  This one has that and much, much more.

The war has created a huge housing shortage in Washington, DC.  Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) feels it is her duty to rent out a room in her apartment.  At the same time, wealthy Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) has arrived in the city to discuss his plans to build additional housing units.  He gets there two days before his hotel reservation and is without a place to stay – until he sees Connie’s ad in the paper.  Although there is a crowd of applicants waiting on the doorstep for Connie’s return from work and although Connie had firmly decided on a female roommate, the crafty Dingle manages to muscle his way into her apartment for a week.  He promptly decides she need a clean-cut top-drawer young man and is unimpressed with Connie’s description of her middle-aged bureaucrat fiancé.

So when Sgt. Joe Carter (McCrea) shows up with the for-rent ad in his hands, Dingle rents half of his room to him.  After meeting Connie’s stuffy fiance, and despite the fact that Joe has orders to leave for Africa in two days, Dingle uses his “damn the torpedos” attitude to get him together with Connie.  It doesn’t hurt that the two are clearly ga-ga for each other.

The kissing scene in this movie cemented my love affair with Joel McCrea.  It is remarkably sexual for something from the Code years.  The way Coburn manages to make a basically pushy and obnoxious character endearing is marvelous.  Added to that is a very witty screenplay and Steven’s characteristic skill in humanizing a story.  So what that people are falling in love at the drop of a hat.  I’m completely ready to suspend my disbelief for this one.  Highly recommended.

Charles Coburn won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his wonderful performance in this film.  The More the Merrier was nominated for five additional Oscars:  Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actress; Best Writing, Original Story; and Best Writing, Screenplay.

Clip – Connie’s system breaks down