The More the Merrier (1943)

My viewing the other week of Talk of the Town reminded me just how great a director Geroge Stevens is, and prompted me to want to see another of his comedies (I’m more versed in his later, post war dramas). I had heard in a documentary that Frank Capra was a tremendous admirer of Steven’s 1943 film The More the Merrier, which took the war time housing shortage in the Washington D.C. area and used it as the conceit upon which to build a romantic comedy. Government employee Jean Arthur is forced to take in two male boarders at her apartment, retired millionaire (Charles Coburn) and a solder/engineer (Joel McCrea) on special assignment. The former boarder decides he’d like to see the latter boarder hitched to their landlady as he’s not a big fan of her bland fiancée (Richard Gains). The film takes awhile to get going but later has its moments, however the picture remains uneven and a little awkward throughout. I felt they had about 70% of a movie here but largely botched the remainder, leaving those scenes either to slow, undeveloped, or even kind of uncomfortable (Arthur and McCrea’s shotgun marriage). It’s not a bad film per say, but I can’t bring myself to recommend it when you can see the aforementioned and superior Talk of the Town, which has something of a similar underlying premise anyway. Not recommended.