The More the Merrier (1943) on Netflix
Housing is scarce in wartime Washington, so Connie Milligan sublets half her apartment to Benjamin Dingle. Dingle then rents half of his half to Sergeant Joe Carter.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.6/108,447 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Connie Milligan rents an apartment in Washington, D.C., and when the wartime housing shortage makes rooms hard to find, she decides it is her patriotic duty to sublet half of it, expecting a suitable female tenant. Benjamin Dingle, a retired millionaire in town to advise on the housing shortage, arrives two days before his hotel suite is ready and talks his way into her spare room. The next morning, while Connie is at work, he meets Sergeant Joe Carter, who needs a room for a week before he ships overseas, and sublets part of his own half to him. Connie is engaged to Charles J. Pendergast, a bureaucrat, and has no wish to repeat her mother's choice of love over security. Dingle decides Joe would suit her better.
Cast
- Brandon Beachas Shaving Gag (uncredited)
Show all 20 cast
- Betzi Beatonas Miss Finch (uncredited)
- Lulu Mae Bohrmanas Secretary (uncredited)
- Sally Cairnsas Bathing Girl (uncredited)
- Jack Carras Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The More the Merrier (1943)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Jean Arthur got the film going herself, paying playwright Garson Kanin $25,000 to adapt his short story "Two's a Crowd" into a screenplay. She wanted the role of Connie and to finish out her Columbia contract, which had turned sour with studio boss Harry Cohn.
- George Stevens, a perfectionist, shot many takes from multiple angles, which drove Columbia boss Harry Cohn to ask Joel McCrea what "that son of a bitch Stevens" was doing. Cohn said Stevens used more exposed film on one picture than on any five of his own.
- Joel McCrea was exhausted after three films in 1942 and joined only at Jean Arthur's request. He suspected that if the part of Joe Carter were any good the studio would have pursued Cary Grant or Gary Cooper, yet it became his favorite comic role.
- Less than a month after finishing the film, George Stevens went to North Africa with the Army's combat photography unit. The More the Merrier was his last comedy, as he turned to drama and Westerns after the war.
- Among the titles considered were Washington Story, Full Steam Ahead and Merry-Go-Round, which tested best with audiences, but Washington officials objected to a title and plot elements suggesting "frivolity on the part of Washington workers," and The More the Merrier was finally approved.
