The More the Merrier
- Jean Arthur: Connie Milligan
- Joel McCrea: Joe Carter
- Charles Coburn: Benjamin Dingle
- Richard Gaines: Charles J. Pendergast
More and More the Merrier (OT: The More the Merrier ) is an American comedy film directed by George Stevens from 1943 with Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea in the lead roles.
Action
The millionaire Benjamin Dingle is an advisor to the government against the rampant housing shortage due to the war in the completely overcrowded Washington and finds himself suddenly without accommodation again. His reserved hotel rooms will only be released in two days, so that Dingle is forced to look on the open market. On an ad out, he applied for Connie Milligan, a government employee, to sublet. Connie was skeptical at first, take a male house guest, but the prepaid rent for two weeks convinced the young woman and she rented Dingle two of their four rooms. The next morning Dingle meets the young sergeant Joe Carter, who has not yet found a suitable accommodation. Dingle has pity on the sympathetic Joe and he rented to say Communication without Connie, under just one of its two rooms. As Connie learns of the arrangement, they will first take both men out of the house. Dingle hand, calls back its prepaid rent and because Connie has already spent the money, things remain as they are. Gradually, Joe and Connie find more than just sympathetic, but things are by Connie now two years ongoing engagement with Charles J. Pendergast, a stock stiff bureaucrats complicated. Joe asks for advice in Dingle and the dryly: To hell with the torpedoes. Full speed ahead. After all sorts of entanglements Joe and Connie come at the end, together, not least by the more or less skilful leadership of Benjamin Dingle, but still.
Background
George Stevens had risen by his first success at RKO to a renowned director, who was at home in any genre. The More the Merrier was the third film he was shooting for Columbia Pictures based on a very lucrative contract. Studio boss Harry Cohn was searching for a successor to Frank Capra and granted Stevens in 1940 next to profit sharing an almost total creative freedom. The first two movies, the melodrama Penny Serenade 1941 with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in the lead roles and the political comedy Talk of the Town, which came in 1942 with Jean Arthur, Cary Grant and Ronald Colman in theaters, were major financial and artistic successes. John Oller describes in his biography of Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew that it was Jean Arthur and her then husband Frank Ross, who had the idea for the film. Arthur lived in constant dispute with Harry Cohn refused and continuously the roles offered from. To find a reasonably portable base for the remaining term of their contract, investigated the couple for a suitable comedy material. They asked his friend, the writer Garson Kanin, the husband of Ruth Gordon to write a screenplay. Kanin attacked the then peddled in all media acute housing shortage on the completely overcrowded Washington and wrote under the working title Two's a Crowd the script. During the filming, which lasted from mid-September to mid- December 1942, there were still quite a number of other titles, so Washington Story, Full Steam Ahead and Come One, Come All.
The film had some problems with censorship. The Production Code Administration expressed concern about their view, frivolous basic idea that an unmarried woman with two men survived and all must share only one bathroom under one roof. There were also concerns damn tions the use of the word, which Charles Coburn used when he puts forward his famous quote at the sight of the statue of Admiral David Farragut: Damn the Torpedoes. Full speed ahead.
The More the Merrier developed immediately after the rental for the most financial success of the studio up to that at all. Critics praised the chemistry between Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea, although it was Charles Coburn, who received the highest praise for his endearing portrayal of a philanthropic millionaire. Arthur and Coburn had worked together in 1941 in the comedy The Devil and Miss Jones. Arthur and McCrea knew each other from the filming of Adventures in Manhattan from the year 1936. For Joel McCrea, the film should be the last comedy role of his career. He had demonstrated his talent for this genre especially, directed by Preston Sturges, Sullivan ' Travels and The Palm Beach Story. After The More the Merrier he turned exclusively Western.
The great success of the strip prompted Paramount Pictures to bring a thinly laminated version in 1944 under the title Standing Room Only with Paulette Goddard and Fred MacMurray in the rental. A remake of The More the Merrier in 1966 under the title Not so fast, my boy turned with Cary Grant and Samantha Eggar in Tokyo against the backdrop of the Olympics.
In Germany and Austria, the film was also titled Everybody helps, as it may appear.
Reviews
In his review for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote on May 14, 1943 warm words of Zustimmunge:
"More the Merrier is so warm and refreshing like a ray of sunshine [ ... ]. It is Mr. Coburn, which accounts for the film and he delivers a really good job from. As a retired millionaire, he follows the famous motto of Admiral Farragut and fählt always under full steam. They are used as Benjamin Dingle simply love Mr. Coburn, if you only have a heart in the chest. And you will be more and more the Merrier love if you have even a spark of humor in his body. The film manages against all odds even to turn Washington into an attractive place. "
The filmdienst described the film as a
" Clean, turbulent Hollywood comedy. "
Awards
Oscar
The film went to the Oscars in 1944 with five nominations and won one of the prizes:
- Best Supporting Actor: Charles Coburn - Won
In addition, there were nominations in the categories:
- Best Picture
- Best Actress - Jean Arthur
- Best Director - George Stevens
- Best Original Story - Frank Ross, Robert Russell